Hygiene | AdventAI

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Michigan · Oct 10, 1865

Hygiene.

We live in a time when much is being said on the question of health. This, to all, is a practical matter, and every one has occasion to rejoice at the discussion of so important a subject. The world is filling up just now with medical pretenders and quacks, darkening counsel with their high-sounding terms, and confusing the minds of such as desire the truth. But above it all may be heard the voice of true wisdom, saying, "This is the way, walk in it." Yes, thank God! the true light does shine, and the gospel of health is being proclaimed.

The inhabitants of this world, like the crazy old ball which they inhabit, are sickly and diseased; and every genuine utterance in the department of hygiene, to the truly wise, will be as the "leaves of that goodly tree," which heal the nations. It is now no longer a question whether we can render more acceptable service to the Father of spirits in a condition of health and strength, than while languidly pining under wasting disease;—no, none but the veriest fanatic would say that a person laboring under the pressure of aches and pains and rheums, could serve God as well as the one in health.

Sickness should ever teach us that some law has been transgressed. And is there any other way for the sick to get well, and keep well, than by returning to the obedience of Nature's laws, and sinning no more? To this end how important that saying of one of the ancients, "Know thyself." We find a hint at this injunction in the words of the Psalmist—"I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made." What a stupendous piece of architecture is man! What a combination, what mechanism, what arrangement, what adaptedness in all his parts. Truly he is, as inspiration declares, "wonderfully made." And is not that individual better prepared to intelligently worship the Creator, who has some knowledge of his physical structure? "God formed man of the dust of the ground." Yes, he is made with bones and skin, and muscles and nerves, and tendons and ligaments, and arteries and veins, and as David declared, he is "fearfully made." And "God made man upright;" he was perfectly developed—mentally and physically—made in the image of God. And can we, creatures in God's image, transgress with impunity, and still expect the radiant light of Heaven to shine down on our souls? Let us not, as the Apostle says, "deceive ourselves by false reasoning." James i, 22, [Mack. Trans.] It is our wisdom to understand our organism, to "know ourselves" in a hygienic and physical, as well as moral, sense, and not precipitate ourselves into the arms of that hydra, Disease; but if we have sinned foolishly and ignorantly, make atonement for those acts by returning to God in the way of his moral and physical laws, and then shall we have a heart to pray for the "health of His countenance to rest upon us."

Brethren and sisters, let us all contribute our mite, in precept and practice, to this great work of Health Reform. Let us conform willingly, not stubbornly, to a course of life which will secure to us that greatest of earthly gifts,—HEALTH. This blessing we may all have in its fullness. Nature, in her mysterious laboratory, has agencies, such as air and water (blessed therapeutics!) which will make her obedient children as healthy as the giant trees of the forest. And if by a departure from her wholesome teachings we have incurred her penalties in our bodies, let us return with repentant steps to the arms of our all-loving Father, and Nature will set her potent arm to the task, and eliminate from the system those buds of disease which are the plague of the life.

Let us as a people look at this matter in the light of Christian obligation, and consecrate ourselves fully to the service of the God of health. Let our diet and exercise and rest be in accordance with the revealed and unerring law of our natures; let us live according to the principles of physiology and hygiene. Then will bodily vigor gradually return, clouds will be lifted from the mind, hope will be like a sunbeam, and our faith, thus mightily quickened, will lay hold of joys to come.