Health, Philanthropic, and Medical Missionary Work

Health Reform at the Sanitarium

The managers and helpers in all our health institutions should have the true missionary spirit as a daily, abiding principle; for they are in a field which requires the highest kind of missionary work. Do not let your patients return to their homes poorly instructed; but educate them in the principles of health.... A responsibility to spread the knowledge of the principles of hygiene rests upon all who have enjoyed the benefits of health-reform. This responsibility should be felt by every man and woman who claims to be a Seventh-day Adventist, and to a still greater degree by those who are connected with our health institutions. PH066 42.2

1890.

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Among the greatest dangers to our health institutions is the influence of physicians, superintendents, and helpers who profess to believe the present truth, but who have never taken their stand fully upon health reform. Some have no conscientious scruples in regard to their eating, drinking, and dressing. How can the physician or any one else present the matter as it is when he himself is indulging in the use of harmful things? God's blessing will rest upon every effort made to awaken an interest in health reform; for it is needed everywhere. There must be a revival in regard to this matter; for God purposes to accomplish much through this agency. Drug medication, as it is generally practised, is a curse. Educate away from drugs. Use them less and less, and depend more upon hygienic agencies; then nature will respond to God's physician's—pure air, pure water, proper exercise, a clear conscience. Those who persist in the use of tea, coffee, and flesh meats will feel the need of drugs, but many might recover without one grain of medicine if they would obey the laws of health. Drugs need seldom be used. PH066 43.1

If the heart is purified through obedience to the truth, there will be no selfish preferences, no corrupt motives: there will be no partiality. Love-sick sentimentalism, whose blighting influence has been felt in all our institutions, will not be developed. Strict guard should be kept that this curse shall not poison or corrupt our health institutions. PH066 43.2

1890.

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If those connected with the Sanitarium are not in every respect correct representatives of the truths of health reform, decided reformation must make them what they should be, or they must be separated from the institution. PH066 44.1

1879.

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Then what is the special work in all our institutions for health? Instead of educating the appetite to indulgence, which is the great cause of disease, knowledge must be imparted in regard to self-denial of appetite and control of the passions. The knowledge of salvation, the knowledge of sin, and of redemption from its fearful woes, its bondage, and its defilement must be plainly stated to all,—high or low, rich or poor,—in carefully prepared lectures. PH066 44.2

Passion grows with every indulgence. If evil thoughts and evil practises are in the ascendency, the heart and mind become polluted. Are these things to go on, and the victims be unwarned? Are the youth to be unchecked by any message of enlightenment from Heaven? Are there to be no faithful ones who will present before all who are brought into these institutions, righteous habits in contrast with the defiling practises of this age? Are no lessons to be taught to the very ones who so much need them? Those who are intelligent in regard to these evils should be the ones to fill important positions at our health institutions. All who have knowledge in these things, who know the perils of this time, should feel a burden for the souls and bodies for whom Christ has died, and they should carry the burden day and night. PH066 44.3

Nothing but the truth of God can either make man savingly wise or keep him so. If there is an immortal life to be obtained; if a pure and holy character must be developed in order to gain entrance to the presence of the Lord and the society of the heavenly angels, then why do not teachers, physicians, and preachers act this in their example and by their teaching? Why are they not more zealous for the Master? Why do they not have more burning love for the souls for whom Christ died? If man is earnestly seeking for glory, honor, and immortality, his mind must naturally come into harmony with God's mind. The true disciple in the school of Christ, whose mind is in harmony with the mind of God, will be not only constantly learning, but also teaching,—constantly reflecting light, teaching upward and away from the common prevailing errors of this perverse and adulterous generation. Physicians, teachers, superintendents,—any one in office, and any helper, who shall neglect his solemn obligation in this matter, and persist in following selfish plans and ideas in precept and example, is a false guide,—a sign-board pointing in the wrong direction. PH066 45.1

1888.