Counsels on Health

Sanitariums and Gospel Work

[The Review and Herald, March 23, 1905.]

Our sanitariums are one of the most successful means of reaching all classes of people. Christ is no longer in this world in person, to go through our cities and towns and villages healing the sick. He has commissioned us to carry forward the medical missionary work that He began, and in this work we are to do our very best. Institutions for the care of the sick are to be established, where men and women may be placed under the care of God-fearing medical missionaries and be treated without drugs. To these institutions will come those who have brought disease on themselves by improper habits of eating and drinking. These are to be taught the principles of healthful living. They are to be taught the value of self-denial and self-restraint. They are to be provided with a simple, wholesome, palatable diet and are to be cared for by wise physicians and nurses. CH 212.1

Our sanitariums are the right hand of the gospel, opening doors whereby suffering humanity may be reached with the glad tidings of healing through Christ. In these institutions the sick may be taught to commit their cases to the Great Physician, who will co-operate with their earnest efforts to regain health, bringing to them healing of soul as well as healing of body. CH 212.2

There is most precious missionary work to be done in our sanitariums. In them Christ and the angels work to relieve suffering caused by bodily disease. And the work is by no means to stop there. The prayers offered for the sick and the opening of the Scriptures to them give them a knowledge of the great Medical Missionary. Their attention is called to Him as the One who can heal all disease. They learn about the great gift of eternal life, which the Lord Jesus is longing to bestow on those who receive Him. They learn how to prepare for the mansions that Christ has gone to prepare for those that love Him. If I go away, He said, “I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” John 14:3. In the word of God there are gracious promises, from which those who are suffering, whether in body or in mind, may receive comfort and hope and encouragement. CH 212.3

The plan to provide institutions for the proper care of the sick originated with the Lord. He has instructed His people that these institutions should be established. With them are to be connected intelligent, God-fearing physicians, who know how to treat the sick from the standpoint of the skillful Christian physician. These physicians are to be earnest and active, serving the Lord in their activity. They are to remember that they are working in the place and under the oversight of the Great Physician. They stand as guardians of the beings that Christ has purchased with His own blood, and it is therefore essential that they be governed by high, noble principles, carrying out the will of the divine Medical Missionary, who is ever watching over the sick and suffering. CH 213.1

He who is set as a guardian of the health of the sick should understand by experience the soothing power of the grace of Christ, so that to those who come to him for treatment he can impart in words the uplifting, health-giving power of God's own truth. A physician is not fit for medical missionary work until he has gained a knowledge of Him who came to save perishing, sin-sick souls. If Christ is his teacher, if he has an experimental knowledge of the truth, he can hold up the Saviour before the sick and dying. CH 213.2

The sick note carefully the looks and words and acts of their physician, and as the Christian physician kneels beside the bedside of the sufferer, asking the Great Physician to take the case into His own hands, an impression is made upon the mind of the sick one that may result in the saving of his soul. CH 214.1