Sanitarium Administrators' Council

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Every Christian doctor, in watching for souls "as they that must give account," is con­cerned over, and is under the most solemn obligation to provide, two kinds of diagnosis on behalf of each patient that comes under his care, saint and sinner alike.

1. He provides the most careful, accurate, con­scientious diagnosis of physical disease.

2. He should provide just as careful, accurate, and conscientious diagnosis of spiritual disease.

Conscientious physical diagnosis should, and often does, lead to conscientious spiritual diagno­sis. Few come to the doctor knowing the actual nature and extent of their difficulty. They come to learn this, though often with much fearful ap-

Oaension, for at times the doctor must needs k that fearful word—malignancy. The earnest desire of the physician to make con­scientious physical diagnoses, and honestly to an­nounce his findings, is attested by his use of the microscope, the X ray, the various laboratory pro­cedures, and all visual and manual methods known to medical science. Besides this, he is alert con­stantly to discover and create new and better means of ascertaining the exact nature and extent of disease.

At best all this is done merely to extend or pro­long for a few years, more or less, the mortal life of his patient that sooner or later, in spite of all ef­forts, must end in death. So far as indefinite suc­cess is concerned, the doctor's work is always eventually defeated by the certainty of death.

The most prevalent and malignant disease in the world is the disease of sin. This disease requires divine diagnosis, which God gives His servants power to make. The prophet Isaiah was given this power. Here is his diagnosis, under the figure of the physical : "The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even the head there is no soundness in it; but

ds, and bruises, and putrifying sores : they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment." Isa. i :5, 6.

To diagnose fully all the diseases of a head that is wholly sick, would require a throat specialist, an eye specialist, a specialist for the nose, the sinuses, the teeth, the brain, the skull, the scalp, and the hair. These specialists would consider the possi­bilities of brain tumor, throat cancer, sinus infec­tion, hemorrhage, cataracts, destruction of vital nerves in the eye, and every other possible head disease.

If the whole heart were faint, probably it would be too weak to sustain circulation or to respond to medication. If from the sole of the foot to the head no soundness whatever could be found in any organ, and in addition there were wounds and bruises and long-neglected, putrifying, infecting sores, having had no care whatever, what would be the only possible prognosis the doctor could honestly make?

If the heart were strong and the digestive or­gans in good condition, the lungs, skin, and kid­neys functioning, and the nerves capable of sus­taining proper reactions, there might be some possible hope of continued life. But with no sound­ness whatever in any organ or part, doubtless there could be but one speedy and certain conclu­sion. Should the doctor perchance have one ray of hope for such a patient, he would wish that he might have immediate consultation with the great­est physicians and specialists on earth.

It should be remembered that all this is but a figurative illustration of the spiritual. The Christian physician, under divine obligation to be as efficient in spiritual diagnosis as he must be in physical diagnosis, will recognize the actual spiritual condition of the unsaved who come to him for diagnosis, and in his own helplessness he will turn instinctively to the Great Physician as consultant, for "sin, when [and if] it is finished, bringeth forth death." James 1:15.

The counsel of the great Physician on spiritual disease is understood readily by the Christian doc­tor, because in his daily practice he is accustomed to think God's thoughts after Him in those physi­cal things that have to do with the masterpiece of God's creation, man.

If the Christian doctor diagnoses soul-destroy­ing spiritual disease as accurately as he does phys­ical disease, the malignancy of the spiritual condi­tion of his unsaved patient will cause him to evaluate properly the relative comparison between the lesser needs of the body and the one great need of the soul. Once seen clearly, it will cause him more and deeper concern for the welfare of the soul than he could possibly have for the body, no matter how critical, or in what stage of advance­ment the patient's physical disease might be. Such concern as this gives the doctor a true perspective of his sacred work.

The work of the Great Physician was based on this very perspective. In His healing of the pal­sied man, He saw the soul's disease as in greater need of a potent remedy than the disease of the body, and said to him: "Son, be of good cheer ; thy sins be forgiven thee." Matt. 9:2. After this first and most important healing, He healed his body of the lesser disease.

In healing this lesser disease, Christ illustrated His own power to forgive sins. "That ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith He to the sick of the palsy), Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house." Matt. 9:6.

AO any physician who fails thus to recognize and connect the power of God to forgive sins with the healing of the body fails in the great privilege that is his as a Christian physician.

The doctor's most important responsibility is for the healing of the soul. His first responsibility may be for the healing of the body, because he can­not with authority say, "Son, thy sins be forgiven thee."

After relieving a patient of his suffering, thus gaining his confidence and establishing prestige in his mind, the doctor then has opportunity to point him to the One who can and will say with all au­thority, "Son, thy sins be forgiven thee."

If the patient accepts this spiritual healing, the doctor's work in this line does not end in the de­feat of death. On the contrary, he has actually saved a life and a soul for eternity, and not merely prolonged a human life. There will be no disap­pointment in this, but rather everlasting joy for both the doctor and the patient.

The Christian doctor may never stand and preach to congregations of thousands or even hun­dreds. But in the course of a year if he sees on an average of twenty patients a day for three hundred days, he will have had precious opportunity to represent Jesus six thousand times, or in ten years will have made sixty thousand personal contacts—a good-sized city. Opportunities for spiritual di­agnosis and the application of spiritual remedies are almost as limitless to the Christian doctor as are his opportunities for ministration to physical needs.

The application of the necessary spiritual reme­dies will require much more time and tact and pa­tient endeavor on the part of the doctor than will the application of physical remedies. For spirtual remedies must be prayerfully and fully taught and explained, understood, and willingly received by the patient, while certain physical remedies may need to 1,:)e known and understood by the doctor only.

How, does the doctor diagnose a soul spiritually? To diagnose physically, he ob­serves and then asks questions about the patient's aches and pains and habits. To diagnose spiritu­ally, he does the same concerning the heart's aches and worries and perplexities and burdens. It is not difficult for a doctor to diagnose spiritually, be­cause the patient has come to him expecting to an­swer his questions. He is anxious to impart in­formation concerning himself.

The doctor's diagnosis may discover that some who come to him are not in need of any physical remedies, but only in need of a spiritual remedy. He will easily discern whether his patient is in need of both physical and spiritual healing, or whether because of having already given his heart to God, he is in need of physical healing only.

Also he will learn quickly whether his patient has faith in God, or whether his faith is all cen­tered in the doctor. If he does rest all his faith on the doctor, then the doctor will need to decide whether he will capitalize on that faith for his own prestige in his practice, or whether he will direct that faith to the Great Physician, who alone can heal the diseases of the soul. So valuable and ef­fective did Jesus esteem the physical in leading to the spiritual, that where an actual physical condi­tion did not exist suitable to illustrate the truth He wished to teach, He employed a simile. Jesus em­ployed the simile of childbirth to diagnose the un­done spiritual condition of Nicodemus. Let us note the divine diagnosis and the remedy pre­scribed:

"Jesus . . said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto Him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born? Jesus an­swered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of 'God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh ; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit."

Evidently Nicodemus had no thought that Jesus was employing a simile, for he said, "How cali a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus well knew that even the newest born babe could not be born again, and much less could a man when he is old be born again.

In turning the mind of Nicodemus from the physical to the spiritual, Jesus recognized the va­lidity of his argument when He said, "That wh. is born of the flesh is flesh," as much as to s "You are quite right, Nicodemus ; nothing can be done to change a fleshly birth, but your trouble and the disease and defects that require you to be born again afe spiritual, and so I repeat that 'ex- . cept a man be born [even] of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God'"

In pointing him to the rebirth, Jesus made him understand that he was in a lost condition and that without this new birth he would "perish" if sin were allowed to finish its work in him. Hear His - words : "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wil­derness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him should not per­ish, but have eternal life." John 3 :14, 15. And then follows the divine specific for the death-deal­ing malignancy of his soul disease, as found in verses 16 to 21.

How fully and carefully the remedy is explained, and how clearly is Nicodemus made to see why he himself came to Jesus by night instead of by day. In this story of Nicodemus we have the divine diagnosis of the soul by the Great Physician, and the sure and wholly potent spiritual penicillin t saves completely from the infection of deadly

To be truly efficient scientifically, the doctor must learn the application of the many diagnostic facilities that are available for discerning physical diseases. To be efficient spiritually, the doctor need but learn the application of the one great fa­cility provided for discerning spiritual disease, namely, the Holy Spirit. John 16 :7-9.

Thus through the Holy Spirit, Christ's personal representative, the Christian doctor always has the Great Physician present to make diagnosis, to ex­plain and apply the remedy, and save the soul.