Employ Every Facility—It is not a denial of faith to use such remedies as God has provided to alleviate pain and to aid nature in her work of restoration. It is no denial of faith [for the sick who request prayer for healing] to cooperate with God, and place themselves in the condition most favorable to recovery. God has put it in our power to obtain a knowledge of the laws of life. This knowledge has been placed within our reach for use. We should employ every facility for the restoration of health, taking every advantage possible, working in harmony with natural laws.—The Ministry of Healing, 231, 232 (1905).
(2SM 286.1)
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Use the Means Within Our Reach—The idea which you hold, that no remedies should be used for the sick, is an error. God does not heal the sick without the aid of the means of healing which lie within the reach of man; or when men refuse to be benefited by the simple remedies that God has provided in pure air and water.
(2SM 286.2)
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There were physicians in Christ’s day and in the days of the apostles. Luke is called the beloved physician. He trusted in the Lord to make him skillful in the application of remedies.
(2SM 286.3)
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When the Lord told Hezekiah that He would spare his life for fifteen years, and as a sign that He would fulfill His promise, caused the sun to go back ten degrees, why did He not put His direct, restoring power upon the king? He told him to apply a bunch of figs to his sore, and that natural remedy, blessed by God, healed him. The God of nature directs the human agent to use natural remedies now.
(2SM 286.4)
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I might go to any length in this matter, my brother, but I leave it now with a few instances. [Then follow the accounts of two instances of the use of charcoal. See chapter 30.]
(2SM 287.1)
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All these things teach us that we are to be very careful lest we receive radical ideas and impressions. Your ideas regarding drug medication, I must respect; but even in this you must not always let the patients know that you discard drugs entirely, until they become intelligent on the subject. You often place yourself in positions where you hurt your influence and do no one any good, by expressing all your convictions. Thus you cut yourself away from the people. You should modify your strong prejudices.—Letter 182, 1899 (To a worker in an overseas field).
(2SM 287.2)
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God’s Remedies—There are many ways of practicing the healing art, but there is only one way that Heaven approves. God’s remedies are the simple agencies of nature that will not tax or debilitate the system through their powerful properties. Pure air and water, cleanliness, a proper diet, purity of life, and a firm trust in God are remedies for the want of which thousands are dying; yet these remedies are going out of date because their skillful use requires work that the people do not appreciate. Fresh air, exercise, pure water, and clean, sweet premises are within the reach of all with but little expense; but drugs are expensive, both in the outlay of means and in the effect produced upon the system.—Testimonies for the Church 5:443 (1885).
(2SM 287.3)
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Use the Simplest Remedies—Nature will want some assistance to bring things to their proper condition, which may be found in the simplest remedies, especially in the use of nature’s own furnished remedies—pure air, and with a precious knowledge of how to breathe; pure water, with a knowledge of how to apply it; plenty of sunlight in every room in the house if possible, and with an intelligent knowledge of what advantages are to be gained by its use. All these are powerful in their efficiency, and the patient who has obtained a knowledge of how to eat and dress healthfully, may live for comfort, for peace, for health; and will not be prevailed upon to put to his lips drugs, which, in the place of helping nature, paralyzes her powers. If the sick and suffering will do only as well as they know in regard to living out the principles of health reform perseveringly, then they will in nine cases out of ten recover from their ailments.—Medical Ministry, 223, 224 (Manuscript 22, 1887).
(2SM 287.4)
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I have received much instruction regarding the location of sanitariums. They should be a few miles distant from the large cities, and land should be secured in connection with them. Fruit and vegetables should be cultivated, and the patients should be encouraged to take up outdoor work. Many who are suffering from pulmonary disease might be cured if they would live in a climate where they could be out-of-doors most of the year. Many who have died of consumption might have lived if they had breathed more pure air. Fresh outdoor air is as healing as medicine, and leaves no injurious aftereffects
(2SM 291.1)
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It would have been better if, from the first, all drugs had been kept out of our sanitariums, and use had been made of such simple remedies as are found in pure water, pure air, sunlight, and some of the simple herbs growing in the field. These would be just as efficacious as the drugs used under mysterious names, and concocted by human science. And they would leave no injurious effects in the system.
(2SM 291.2)
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Thousands who are afflicted might recover their health if, instead of depending upon the drugstore for their life, they would discard all drugs, and live simply, without using tea, coffee, liquor, or spices, which irritate the stomach and leave it weak, unable to digest even simple food without stimulation. The Lord is willing to let His light shine forth in clear, distinct rays to all who are weak and feeble.—Manuscript 115, 1903 (General Manuscript regarding sanitarium work).
(2SM 291.3)
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“Keep the patient free from excitement, and every influence calculated to depress. Her attendants should be cheerful and hopeful. She should have a simple diet, and should be allowed plenty of pure soft water to drink. Bathe frequently in pure soft water followed by gentle rubbing. Let the light, and air, be freely admitted into her room. She must have quiet, and undisturbed rest.”
(2SM 446.1)
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The father slowly read the prescription, and wondered at the few simple directions it contained, and seemed doubtful of any good resulting from such simple means. Said the physician
(2SM 446.2)
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“You have had sufficient confidence in my skill to place the life of your daughter in my hands. Withdraw not your confidence. I will visit your daughter daily, and direct you in the management of her case. Follow my directions with confidence, and I trust in a few weeks to present her to you in a much better condition of health, if not fully restored.”
(2SM 446.3)
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The father looked sad and doubtful, but submitted to the decision of the physician. He feared that his daughter must die if she had no medicine.
(2SM 446.4)
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The second case was again presented before me. The patient had appeared better under the influence of “nux vomica.” She was sitting up, folding a shawl closely around her, and complaining of chilliness. The air in the room was impure. It was heated and had lost its vitality. Almost every crevice where the pure air could enter was guarded to protect the patient from a sense of painful chilliness, which was especially felt in the back of the neck and down the spinal column. If the door was left ajar, she seemed nervous and distressed, and entreated that it should be closed, for she was cold. She could not bear the least draught of air from the door or windows. A gentleman of intelligence stood looking pityingly upon her, and said to those present,—
(2SM 446.5)
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“Her days are numbered. The efforts nature has made have been so many times overpowered by this poison, that the vital forces are exhausted by being repeatedly induced to unnatural action to rid the system of this poisonous drug. Nature’s efforts are about to cease, and then the patient’s suffering life will end.”
(2SM 450.1)
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More deaths have been caused by drug-taking than from all other causes combined. If there was in the land one physician in the place of thousands, a vast amount of premature mortality would be prevented. Multitudes of physicians, and multitudes of drugs, have cursed the inhabitants of the earth, and have carried thousands and tens of thousands to untimely graves.
(2SM 450.2)
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Indulging in eating too frequently, and in too large quantities, overtaxes the digestive organs, and produces a feverish state of the system. The blood becomes impure, and then diseases of various kinds occur. A physician is sent for, who prescribes some drug which gives present relief, but which does not cure the disease. It may change the form of disease, but the real evil is increased tenfold. Nature was doing her best to rid the system of an accumulation of impurities, and, could she have been left to herself, aided by the common blessings of Heaven, such as pure air and pure water, a speedy and safe cure would have been effected.
(2SM 450.3)
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The sufferers, in such cases, can do for themselves that which others cannot do as well for them. They should commence to relieve nature of the load they have forced upon her. They should remove the cause. Fast a short time, and give the stomach chance for rest. Reduce the feverish state of the system by a careful and understanding application of water. These efforts will help nature in her struggles to free the system of impurities. But generally the persons who suffer pain become impatient. They are not willing to use self-denial, and suffer a little from hunger. Neither are they willing to wait the slow process of nature to build up the overtaxed energies of the system. But they are determined to obtain relief at once, and take powerful drugs, prescribed by physicians. Nature was doing her work well, and would have triumphed, but while accomplishing her task, a foreign substance of a poisonous nature was introduced. What a mistake! Abused nature has now two evils to war against instead of one. She leaves the work in which she was engaged, and resolutely takes hold to expel the intruder newly introduced into the system. Nature feels this double draft upon her resources, and she becomes enfeebled.
(2SM 450.4)
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Many invalids have been confined weeks and months in close rooms, shutting out the light, and pure, invigorating air of heaven, as though air was a deadly enemy, when it was just the medicine the sick needed to make them well. The whole system was debilitated and diseased for want of air, and nature was sinking under her load of accumulating impurities, in addition to the fashionable poisons administered by physicians, until she was overpowered, and broke down in her efforts, and the sick died. They might have lived. Heaven willed not their death. They died victims to their own ignorance, and that of their friends, and the ignorance and deception of physicians, who gave them fashionable poisons, and would not allow them pure water to drink, and fresh air to breathe, to invigorate the vital organs, purify the blood, and help nature in her task in overcoming the bad conditions of the system. These valuable remedies which Heaven has provided, without money and without price, were cast aside, and considered not only as worthless, but even as dangerous enemies, while poisons, prescribed by physicians, were in blind confidence taken.
(2SM 456.1)
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Thousands have died for want of pure water, and pure air, who might have lived. And thousands of living invalids, who are a burden to themselves and others, think that their lives depend upon taking medicines from the doctors. They are continually guarding themselves against the air, and avoiding the use of water. These blessings they need in order to become well. If they would become enlightened, and let medicine alone, and accustom themselves to outdoor exercise, and to air in their houses, summer and winter, and use soft water for drinking and bathing purposes, they would be comparatively well and happy, instead of dragging out a miserable existence.
(2SM 456.2)
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It is the duty of attendants and nurses in the sick-room to have a special care of their own health, especially in critical cases of fever and consumption. One person should not be kept closely confined to the sick-room. It is safer to have two or three to depend upon, who are careful and understanding nurses, and these changing and sharing the care and confinement of the sick-room. Each should have exercise in the open air, as often as possible. This is important to sick-bed attendants, especially if the friends of the sick are among that class who continue to regard air, if admitted into the sick-room, as an enemy, and will not allow the windows raised, or the doors opened. The sick, and the attendants, are in this case compelled to breathe the poisonous atmosphere from day to day, because of the inexcusable ignorance of the friends of the sick.
(2SM 456.3)
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Mothers sometimes permit their daughters to take care of the sick in illy ventilated rooms, and, as a result, have had to nurse them through a period of sickness. And because of the mother’s anxiety and care for her child, she has been made sick, and frequently one or both have died, or been left with broken constitutions, or made suffering invalids for life. There is a lamentable catalogue of evils which have their origin in the sick room, from which the pure air of heaven is excluded. All who breathe this poisonous atmosphere violate the laws of their being, and must suffer the penalty.
(2SM 458.1)
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The sick, as a general thing, are taxed with too many visitors and callers, who chat with them, and weary them by introducing different topics of conversation, when they need quiet, and undisturbed rest. Many have made themselves sick by overtaxing their strength. Their exhausted energies compel them to cease labor, and they are brought to a bed of suffering. Rest, freedom from care, light, pure air, pure water, and spare diet, are all that they need to make them well. It is mistaken kindness that leads so many, out of courtesy, to visit the sick. Often have they spent a sleepless, suffering night, after receiving visitors. They have been more or less excited, and the reaction has been too great for their already debilitated energies, and, as the result of these fashionable calls, they have been brought into very dangerous conditions, and lives have been sacrificed for the want of thoughtful prudence.
(2SM 458.2)
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It is sometimes gratifying to the sick to be visited, and to know that friends have not forgotten them in their affliction. But, although these visits may have been gratifying, in very many instances these fashionable calls have turned the scale when the invalid was recovering, and the balance has borne down to death. Those who cannot make themselves useful should be cautious in regard to visiting the sick. If they can do no good, they may do harm. But the sick should not be neglected. They should have the best of care, and the sympathy of friends and relatives.
(2SM 458.3)
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