Chapter 54—Health and Religion
The fear of the Lord will do more for the patrons of the sanitarium
than any other means that can be employed for the restoration of
health. Religion should in no case be kept in the background, as
though detrimental to those who come to be treated. On the contrary,
the fact should ever be made prominent that the laws of God, both in
nature and revelation, are “life unto those that find them, and health to
all their flesh.”
Pride and fashion hold men and women in the veriest slavery to
customs which are fatal to health and even to life itself. The appetites
and passions, clamoring for indulgence, trample reason and conscience
underfoot. This is the cruel work of Satan, and he is constantly putting
forth the most determined efforts to strengthen the chains by which he
has bound his victims. Those who have been all their lives indulging
wrong habits do not always realize the necessity of a change. And
many will persist in gratifying their desire for sinful pleasure at any
cost. Let the conscience be aroused and much is gained. Nothing but
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the grace of God can convict and convert the heart; here alone can
the slaves of custom obtain power to break the shackles which bind
them. The self-indulgent must be led to see and feel that a great moral
renovation is necessary if they would meet the claims of the divine law;
the soul-temple has been defiled, and God calls upon them to arouse
and strive with all their might to win back the God-given manhood
which has been sacrificed through sinful indulgence.
Divine truth can make little impression upon the intellect while
the customs and habits are opposed to its principles. Those who are
willing to inform themselves concerning the effect of sinful indulgence
upon the health, and who commence the work of reform, even if it be
from selfish motives, in so doing place themselves where the truth of
God may find access to their hearts. And, on the other hand, those
who are reached by the presentation of Scripture truth are then in a
position where their consciences will be aroused upon the subject of
health. They see and feel the necessity of breaking away from the
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