Recently I had an experience which brought me to realize that people are becoming more health-conscious every day. Two sisters in one of our large churches became confused by reading false literature. They were once well-meaning, representative persons of our faith, but they had so lost out spiritually that the church was seriously considering disfellowshiping them. I was invited to speak to this congregation at the Sabbath hour, and in the afternoon, the church board met for the purpose of giving a hearing to these sisters. They came to this meeting to substantiate their beliefs in their new-found doctrines.
After considering the matter at length, I asked them to lay aside their books filled with apostasy for a period of three months. They answered, "We will do so on one condition, and that is that you will come back to this church very soon and give a sermon on the health principles for which our people stand." And they added, "We want you to preach it straight and plain." I agreed to do so, and later fulfilled my promise.
The three months have not yet elapsed since this experience, but, according to my understanding, these sisters have renewed their faith in the truth and have thrown away their false doctrines. This incident taught me to believe that many in our churches today need this "right arm of the gospel" brought before them from time to time to establish them in the doctrines of our faith.
Are we giving the medical work the prominent place which it should occupy in our organized work? The servant of the Lord has revealed the importance of this work by calling it the "right arm of the body." Let us think for a moment what the right arm of the physical body means to us, and what it would mean to be without it. Dismembered, it would mean nothing to us—merely "a mass of disorganized atoms." The instruction of the Lord should be followed in placing the proper evaluation on the medical work, and promoting it in a definite way in our own particular corner of the field.
The medical work is the opening door to individual hearts. And when presented to groups in connection with evangelistic efforts, it exerts a profound influence. Today the world is sick and suffering from disease. How thankful we should be that there is balm in Gilead for all the ills of mankind! Physical defects remedied make one more susceptible to spiritual influences. The church members are the body of the church, and a healthy constituency is desirable in order that the Lord's work may be carried on in the most efficient way. It is absolutely necessary that God's workers be well physically in order to work as missionaries for Him. And as they help to save others, their own lives will be enriched.
Several years ago there appeared in a leading newspaper in one of our large cities an account of a mother with a large family of children, who lived on a remote ranch in a Western State. One morning, out by the wood pile, she was bitten by a rattlesnake. She rushed into the house for the customary remedy—a drink of whisky—only to find the bottle empty. Her children did not know what had happened to their mother, and she did not tell them. She decided that death was all that was left for her, and she prepared for it in the best way she knew how. It was a warm day in midsummer. Frantically, she rushed about the house, setting it in order. She washed the family's clothes, she ironed, she baked a large batch of bread, and prepared food over a red-hot coal stove.
Meanwhile, the perspiration streamed down her face and body. But on and on she worked,—for she was going to die, and the family must be provided for ! Finally, exhausted at the end of the day, she managed to get into her bed for what she thought was the last time. A deep slumber came over her. The next morning one of her daughters called, "Mother." It sounded like sweet music in her ears. She awakened feeling strong and well, and was very much surprised to find she had not died. In working for others, she had saved her own life, and the poison in her body had streamed out of her pores in perspiration.
A Twofold Benefit
As this woman who was bitten by a rattlesnake saved her own life by working for her family, so the human family have been bitten by the rattlesnake of sin, and God's people by working for others will not only save them, but will also save their own lives. In helping those who are physically as well as spiritually ill, will come the blessing of eternal life. Yet many of our people do not realize the importance of the medical work in connection with the proclamation of present truth.
The widespread ills of humanity are a challenge to our people to live and to promulgate the sacred principles of health which have been committed to us by the Lord. Then, weary with our burdens of toil at the end of the journey, we shall hear the Master's voice calling to awaken us to eternal life, saying, "Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." It will sound far sweeter than any human voice that has ever fallen upon our ears. Let us arise to our privilege, and grasp present opportunities for the extension of this branch of our message.
