The Lesson in Our Health Work

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Aug 8, 1907

The Lesson in Our Health Work

Our health principles are an integral part of the message committed to us to give to the world. The body was designed to be the temple of the living God, and those in whose hearts Christ dwells by faith are under obligation not to defile his temple. The disregard of physical laws has greatly increased the suffering brought upon the world through the disregard of spiritual laws, and the message which is to fully restore a people and prepare them for translation must deal with both the body and the soul. This is why sanitariums as well as churches have their place in this work. The good which has been accomplished in relieving suffering, and the number who have been led into a full knowledge of the truth through this channel, are the abundant justification for its maintenance.

There are two ways in which the attempt has been made to prevent the health work from occupying its proper place in this movement. One has been to keep the people as far as possible from accepting and practising the principles of health. This effort has been altogether too successful, and many who have professed faith in this message have been slow in following the light on health reform. This has been a cause of discouragement to those who felt that a special burden had been laid upon them to advocate these principles, and has often made their work harder. It is proper to remember this fact in reviewing the history of the health work. Whatever mistakes have been made in presenting this phase of the truth do not constitute a valid excuse for neglecting to receive and to adopt the truth itself. Those who try to escape from plain duty by hiding behind the mistakes of others will find at last that they have made the fatal mistake.

It seems necessary to emphasize this statement just now, when there is danger of a reaction against the truths of health reform because some health reformers have been reproved for their wrong course. Let it be remembered that right principles are always the same, and that they should not be discarded because some have perverted them. Those who really love the truth will continue to obey the truth, even after it has been brought into reproach.

Again, there has been an attempt to pervert this whole movement by making the principles of health the whole message. This was done by confounding the physical and the spiritual, and by a process of spiritualizing the literal until it was all made to appear as spiritual. Thus the proper care of the body became a religion, and vegetarianism became the creed. Pure food, pure air, and pure water were adopted as the agencies for purifying the heart, and a pharisaical conformity to physical laws was substituted for “the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith.” In view of this experience, it is important to note the real lesson to be learned from the agencies employed in restoring and preserving health.

Food, air, and water are the principal requisites for maintaining the body in health. The principles of health deal to a large degree with the proper use of these necessities of life. These are the agencies which in various ways and under varied conditions are employed largely in restoring to health those who are suffering. Here is the object-lesson for the restoration of the soul, but the object-lesson must not be confounded with the experience itself. Food, air, and water are the material agencies for the restoration and preservation of the material body, but they can affect only in an indirect way the spiritual nature. When they are correctly interpreted, however, they may teach of him who is the bread of life and the water of life, and whose abounding grace surrounds us like the atmosphere. What pure food and pure air and pure water are to the body, that Christ is to the soul. They may be the means of restoring and preserving the body, but Christ is the only means of restoring and preserving the soul. The healing of the body is the object-lesson for the healing of the soul, but to confound the two, or to attempt to heal the soul by using those agencies which were designed for the healing of

the body, is a perversion of the gospel of Christ, and changes the means of revealing Christ into a means of hiding him from view. This substitutes the visible for the invisible, and inspires confidence in the natural rather than the spiritual.

Let us learn the truth as it is taught in the Scriptures. Here is an experience in the life of Jesus: “And it came to pass on a certain day, as he was teaching, that there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by, which were come out of every town of Galilee, and Judea, and Jerusalem: and the power of the Lord was present to heal them.” A great company was present who needed the services of the Great Physician, and the power of the Lord was there for healing their souls, and to make this clear to them so that they would be left without excuse, the Master then healed the man sick of the palsy, who was let down “into the midst before Jesus.” The way in which this miracle was performed indicated its meaning: “That ye may know that the Son of man hath power upon earth to forgive sins (he said unto the sick of the palsy), I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy couch, and go into thine house.” The healing of the body was the object-lesson for the healing of the soul in the forgiveness of sins, but the healing of the body can not be substituted for the healing of the soul.

The case of King Hezekiah will illustrate the principle involved. He had been healed of his sickness, and in Babylon they heard “of the wonder that was done in the land,” and sent messengers to make inquiry concerning it. The purpose of God in this matter was that these ambassadors from Babylon might learn of him as the one who heals the soul, but instead of revealing to them this spiritual truth, Hezekiah showed them “all that was found in his treasures,”—only visible and material things. Thus the lesson of healing the body was lost, and the messengers from Babylon went away without the gospel. What was intended to reveal the gospel was perverted into a means of hiding the gospel.

David understood the true gospel of healing when he prayed, “Lord, be merciful unto me: heal my soul; for I have sinned against thee.” Isaiah made known the real agency for healing the soul when he wrote: “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: . . . he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” In the cross of Christ is found healing for the soul, and no other agency can take its place.

Such is the lesson in our health work, and every worker should be an interpreter who should make known to those seeking for healing of the body the gospel for the healing of the soul, the spiritual truth which is taught in the agencies for restoring and preserving health. In this way our health work may occupy the place which it should in this advent movement, and do its part in preparing a people for the coming of the Lord.