Prevent the Disease by Complying with Natural Law—Simple Remedies That Are Very Successful in Relieving the Sick
By W. A. GEORGE, M. D.
THERE are many ways of treating the sick, but not all ways are successful. That treatment is best which aids nature in its efforts toward recovery instead of attempting a substitution for nature's efforts. Disease is usually if not always the result of the violation of some of nature's laws, and nature's laws are God's laws. At the creation of man, God so planned that in order for man to have health and strength, he must have an abundance of pure air, pure water, wholesome food, and proper exercise, and keep the person clean, and the mind active in pleasant and proper channels. It was necessary also for him to partake of the fruit of the tree of life in order that his existence might be perpetuated indefinitely.
SCENES IN LOMA LINDA COLLEGE OF MEDICAL EVANGELISTS
When God led the Israelites out where He could teach them His laws, He said to them, “If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in His sight, and wilt give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that healeth thee.”
While the children of Israel were at Mount Sinai, the Lord through Moses gave to them the most wonderful sanitary and health laws the world has ever had; and in all these instructions, their health was made dependent upon obedience to natural law.
So to-day, the first and most important consideration is, how to prevent disease. This question reaches to every detail of life in all its activities, mental, spiritual, and physical. All our habits of thinking and working have a bearing on our health. The health should be guarded as sacredly as the character.
Much has been written about the power of suggestion, and various evils have had their origin in a perversion of this idea. Certain it is that a large proportion of the diseases of the human race are caused directly or indirectly by worry, or by other mental conditions that interfere with proper sleep, retard digestion, and otherwise hinder the normal functions of the body. On the other hand, how often we see the sick make rapid improvement when they are placed in cheerful surroundings, or the cause of worry is removed! When a person is ill, he should be placed in the pleasantest room in the house, and friends and attendants should be cheerful when in his presence.
PRAYER FOR THE SICK
In the early Christian church, in answer to prayer, God often manifested His power in healing the sick and even raising the dead; and all the way down to our time, as well as in the days of the prophets before Christ, He has often heard and answered prayer for the sick when it was offered in faith and according to His will. God in His word has made this subject plain. “Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.” James 5:14, 15.
There is nothing so helpful to the patient, the friends, the nurse, the physician, as to have strong faith and trust in our kind heavenly Father, and after all has been done that human skill can do, to trust the case in the hands of Him who “doeth all things well.”
NATURE'S SIMPLE RESTORATIVES
Under this heading may be placed all those methods of treatment which make use of the simple, harmless, and helpful means and materials that are found in nature everywhere, such as sunshine and fresh air, exercise, good food, and water applied to the body at different temperatures, and combined with various mechanical measures.
To-day many are recovering from tuberculosis of the lungs by living in the fresh air and sunshine; many who have lived sedentary lives until the blood is impure and the brain refuses to work, improve rapidly by exercise—work in garden or shop; the dyspeptic improves when he adopts a simple, wholesome dietary; and a large majority of all invalids, whether their trouble be acute or chronic, recover more quickly and more surely by the use of hydrotherapy combined with other natural means, than by the use of any or all of the artificial remedies and popular poisons described in the books or advertised in the daily papers.
In the treatment of disease, the first thing to be attempted is to remove the cause; second, to treat the conditions produced by the cause; and third, to treat those symptoms which by their severity may become causes. For example, we prevent smallpox and some other diseases by vaccination. We stop diphtheria by antitoxin, or so-called serum therapy.
HOW TO CURE DIPHTHERIA
Diphtheria antitoxin is the blood serum from a horse to which has been given, by hypodermic568injection, repeated doses of the toxins or poisons produced by the growth of diphtheria germs in the laboratory. The presence of these toxins in the horse's blood stimulates the blood to produce a material that opposes or neutralizes the toxins, and is called antitoxin. After months of this kind of treatment, the horse's blood contains large quantities of antitoxin; and some of the horse's blood is drawn off, and the serum is separated, and put up in tubes, ready for use.
When a child has diphtheria, his blood produces antitoxin to neutralize the toxins formed by the growth of the germs in his body; but if the germs grow in large numbers, his blood is unable to make antitoxin fast enough to neutralize the toxins, and the child dies, or at least has a prolonged and very serious illness. But if, when the disease first starts, a large dose of antitoxin which the horse has already prepared is given to the child, the toxins are neutralized, and the growth of the germs is stopped. If given when the child is exposed to the disease, the antitoxin may prevent the disease entirely. Properly prepared antitoxin seems to be perfectly harmless even when given in very large amounts.
Serum treatment has proved more successful in diphtheria than perhaps in any other disease where the method has been tried.
SURGERY
There are many cases where the prompt action of the surgeon is the only means that will save life. In other cases, the patient may live on indefinitely in suffering or inconvenience, and no treatment will give relief, while a simple surgical operation would give complete relief. In still other cases, the patient might recover could he take a long course of expensive treatments, extending over months or years. If an operation will produce the same results in a short time, it is usually justifiable.
ELECTRICITY IN THE HEALING ART
The wonders of electricity in general are too well known to be more than mentioned here. Electricity has long been used in treating disease, and when properly applied, is of great value. Since the discovery of the X-ray, much more attention has been given to this subject. The X-ray, while valuable for treatment, has shown itself most useful in diagnosis, thus opening the way for the more exact application of surgery or other treatments.
HYDROTHERAPY
No other remedy can be so generally employed as water, either as a solid, a liquid, or a vapor, and at any temperature, from freezing to boiling. No other remedy can be applied internally or externally, in large or small quantities, to the whole body or any part of it, and yet leave no injurious effects. It may be used to produce changes in any of the functions of the body quickly and agreeably to the patient.
Hydrotherapy may be used in the humblest home or in the palace of the rich, and by those who have little skill or by those who have spent years in the study of the human body. However, the best results are obtained by those who are skilled in the practice of hydrotherapy, and who have the proper conveniences for its application.
The Graces of the Christian Life
The trees that God has created bring out their beautiful foliage in the springtime, they blossom and bear their rich and delightsome fruit; but they make no fuss or parade about it. Our divine Father would have His children to manifest the graces of the Christian life in the same manner.
What the Doctor Sees of the Future
By H. J. Hoare
Signs of Our Times in the Medical World — What Does the General Decadence Signify?
By H. J. HOARE, M. D.
Men of olden time asked, and men of to-day demand like them, a “sign of the times.” To those who in Christ’s day questioned both His divine origin and His mission to the earth, fulfilling the prophetic forecasts, He put the question, “Can ye not discern the signs of the times?” The query certainly reveals the fact that in the divine providence, signs of the times are given whereby men may know with exactness where their particular generation stands in relation to the unfolding occurrences of God’s great redemptive purpose and plan. Accordingly we find the Saviour responding to the earnest inquiry of the disciples, “What shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world?” with a detailed specification of signs which would be so definite that, if they were heeded, the children of God would be saved from deception and destruction.
SIGNS WILL BE GIVEN
“And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars.” Will there be any signs of the times in the physical tendencies and habits of earth’s peoples, and in the fruitage thereof in heightened or lowered vitality, in increased or shortened longevity, in subduing or being overcome of unnumbered diseases that afflict the body in its various parts or entire, and also the mind?
A logical and satisfactory answer to this question can be given from direct and indirect statements of Scripture, and find confirmation in statistical and other reports from authoritative sources.
THEY SHALL WAX OLD
After passing the age of maximum physical attainment, where the individual manifests the greatest muscular and mental energy, the universal experience is a decline, which, though exceedingly variable, is nevertheless measurable and certain. Coincident with the decline, and in fact a part of it, is the lessened power of resistance to external forces and influences. Now an obvious analogy between the life of an individual and that of the world itself would not refute this experience, and put the world and its peoples on the ascending plane of increasing powers and resistance.
The Scriptures declare: “Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of Thine hands: they shall perish, . . . and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; and as a vesture shalt Thou fold them up, and they shall be changed.” This statement and figure are plain, and the application is obvious.
A CAUSE OF IT ALL
Since “the curse causeless shall not come,” a cause must exist for the effect we all see.
The first and last cause of death is sin; for “by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” If sin is the one and only thing responsible for death, then it likewise must be the cause of the diseases and physical afflictions that are experienced as the result of lessened vitality and resistance, which is but the beginning of the process that culminates in death. Therefore we would conclude that in direct proportion to the existence quantitatively of sin, there would prevail a lesser or greater amount of suffering, disease, and death.
PART OF THE DAIRY HERD BELONGING TO THE COLLEGE OF MEDICAL EVANGELISTS AT LOMA LINDA
If it can be shown that sin will increase as the world ages, then the harvest, disease and death, of which sin is the seed, will also be greater than at any previous time. Can this be shown? Let the Scriptures answer:
“This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be
Lovers of their own selves,
Covetous,
Boasters,
Proud,
Blasphemers,
Disobedient to parents,
Unthankful,
Unholy,
Without natural affection,
Trucebreakers,
False accusers,
Incontinent,
Fierce,
Despisers of those that are good,
Traitors,
Heady,
High-minded,
Lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.”
“But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” This is the picture of the moral status in Noah’s days: “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”
RESULTS MUST FOLLOW THE CAUSE
As shown previously, there can be only one result of this condition; and both the cause and the effect find eloquent treatment in the following words from the book of Isaiah: “The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws”—and transgression of the law is sin (1 John 3: 4). “Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate.”
Again it is written, “The transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it [the world]; and it shall fall, and not rise again.”
Do the findings bear out the truth and application of the scriptures quoted above? If so, then we have in the physical condition of mankind, a sign of the times, which is consistent with specific signs in earth, sea, sky, and the affairs of nations.
AUTHORITATIVE FACTS OF DEGENERACY
The following facts relative to the evidences of racial degeneracy and the increase of disease are gathered from authoritative sources, and can be readily verified:
1. There is a steady falling off in the number of persons who attain even fifty years of age. Various states and countries report a marked increase in the death rate of men over thirty and forty years of age. These facts clearly evince declining powers of resistance, and therefore degeneration.
2. The diminishing birth rate in this country and in nearly all other civilized countries is another evidence of racial deterioration. The gravest concern has long been felt by certain governments with respect to this matter.
3. Another significant fact is the inability of an ever increasing number of mothers to suckle their babies. This applies not only to the well-to-do, but also to the women of the so-called working classes.
4. The alarming increase of cancer is a cause for grave anxiety. The statement has been made that if the death rate from cancer increases in the future as it has increased in the past ten years, it will soon exceed the death rate from any other one cause. More than seventy thousand people died in this country last year of this disease. It is estimated that one in every seven women and one in every eleven men who have passed the age of thirty-five will die of cancer.
5. A very rapid and disquieting increase in organic diseases of the heart has occurred in this country during the past ten years. Fifty per cent increase is the estimate.
6. Along with the increase in organic disease of the heart, although outstripping it five times, is arteriosclerosis, or hardening of the blood vessels. This condition occurring in the younger years is a certain indication of premature old age, and therefore physical degeneracy.9
(Continued from page 8)
7. The mortality rate from Bright’s disease and nephritis for 1913 was 102.9 per hundred thousand, as contrasted with 89 in 1900. (American Journal of Surgery.)
8. What are the facts in regard to mental conditions?—Insanity has increased more than three hundred per cent during the last fifty years. There are now three hundred thousand insane persons confined in asylums in the United States, and one hundred and thirty-five thousand in England and Wales. The opinion has been expressed by competent men, that unless some radical change occurs, the whole race is destined to become insane. The unfortunate confined in the asylums do not, however, represent the unnumbered hosts of mentally defective that exist. Thousands upon thousands live on the outside of institutions.
WILL REAP WHAT THEY SOW
Many more diseases might be mentioned, and among the number, those due directly to intemperance, perhaps the greatest and most prevalent sin of these days. Men and women are everywhere giving themselves over to the indulgence of appetite, of every character; and the inexorable law, “Whatever a man soweth, that shall he also reap,” is proved true in the woes of various and increasing kinds from which people of to-day suffer.
Our conclusion is this: When men, from whatever cause, have a lessened and lessening regard for the law of God, whether moral or physical, they voluntarily choose the path of disobedience; and “the way of the transgressor is hard”—which is but another way of saying that there is a sure penalty attached to such violations. And as this course is pursued more and more as we approach the end, it can logically result in nothing else than what we see around us—decadence, degeneracy, decay.
So in the physical deterioration of the race there is a consistent sign that “the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.”
THE CHRISTIAN PHYSICIAN AND NURSE
By Editor
This issue of the paper, as our readers will observe, is given almost exclusively to the consideration of medical missionary work, and particularly to what may be accomplished in heathen lands by the skillful practice of the Christian physician and nurse. No greater helper can be sent to the dark lands of superstition and heathenism than the Christian man or woman who has a well balanced medical training.
The missionary pioneers in heathen lands, regardless of denominational name, have recognized these facts, and have urged that a large proportion of the missionaries sent out should have the training of physicians; for in the majority of instances, in those benighted lands, the superstitious rubbish in the way of notions concerning the body, must be swept to one side before the soul can be touched with the healing message of salvation. Indeed, a perfect gospel always requires the salvation of the body as well as of the soul. The two must go together. Hence the Christian physician will be as earnest in teaching the principles of healthful living, so that the people may properly care for themselves and remain well, as he will in laboring to restore the sick to health.
In view of the urgent needs of efficient medical missionaries, our people, as set forth in numerous articles in this issue, established a school at Loma Linda, California, for the purpose of giving the class of training required by the medical worker in heathen lands. It is readily seen that the tests for admission to such a school must place Christian character in the very forefront; for if this one essential item is lacking, no matter what the other qualifications are, the individual is unsuited to take the training for the great work in those needy fields.
It should go without saying that among the tests of admission to the Loma Linda school, no man or woman, either young or old, will be received who uses tobacco in any form, or who indulges in any kind of intoxicating liquors. Indeed, our school goes a step further than that, and the milder beverages, tea and coffee, are banished; and the student is taught, and in turn he teaches others, that any of these narcotics and stimulants, interfering as they do with the nervous system, and generally deranging the functions of the body, cannot be indulged in if the highest physical and mental as well as spiritual and moral attainments are reached.
W. O. Clough on a medical missionary trip in the highlands of Bolivia, South America
The character qualifications produced by a strong life of temperance and practical Christianity develop a body and a mind that are the soundest and best for any of the purposes of life, and that are an absolute necessity for those who are going out into the wide, sick world to act under the leadership of the great Physician Himself in winning souls to the ways of peace and happiness for this life, and preparing them for the eternity beyond.
There is no more inspiring sight for the human eye to behold than an earnest, clean, pure-minded class of young men and women who have a strong purpose in life, and who are cultivating mind and heart and body with the one aim before them of going among the hardest, the most trying, the darkest, and the most undesirable classes of people, and laboring for their uplift and salvation.
TOBACCO AND THE NERVOUS SYSTEM
By Editor
DR. R. L. WHITE, in the following paragraphs from an article in the Southern Medical Journal, gives a most striking summing up of the far-reaching and deleterious effects of the use of tobacco:
“To sum up the opinion of the different authorities, we come to the following conclusions: Tobacco is the cause of a great many headaches, diagnosed as migraine. It is also the cause of a great many cases of brachial and scapular neuralgia, diagnosed as rheumatism. It is also the indirect cause of many of the occupation neuroses. It is the cause of a great deal of so-called indigestion. It causes an inflammation of the Eustachian tubes, and impairs the sense of hearing. It causes amaurosis and amblyopia. It causes stomatitis, pharyngitis, laryngitis, and bronchitis, the secondary effects being cancer of the mouth, and a cough which predisposes the individual to tuberculosis. It causes insomnia, which leads to the use of stronger narcotics.
“The tobacco user, if not a neurasthenic to begin with, always acquires neurasthenia, and increases it the more, the longer he uses the drug. The habit of using tobacco is a condition of neurasthenic bad feeling, which is relieved by taking more of the drug. The few centuries it has been used, it has caused an increasing hereditary drug diathesis. It is causing persons to be born in increasing numbers with drug neurasthenia. They are born tired, easily fatigued and discomforted. Having inherited this feeling of discomfort, they crave something to relieve it. Having inherited the tobacco diathesis, and the odor of it being almost omnipresent, they naturally begin to use it.
“Tobacco is so extensively used for two reasons: Because it is used openly and publicly by all classes, ministers of the gospel not excepted. If it were used like alcohol, around the corner, and then something eaten to destroy the odor, it would not cause so many children to begin the use of it. Second: Being used in nearly all homes, the odor is nearly always present, and children form the tobacco habit from inhaling it before they ever use any themselves. Having inherited the tobacco habit from inhaling it, it is almost as hard, if not as hard, for them to abstain from its use, as it is for the habitual user. Naturally, when the odor from others using it no longer satisfies them, they begin the use of it themselves.”
We are glad to be able to say that during the entire history of our denomination, we have never licensed or ordained an individual to preach or to teach the gospel who used tobacco in any form whatever. If one of our ministers were found using tobacco, that thing alone would lead our church to withdraw his credentials. And not only this, we go a step further, and do not admit to church fellowship any one who uses tobacco; so that our membership, as well as our ministry, are free from the disgusting and unwholesome practice.
We have thousands of men among us who have given up tobacco, often late in life, on receiving the gospel, and learning of the great, soul-inspiring truth that Jesus is coming soon. It is unthinkable that an individual should come into the personal presence of Christ defiled by the use of tobacco.
Medical science, as set forth in these paragraphs by Dr. White, makes it clear that tobacco racks and destroys the physical frame; and knowing these things, why should Christians stoop to indulge such pernicious appetites?
G. B. T
By G. B. T.
“COME unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Rest is what the heart longs for. How blessed it seems, in the bustle of life, with its thermometer, as it were, marking the fever of life's rush and anxiety, to find rest! Life is filled with much weariness and struggling, with disappointment and dependency, with heartaches and sorrow, with trouble, sickness, and bereavement. There are tear-dimmed eyes, pale cheeks, crushed spirits. There is poverty and want. But, thank God, there is a Burden Bearer, One who can give rest, One who has left His peace with us. On His bosom we can rest in faith and confidence. In Him we are complete.
G. B. T
J. E. F
By J. E. F.
By beholding we become changed. The polar bear, living in the snowy whiteness of the Arctic regions, has become white, like his surroundings. Living for Jesus, looking for Jesus, we become like Him. “We know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.” “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory.”
