The Health Work in Central Europe
By P. A. De Forest
THE foundation of the health and temperance work in this field was laid, as many of the brethren remember, by Brother Andrews, whose abstemious life and faithful adherence to health principles are well known. After the arrival of Sister White in this country, there was a general awakening to the importance of the health reform message, and soon an advanced step was taken in sending Brethren Paul Roth and Leon Tieche to the Sanitarium to study nursing and kindred topics. About this time (1890) Brother Grin, an employee in the Imprimerie Polyglotte, began to incorporate health ideas in his journal, Le Vulgarisateur, then devoted almost entirely to scientific subjects. Brother Holser encouraged him in this new undertaking; and when Brethren Roth and Tieche returned, a new impetus was given to the health work. Tracts and booklets were published, and health and temperance meetings were held. The stringent enforcement of the Factory Act, with the consequent closing of the Imprimerie Polyglotte, hindered the publishing work to a considerable degree; and it was resolved to remodel the building, and install the necessary outfit for a small sanitarium. My wife and I being invited to make this our field of labor, we arrived in August , 1895, and the Institut Sanitaire (sanitary institute) was opened in the spring of 1896. A health food bakery was installed in the basement, Le Vulgarisateur was pressed into service to herald the message of health, and the training school for nurses was started at the same time. Brother and Sister Holser led out in the enterprise, and by the end of the year we had received about forty patients. We had fifty patients in 1897; last year (1901) one hundred and seventeen house patients were received. Our patronage, though not so large as we wished, has steadily increased. The health food department has proved a valuable adjunct to the medical work proper, and without it the institution would not be so prosperous. The sale of health foods has increased by leaps and bounds. This fact, together with the growth of the medical work proper, is the result of persistent effort to extend these principles in spite of many prejudices among a people who are used to being treated at the hospitals and clinics almost free of charge. People are being aroused by the message of life, and are calling out, “What must I do to be saved?” The writer has recently had the privilege of addressing good audiences of representative Swiss on health topics, and was encouraged to note their attention and their eagerness to obtain reading matter. We pray that the honest in heart may heed the call to “obey and live,” and thus be prepared to receive the special truths of the third angel's message. Our training school has, we believe, been an important factor in building up the work. Of twenty-one nurses who have been graduated, thirteen have gone to foreign lands, four are at work in Turkey and Palestine (one is working as obstetrical nurse under the permit of the Turkish government at Constantinople; Brother Hörner has conducted the mission at Jaffa with good results; Sister Jespersson is at the Jerusalem mission; and Sister Haussmann and her husband are nursing in Beirut). In Egypt, Sister Ida Schlegel has spent several years nursing and helping Brother Passebois, while two Armenian brethren are engaged in self-supporting medical missionary nursing in Cairo and Alexandria. Three of our young men are doing evangelistic and medical missionary work,—one in Belgium, one in Italy, and one in France. Sister A. Wright, one of the two English sisters who took the course, is at present laboring in connection with the new sanitarium enterprise just begun at Belfast. Sisters Roth and Perrin are at Paris; and several Swiss nurses are engaged in the home field. Sister Weidmann, one of our faithful German-Swiss nurses, recently fell a victim to dysentery, while on her way to engage with Brother Hörner in labor at Jaffa; she was buried at Cairo. God permits his workers to lie down in peace, but his work must go forward. We are seeking to promulgate these life-saving principles by pen and voice and example. We are also cheered as we note the power of the health journal and health tracts and books to influence people to grasp the practical truths. We expect to see souls in the kingdom as a result of this work. How true it is that health principles are “an entering wedge to be followed by a religious influence.” The workers are of good courage in the Lord. We go forward, knowing that those who attach themselves to truth will17triumph with it. Brethren, remember the health work in this needy field, where so many hearts are longing for the bread of life, and so few laborers are engaged in giving it. P. A. DE FOREST.