Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 14 (1899)

Lt 182, 1899

Wessels, Peter

Maitland, New South Wales, Australia

November 6, 1899

This letter is published in entirety PC 26-27.

Dear Brother Peter Wessels:

I have some things to say to you which you need. There are places you might fill, places in which you might be a blessing in many ways. But erroneous ideas keep you from filling these places. Your character needs to be pruned, for there is a superfluous growth that needs to be cut away from you. The idea which you hold that no remedies should be used for the sick is an error. God does not heal the sick without the aid of the means of healing which lie within the reach of man, or when men refuse to be benefited by the simple remedies that God has provided in pure air and water. 14LtMs, Lt 182, 1899, par. 1

There were physicians in Christ’s day and in the days of the apostles. Luke is called the beloved physician. He trusted in the Lord to make him skillful in the application of remedies. When the Lord told Hezekiah that He would spare his life for fifteen years, and as a sign that He would fulfill His promise, cause the sun to go back ten degrees, why did He not put His direct, restoring power upon the king? He told him to apply a bunch of figs to his sore, and that natural remedy, blessed by God, healed him. The God of nature directs the human agent to use natural remedies now. 14LtMs, Lt 182, 1899, par. 2

I might go to any length in this matter, my brother, but I leave it now with a few instances. A brother was taken sick with inflammation of the bowels and bloody dysentery. The man was not a careful health reformer, but indulged his appetite. We were just preparing to leave Texas, where we had been laboring for several months, and we had carriages prepared to take away this brother and his family, and several others who were suffering from malarial fever. My husband and I thought we would stand this expense rather than have the heads of several families die and leave their wives and children unprovided for. 14LtMs, Lt 182, 1899, par. 3

Two or three were taken in a large spring wagon on spring mattresses. But this man, who was suffering from inflammation of the bowels, sent for me to come to him. My husband and I decided that it would not do to move him. Fears were entertained that mortification had set in. Then the thought came to me like a communication from the Lord to take pulverized charcoal, put water upon it, and give this water to the sick man to drink, putting bandages of the charcoal over the bowels and stomach. We were about one mile from the city of Denison, but the sick man’s son went to a blacksmith’s shop, secured the charcoal, and pulverized it, and then used it according to the directions given. The result was that in half an hour there was a change for the better. We had to go on our journey and leave the family behind, but what was our surprise the following day to see their wagon overtake us. The sick man was lying in a bed in the wagon. The blessing of God had worked with the simple means used. 14LtMs, Lt 182, 1899, par. 4

I remember still another case. At our first camp meeting here, held at Brighton, a young lady was taken sick on the ground, and remained sick during most of the meeting. She was thought to have typhoid fever, and although many prayers were offered in her behalf, she left the ground sick. Dr. M. G. Kellogg, half brother to J. H. Kellogg, of Battle Creek, was attending her. He came to me one morning, and said, Sister Price is in great pain. I cannot relieve her. She cannot sleep, and every breath seems as though it would be her last. 14LtMs, Lt 182, 1899, par. 5

We prayed for her, and then like a flash of lightning there came to me the thought of the charcoal. “Send to the blacksmith for charcoal, and pulverize it,” I said, “and put poultices of it on her side.” He tried this, and in one hour he came to me, and said, “That prescription was an inspiration from God. Sister Price could not have lived until now if no change had come.” The sick one fell into a restful sleep; the crisis passed, and she began to amend. In a few days she was taken from [Brighton?] to her home in Melbourne, and is alive and well today. 14LtMs, Lt 182, 1899, par. 6

All these things teach us that we are to be very careful lest we receive radical ideas and impressions. Your ideas regarding drug medication, I must respect; but even in this you must not always let the patient know that you discard drugs entirely until they become intelligent on the subject. You often place yourself in positions where you hurt your influence and do no one any good by expressing all your convictions. Thus you cut yourself away from the people. You should modify your strong prejudices. 14LtMs, Lt 182, 1899, par. 7

I cannot speak as fully on this subject as I would like to, but let me say, “Hide Peter Wessels in Christ.” Here I must leave you, for I have not time to write more. 14LtMs, Lt 182, 1899, par. 8