Notable contributions to the science and art of the practice of medicine by Richard C. Cabot, M.D., of Boston, have made him an international authority in the medical world. Recently in an address before the Massachusetts Medical Society, the doctor philosophized a bit and gave some personal views and conclusions drawn from the background of an unusually extensive clinical experience as Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. "The Wisdom of the Human," was the title of Doctor Cabot's paper, which is printed in full in The New England Journal of Medicine, November 18, 1937. These excerpts from this learned teacher's presentation will, I am sure, be of unusual interest to the readers of The Ministry.
"A considerable period of residence on the surface of this earth has not impressed me with the wisdom of the human mind. It is the wisdom expressed through the human body that has impressed me. . . . We all admit the wisdom of the healing powers at work in the body, powers which our therapeutics are a very long distance behind. . . .
"Here is a power that is not neutral, but tremendously biased on the side of life as against death. It does not win every time, and it still leaves plenty of work for all us doctors to do ; but still it does about ten times as much as all that we can do to keep life from being overcome by death. We see, then, a force that has superhuman wisdom and that cares tremendously about life. It is always on the job...
"Where does this force come from? Where do we get the healing substances in our tissues ? Out of our food and water and the air we breathe; that is, out of the bounty of the universe. We cannot make food, air, or water. We find the air and the water ; we cultivate our food which comes out of the cosmos which has created us and gives us the life that brought us here today. Now, if we see in our medical work a power superhuman in wisdom and in goodness, one that works all the time and that comes out of the cosmos, I do not see why we should not call it by its natural name. I do not see why we should be afraid of that name. It is perfectly obvious that it is God. Why should we physicians be afraid to use those letters, G-O-D ? That is the only proper word that represents those facts; 'nature' is a very foolish word to use for them, for no one knows what that word means."
In this day of modernism when the name and power of God have been so nearly removed from men's thoughts, it is most heartening to read from the pen of such an eminent man these words of confidence in a personal God —confidence in His creative and sustaining power.
In "Ministry of Healing" we find a kindred thought beautifully summarized in these words: "That which physicians can only aid in doing, Christ accomplishes. They endeavor to assist nature's work of healing; Christ Himself is the healer. The physician seeks to preserve life; Christ imparts life."—Page III.
And the Spirit of prophecy further reveals just how intimately and specifically the healing power of God is manifested in the tissues of the body.
"The physical organism of man is under the supervision of God, but it is not like a clock, which is set in operation, and, must go of itself. The heart beats, pulse succeeds pulse, breath succeeds breath, but the entire being is under the supervision of God. 'Ye are God's husbandry; ye are God's building.' In God we live, and move, and have our being. Each heartbeat, each breath, is the inspiration of Him who breathed into the nostrils of Adam the breath of life,—the inspiration of the ever-present God, the great I AM."—"Medical Ministry," p. 9.
"God's healing power runs all through nature. If a human being cuts his flesh or breaks a bone, nature at once begins to heal the injury, and thus preserve the man's life. . . . It is God who has made the provision that nature shall work to restore the exhausted powers. The power is of God. He is the great Healer."—Id., pp. II, 11.
Do we realize that in dealing with the laws relating to our bodies and their physical wellbeing, we are dealing with laws specifically ordained by God and constantly maintained by Him? This places the matter in its true light and should impress us that momentarily it is in God that we truly "live, and move, and have our being." It is therefore a high privilege as well as a solemn obligation intelligently and conscientiously to observe the principles of healthful living that the Creator has ordained "for our good always." As a people, we should be not only health-conscious but health-conscientious