The Ministry of Health and Healing

Chapter 19—In Contact With Nature

The Creator chose for our first parents the surroundings best adapted for their health and happiness. He did not place them in a palace or surround them with the artificial adornments and luxuries that so many today are struggling to obtain. He placed them in close touch with nature and in close communion with the holy ones of heaven. MHH 144.1

In the garden that God prepared as a home for His children, graceful shrubs and delicate flowers greeted the eye at every turn. There were trees of every variety, many of them bearing fragrant and delicious fruit. On their branches the birds caroled their songs of praise. Under their shadow the creatures of the earth sported together without a fear. MHH 144.2

Adam and Eve, in their untainted purity, delighted in the sights and sounds of Eden. God appointed them their work in the garden, “to tend and keep it.” Genesis 2:15. Each day’s efforts brought them health and gladness, and the happy pair greeted with joy the visits of their Creator, as in the cool of the day He walked and talked with them. Daily God taught them His lessons. MHH 144.3

The plan of life that God appointed for our first parents has lessons for us. Although sin has cast its shadow over the earth, God wants His children to find delight in the works of His hands. The more closely His plan of life is followed, the more wonderfully will He work to restore suffering humanity. The sick need to be brought into close touch with nature. An outdoor life amid natural surroundings would work wonders for many a helpless and almost hopeless invalid. MHH 144.4

The noise and excitement and confusion of the cities, their strained and artificial life, are most wearisome and exhausting to the sick. The air, fouled by smoke, dust, poisonous gases, and germs of disease, is a peril to life. The sick, for the most part shut within four walls, come almost to feel as if they were prisoners in their rooms. They look out on houses and pavements and hurrying crowds, with perhaps not even a glimpse of blue sky or sunshine, of grass or flower or tree. Shut up in this way, they brood over their suffering and sorrow and become a prey to their own sad thoughts. MHH 144.5

And for those who are weak in moral power, the cities abound in dangers. In them, patients who have unnatural appetites to overcome are continually exposed to temptation. They need to be placed amid new surroundings where the current of their thoughts will be changed. They need to be placed under influences entirely different from those that have wrecked their lives. For a time remove them into a purer atmosphere, away from those influences that lead away from God. MHH 145.1

Institutions for the care of the sick would be far more successful if they could be established away from the cities. And so far as possible, all who are seeking to recover health should place themselves amid country surroundings where they can have the benefit of outdoor life. Nature is God’s physician. The pure air, the bright sunshine, the flowers and trees, the orchards and vineyards, and outdoor exercise amid these surroundings are health-giving, life-giving. MHH 145.2