Religion is a therapy in both health and disease. We need religion whether we are sick or well. We should bring about more cooperation than we have in the past on the part of the doctor and nurse and the institution. We must have more facilities for teaching patients about the Bible. We need a Bible instructor in addition to the chaplain in all our sanitariums.
I believe the greatest thing that we have to contend with in the patients in a hospital is fear. Most people fear going into a hospital, and there is always a dread associated with an operation or injury. If we can only put a patient's mind at rest from fear and worry, from pain, both mental and physical, that is a wonderful help. When they have mental pain, there is an associated physical feeling of discomfort, and vice versa. The feeling of loneliness and homesickness is usually present. We must tell them about the heavenly home so their loneliness will be abated.
Doctors and nurses are very busy and do not have many minutes to spend with each patient. A Bible instructor is often able to spend more time with patients than the doctor is. We must dispel fear, give them courage and hope and faith. The nurse's time is extremely beneficial, but there is a greater work for our Bible instructors, who can specialize in just such a form of therapy, in teaching the people about God, teaching them love and faith.
I have seen many cases of people who have been just as ill from mental disease as from physical, and it is this type of person who is particularly benefited by a religious approach or teaching. Many have been actually cured by it. I know one instance of a woman who by faith has been healed of her inability to walk.
I think of my own case several years ago. I was in a serious automobile accident, and was not expected to live. I am sure medical science had given me up, but through the Lord's help I was healed. I have never ceased to be thankful for that. I know of others who have, through the doctor's and nurse's care in teaching them not only the Bible but our own health truths, been healed of their illness, have been baptized, and have been giving praise to their Maker ever since.
Proverbs 17:22 says, "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine." Try to maintain a happy spirit. I like to see a cheerfulness and happiness in the nurse and in the Bible instructor. It is true that happiness can dispel gloom. We must all do more praying ourselves with our patients, and thus bring about a closer communion between God and them. If we have every one of the fruits of the spirit—meekness, temperance, faith, love—and those other things that go to make up a beautiful life, then we may glorify God, and others may see our good works and glorify God as well. By our guidance and actions, doctors, nurses, and Bible instructors may bring about a closer connection between the patient and the Lord.
