THE GOSPEL IN RATIONAL REMEDIES.
By David Paulson
IN recent years methods of treatment have been popular wherein merely the symptoms of disease are smothered, and yet these symptoms are sentinels that would warn us of what is coming. The patient calls upon the doctor, and asks him for treatment, and after it has been given him, he is asked if he feels better, and he says he is better. But likely he is no better, possibly his condition is really worse, but the treatment of the symptoms is continued without an effort to remove the cause. I believe God wants to impart to us the true principles upon which He desires the sick to be treated. We are to work in harmony with nature, and as we furnish the patient proper diet, pure food and water, proper ventilation, etc., it becomes a divine ministration, for God's life-giving power is in it. As we endeavor to bring to the patient pure air, we are bringing to him a part of God's power. As we learn how to apply these simple physiological remedies, we are simply learning to work in harmony with God. And in doing these things as He wants us to do them, we can consistently at every step mingle our prayers with our work, for God's effort to save the human being. We may begin to speak softly to the sinner, to whisper to him, "Turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die?" and then begin to point out the right way and ask him to walk in it. The sick one realizes that his eye was at first too dim to see the signal, and his ear too dull to hear the still, small voice, and therefore God had to speak louder through the disease, and thus lets him reap the result of his works—not as an arbitrary punishment, but as a warning. As he goes farther and farther into sin, He speaks to him through the avenues of pain, in a voice that is louder and more distinct than could be spoken to him verbally, or in any other way, and then he begins to recognize God. Just at that moment when his heart is oppressed and his body bruised and crushed, we can win him back to God and right. As you see the color coming to his cheek again, and as gratitude begins to spring up in his heart, tell him this was the chastening of a loving Father, who would gladly have spared it all. Mingle true principles with all this, which will lift him up, and not only him but all in the whole community who will heed it, and then he sees an opportunity to become a missionary to others as well. The true laying on of hands, the true anointing with oil, may be put in our hands, but we must have with us in our ministry the Spirit of God, the great restoring agent, for "it is God that healeth all our diseases." If a man ever gets well it is because God restores him. God's life is in every man. Even now we may recognize the fact that every human being that we see, every manifestation of life that we see taking place about us, is simply God at work—yea, even in disease. But that energy, that vitality, that should be used in building us up into healthy and happy men and women, has now been diverted into improper channels because of wrong habits. It is our work in treating disease to study what God is trying to do in the human body, and then co-operate with Him. That is true service; that is true prayer; that is service prayer, and should be mingled with all verbal prayer.