Health education is one of the chief objectives in sanitarium work. Restoration of health, teaching individuals how to live healthfully, and directing them to the Saviour of both body and soul is the threefold purpose of our medical work.
I recall that years ago certain devout men, elders in the church, maintained that our own people have no need of sanitariums, and that they should carry out the instruction for divine healing given in the book of James.
Contrary to the wishes of the physicians, they insisted on coming to the sanitarium for the purpose of teaching the doctrine: "Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing with oil in the name of the Lord:
and the prayer of the faith shall save the sick."
The sick are always anxious to have a speedy recovery. Hence these men exerted a strong influence among them, making it difficult for doctors to carry forward their educational work. One of our leading doctors was influenced to such an extent by these extreme views that he lost interest in the educational feature of the work, and the methods employed. He was about to decide to give up sanitarium work, and give himself wholly to the work of the ministry.
I was then taking my last year of medicine at Ann Arbor, having charge of the medical students' home. This doctor and one of his associates felt such a burden in the matter that they came to Ann Arbor for the purpose of inoculating the Adventist medical students with their views. He even ridiculed the idea of exercising care in the selection of food, quoting: "If they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." When Mrs. White, who was then in Australia, learned of the views held by this brother, she wrote at some length upon the large opportunities for service before the medical missionary. In this connection she made the following striking statement:
"I have been surprised at being asked by physicians if I did not think it would be more pleasing to God for them to give up their medical practice and enter the ministry. I am prepared to answer such an inquirer: If you are a Christian and a competent physician, you are qualified to do tenfold more good as a missionary for God than if you were to go forth merely as a preacher of the Word."—"Counsels on Health," pp. 503, 504.
Later, while I was laboring in Australia (19o5), the following counsel, which is of general interest, was received from Mrs. White:
"The remark is often made by one and another, Why depend so much on sanitariums? Why do we not pray for the miraculous healing of the sick, as the people of God used to do? In the early history of our work many were healed by prayer. And some, after they were healed, pursued the same course in the indulgence of appetite, that they had followed in the past. They did not live and work in such a way as to avoid sickness. They did not show that they appreciated the Lord's goodness to them. Again and again they were brought to suffering through their own careless, thoughtless course of action. How could the Lord be glorified in bestowing on them the gift of health?
"When the light came that we should have a sanitarium, the reason was plainly given. There were many who needed to be educated in regard to healthful living. A place must be provided to which the sick could be taken, where they could be taught how to live so as to preserve health. At the same time light was given that the sick could be successfully treated without drugs. This was the lesson that was to be practiced and taught by physicians and nurses and by all other medical missionary workers. Drugs were to be discarded, because when they are taken into the system, their aftereffect is very injurious. Many suffering from fever have died as the result of the drugs administered. They might have been alive today had they been given water treatment by those competent to administer it. . . .
"I will thus explain the reason why we have sanitariums. It is to gather in a class of people who will become intelligent upon health reform, and will learn how to regain health and how to prevent sickness by following right habits of eating and drinking and dressing. As a part of the treatment, lectures should be given on the different points of health reform. Instruction should be given regarding the right choice and preparation of food, showing that food may be prepared so as to be wholesome and nourishing, and at the same time appetizing and palatable. These lectures should be diligently kept up as a means of teaching the patients how to prevent disease by a wise course of action. . . . Let the nurses in our sanitariums show that in the solemn work of caring for the sick, they do not rely on drug medication, but on the power of Christ, and the use of the simple remedies that He has provided,—the application of hot and cold water, and simple, nourishing food, without intoxicating liquor of any kind, with judicious exercise, and putting away of all injurious practices. In treatment su,h as this there is health for the sick. . .
"He who would be healed must cease to transgress the law of God. He must cease to choose a life of sin. God cannot bless the one who continues to bring upon himself disease and suffering by violating the laws of heaven. But the Holy Spirit comes as a healing power to those who cease to do evil and learn to do well.. . .
"I think that I have answered the question, Why do we not pray for the healing of the sick, instead of having sanitariums? The education of many souls is at stake. In the providence of God instruction has been given that sanitariums be established, in order that the sick may be drawn to them, and learn how to live healthfully. The establishment of sanitariums is a providential arrangement, whereby people from all churches are to be reached, and made acquainted with the saving truth for this time. It is for this reason that we urge that sanitariums be established in many places outside of our cities."—E. G. White, Letter 59, 1905.*
Principles of Recovery
In another communication, dated June 24, 1903, Mrs. White said:
"Present the Lord Jesus, the Great Healer, as the one upon whom you depend. The instruction that you give the patients in your parlor lectures will be received much more readily if you send to heaven a petition for the power that is above all human power, Encourage the patients to breathe the fresh air. Teach them how to breathe deep and how to exercise their muscles. Teach them to use the abdominal muscles in breathing. Encourage them to spend much time in the open air. Make the grounds so attractive that they will want to be out of doors. Provide some pleasant, easy work for those who are able to work. Show them how agreeable and health giving this out-of-door work is.
"This is an education that will be invaluable to them after they return to their homes. Use nature's remedies,—water, sunshine, and fresh air. Do not use drugs. Drugs never heal; they only change the features of the disease. . . . Let there be in the sanitarium much prayer for the healing of the sick. We must depend more decidedly upon the Great Healer. It is the miracle-working power of God that will give efficiency to the gospel message."—E. G. White, Letter 116, 1903.
Again, under date of August 9, 3905, Mrs. White said:
"Wherever the last message of warning is given, combined with medical missionary work and lessons on the right principles of living, wonderful results are seen. Our sanitariums are to be the means of enlightening those who come to them for treatment. Patients are to be shown how they can live upon a diet of grains, fruits, and nuts, and other products of the soil. I have been instructed that lectures should be regularly given in our sanitariums on health topics. People are to be taught to discard those articles of food that weaken the health and strength of the beings for whom Christ gave His life. The injurious effects of tea and coffee are to be shown. Patients are to be taught how they can dispense with those articles of diet that injure the digestive organs. These things are to be treated from a health standpoint. The blessings that attend a disuse of tobacco and intoxicating liquor, are to be pointed out.
"Let the patients be shown the necessity of practicing the principles of health reform, if they would regain their health. Let the sick be shown how to get well by being temperate in eating and by taking regular exercise in the open air. It is that people may become intelligent in regard to these things that sanitariums are to be established. . . . People are to be taught how, by careful eating and drinking, they may keep well. Christ died to save men from ruin. Our sanitariums are to be His helping hand, in teaching men and women how to live in such a way as to honor and glorify God. If this work is not done by our sanitariums, a great mistake is made by those conducting them. Abstinence from flesh meat will benefit all •who abstain. The diet question is a subject of living interest. Those who do not conduct sanitariums in the right way lose their opportunity to help the very ones who need to make a reform in their manner of living. Our sanitariums are established for a special purpose, to teach people that we do not live to eat, but that we eat to live."—E. G. White, Letter 233, 1905.
Instruction should be given by each physician to his patients. I am aware that many of our physicians feel that they are not successful public speakers. It is a surprise to me, however, to see how anxiously patients pick up every thought and principle taught by their physicians in parlor lectures. One thing is certain, that all our physicians know a good deal more about these principles than do the patients who come to them for help. Instruction should not be confined to parlor lectures alone. Health literature should be in evidence everywhere, and we must not neglect the individual work of education in our offices in which we take the history of patients. One purpose in taking the history is to ascertain where habits are wrong, with a view to correcting them. If this work is carried on in the spirit of the Master, we are able to win the hearts and confidence of our patients. Having won this confidence, it is not difficult to inoculate them with health principles.
* This and the following two letters of counsel from Mrs. E. G. White have been duly verified for accuracy of transcription by •the secretary of the E. G. White Estate board, and file number appended. --Editor.
