ITS FALSE PANACEAS

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Dec 7, 1904

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 30, No. 48.

ITS FALSE PANACEAS.

THE thoughtful, observant person who considers the condition of our world to-day, from almost any standpoint, must surely discover that the human race is on the down grade mentally, morally, and physically. It is not pessimism to recognize plain facts, rather is it wisdom to discern the effects in the future of the acting causes of to-day. Let us take our Bibles and the present-day facts, and briefly examine them.

First, What deplorable condition is the old world in to-day? "Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil-doers, children that are corrupters; they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward. Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more; the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores; they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment." Isa. 1:4-6.

This is the picture Inspiration presents of our world to-day, and the facts which are disclosed by impartial investigation entirely sustain the description.

Looking the Facts in the Face.

There are over 250,000 insane and imbeciles in the United States to-day.

Statistics show that insanity is increasing three hundred times faster than the population. At the present ratio of increase, even if it gets no worse (in reality it is getting worse each year), it will require but 290 years to produce the utter destruction of the mental endurance of the race.

One death in every seven is from tuberculosis. About one-fourth of all deaths of adults is due to tuberculosis. Recent statistics issued by the German government show that one-fourth of all people dying of diseases other than tuberculosis, have had consumption at some time in their life. It would thus appear that very nearly one-half of the grown-up people have had or now have tuberculosis in some form or other.

The deadly cancer is terribly on the increase, and a prominent surgeon, appointed by the state of New York to investigate this disease some time ago, said that if it continues to increase the next ten years as fast as it has in the last ten years, it would claim as many victims as tuberculosis.

On every side there is abundant evidence of the rapid increase in the numbers of deformed, defective, and degenerate human beings.

There were ten thousand suicides in the United States last year.

Nervous diseases and stomach troubles number their victims by millions, and very nearly three-fourths of the population are afflicted with one or other of these disorders.

It is an acknowledged fact that vice and crime are tremendously on the increase.

The rapidly-increasing army of dentists testifies to the fact that, as a race, we are tending toward toothlessness.

Causes of Increasing Degeneracy.

In the United States we spent $18.15 per capita for liquor last year. The use of this reason-destroying drug has doubled in this country since 1880.

In this country we are spending nine hundred millions of dollars a year for drink. Is it any wonder that the daily papers are a kaleidoscope of accidents, crime, poverty, and bloodshed?

There are one million morphine fiends in the United States, according to the Chicago Tribune. This means about one person in every eighty.

A prominent medical editor asserts that ten per cent. of all doctors are addicted to the use of morphine. It has been estimated that there are over fifty thousand cocaine and morphine fiends in Chicago alone. One New England prohibition state last year used three million doses of opium, independent of physicians' prescriptions.

Pause, reader, and consider that we spend as much money every year for tobacco as for bread.

It is reported that one company is able to manufacture seven million cigarettes daily; and last year the boys of this fair land consumed three billions of them. It is universally admitted that smoking is on the increase among women. A medical lecturer recently stated that the cigarets smoked in the United States last year if laid end to end, would reach around the world twice, and then from New York to San Francisco and back again.

A single patent medicine firm uses five hundred barrels of whisky a week in making its remedies; and a patent medicine which in some places has reached the enormous sale of one bottle for every four persons in the community, contains twenty-three per cent. of alcohol. Two hundred million dollars worth of patent medicines were sold in this country last year.

Last year Americans used more tea and coffee than ever before. In the United States a bag of coffee (180 lbs.) is consumed every four seconds, or a billion pounds a year.

With this endless chain of mental, moral, and physical transgression, we can expect to realize nothing better than the fulfillment of the prophecy concerning the last days, as found in 2 Tim. 3:1-5.

The Remedy That Heals.

Second, Is there any hope of health and healing for our sin-sick, suffering world?—3 John 2. "Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth." See also Isa. 53:4-6. Yes, thank God, there is a Hand of mercy reached out to help us in our pitiable condition.

Third, Is the world warranted in instituting a search for true health and healing?—"I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the Lord." Jer. 30:17. "Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases." Ps. 103:3.

Fourth, Who alone has power to heal disease and minister health?—"The power of the Lord was present to heal them." Luke 5:17. "He sent His Word, and healed them." Ps. 107:20. In these days of almost universal deception, Christian men and women ought to examine very carefully the claims of all so-called divine healers.

It is the Word of God, divine truth, received and lived out, that becomes the channel of health and healing to the sincere Christian.

Fifth, Through what channels, and by what means, is the sin-sick world to expect healing and relief? "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to Thy Word." Ps. 119:9. See Joel 3:21 and John 15:3.

The world will not find healing in its false pleasures: theaters, race-tracks, dancing-halls, card-playing, etc., neither in the idle seeking of health at pleasure resorts, nor at the seaside. Good physical work, mental activity, and spiritual peace, will do more to strengthen mind, soul, and body, than all the unnatural and deceptive agencies and instrumentalities the devil has ever invented.

Remedies That Can Not Help.

Sixth, Can man—human agents—heal disease? "When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, then went Ephraim to the Assyrian, and sent to king Jareb; yet could he not heal you, nor cure you of your wound?" Hosea 5:13.

Seventh, Are there counterfeit healings, or deceptive remedies abroad in the world? "They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of My people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace. Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush; therefore they shall fall among them that fall; at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, saith the Lord. Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls: But they said, We will not walk therein." "We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of health, and behold trouble!" "Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?" Jer. 6:14-16, 22; 8:15, 22.

True, God has given to this world the Great Physician, the Healer of mind, soul, and body, the One who can re-create us anew in Himself.

Likewise there is a divinely-implanted instinct within the human breast which leads it to seek for health and healing when in distress and disease. It is also true that our great enemy has taken advantage of this arrangement, and has provided a vast and cunning array of deceptive and bewildering schemes and delusions calculated to deceive "even the very elect" if that were possible.

Divine healing which is genuine is flavored with the spirit of truth, and accompanied by sincere obedience to the known commands of God.

As Jeremiah points out, there is a healing that does not heal, even at best, but "slightly." It neither recognizes nor removes causes, and therefore its apparent relief is but the devil’s deception. This is very clearly seen in the way morphine or opium will relieve pain without curing the disease, in the way in which alcohol will lighten the heart of its devotee, without removing the sin which was the cause of his sadness.

These are but illustrations of the deception of that healing which is false, whether it be offered as a panacea for diseased bodies, failing minds, or burdened souls.

For the sin-sick soul the devil has likewise provided an endless variety of isms, deceptions, and delusions. We do not care to discuss them, and will only name them, and warn the Christian to avoid their polluted pools: Pantheism, Buddhism, the revival of sun worship, Christian Science, New Thought, Theosophy, Spiritualism, worldly-pleasure-loving-professed-Christianity, etc.

Our Only Hope.

Our only hope, dear reader, is in placing absolute faith in God’s Word, looking steadfastly to Jesus, walking conscientiously in the light of heaven, and depending absolutely upon God, as the Healer for mind, soul, and body; co-operating with Him intelligently; with reference to our bodies, employing the beneficent agencies of air, water, food, exercise; concerning our mind, to "let this mind be in" us "which was also in Christ Jesus;" with reference to our soul, to depend upon Him wholly as the One to forgive us, to cleanse us from all sin, to uphold us by the word of His power, and, in the end, to present us "faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy."