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Healthful Living
the mind, should be cultivated to the utmost of their power, while at
the same time they should seek God for his wisdom, their consciences
illuminated, quick, and pure; for unless they are guided by the wisdom
from above, they become an easy prey to the deceptive power of
Satan. They become inflated, large in their own eyes, pompous, and
self-sufficient. The principle of worldly policy will most assuredly
lead into difficulties. The truth, God’s truth, must be cherished in the
heart, and held in the strength of God, or the powers of Satan will
wrench it from you. You need to be self-reliant and yet teachable,
that you may have strength to be faithful to duty. To trust to your
own resources, your own wisdom or strength, is folly. You will be
brought to confusion if you do this. You can walk securely only when
you follow the counsel of God.—
Counsels to Physicians and Medical
Students, 17
.
1085. Knowledge and science must be vitalized by the Spirit
of God in order to serve the noblest purposes. The Christian alone
[257]
can make the right use of knowledge. Science, in order to be fully
appreciated, must be viewed from a religious standpoint.—
Christian
Education, 32
.
Advice to Medical Students
1086. I wish I could set before the medical student the true re-
sponsibility that rests upon him and his work. There is not one in one
hundred who has a just sense of his position, his work, his account-
ability to God, and how much God will do for him if he will make him
his trust. The very first lesson he should learn is that of dependence
upon God. Make God your counselor at every step. The worldly and
the nominal Christian may insinuate that in order to be successful you
must be politic, you must at times depart from the strictest rectitude;
but be not deluded. These temptations find a ready welcome in the
heart of man; but I speak that which I know. Pamper not self. Throw
not open a door for the enemy to take possession of the citadel of
the soul. There is danger in the first and slightest departure from the
strictest veracity. In your work, be true to yourself. Preserve your God-
given dignity in the fear of God. There is in your case the necessity of
getting hold and keeping hold of the arm of infinite power.—
Counsels
to Physicians and Medical Students, 23
.