A PLEASANT HOME AT THE SANITARIUM by E. S. Lane

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Tuesday, March 10, 1885.

FromThe Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 62, No. 10. Whole No. 1605.

A PLEASANT HOME AT THE SANITARIUM.

By E. S. Lane

At the close of the General Conference it was my privilege to spend six weeks at this institution of God's own planting, in receiving instruction upon the subject of Health and Temperance; and I wish here to express my gratitude for the many kindnesses shown me, and especially for the interest manifested by Dr. Kellogg in granting to us as a class such valuable information. I intend not only to make a practical use of this information, but to impart to others, as far as I shall be able, that instruction which has been so generously granted me. As a people, we shall greatly need its benefits, in order to stand as light-bearers to the world, when decisions must be made quickly by the people, as the truth shall be presented to them in simplicity, yet in the power of God.

How deep-fraught with meaning the words of Frances Willard, president of the W. C. T. U.—“electric but steady nerves [and how we need them] that can think God's thoughts after him, as they never yet have been thought.” She says further: “This is my recipe. Plain living and high thinking; and this is my warning, With high living you will get exceedingly plain thinking.”

If there is a people who need a greater capacity for high thinking, it is this people; not because the Lord has chosen those of low mediocrity, but because he has committed to our trust so important a truth, to return to him with usury at the last day.

Oh, who will be able to stand when the sweet angel of mercy shall fold her snowy wings, and the dark curtain of despair, of judgment, and of death, is drawn over the earth? The prophet Isaiah asks: “Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?” Let the Psalmist answer: “He that hath clean hands and a pure heart.” Such purity can only be obtained by obedience to physical as well as moral law.

While at the Sanitarium I was much gratified to witness the effect of hallowed influence exerted upon the patients, leading some of these suffering ones to the feet of the dear Saviour, and to rejoice in a saving knowledge of the present truth. One lady from Idaho, who had been brought there on a cot, and had so far recovered that she was able “to take up her bed and walk,” expressed her feelings in the following words: “I thank God for the Sanitarium; I thank God for Dr. Kellogg; but above all I thank him for the blessed truth I have found here.” Precious soul! May her earnest longings be soon gratified, to carry to her distant home beyond the mountains the truth which she has gathered like so many priceless jewels.

Another invalid, a timid girl from the shores of Lake Superior, embraced the truth, and was only waiting for light on baptism to move forward in that ordinance. She will return to her home, we trust, with two priceless treasures, health and truth. While penning these thoughts there comes to my mind, a strange yet sad reflection which I wish were but the whispering of the imagination. Other people love this institution, are greatly benefited by it, and when they return home, work for its interests. Why do not we, for whom it was established? Is it because we are living up to the light of health reform so fully that we never get sick, and do not need such an institution in our midst? I wish it were so. Oh, but it costs too much, says one. But you can afford to pay from fifty to one hundred dollars to a physician to give you poisonous drugs, a man, it may be, that does not even have the fear of God before his eyes, and soon you are laid away a poor martyr to rest in the grave; when if you would spend a few weeks at this pleasant home for the sick, you could learn not only how to live yourself, but how to call the attention of others to the light you have received, that they may enjoy its life-giving power with you.

E. S. LANE.