Basic HTML Version
106
Medical Ministry
they are. Teachers who are not particular to harmonize with the
teachings of Christ, and who follow the customs and practices of
worldly physicians, are out of line with the charge that the Saviour
has given us.—
Letter 61, 1910
.
Count the Cost
I have had presented before me the fact that in your class of
medical missionary students are those whose first work should be to
understand themselves, to count the cost and know when they begin
to build whether they are able to finish. Let not God be dishonored
by breaking down the man in the process of educating him; for a
broken-down, discouraged man is a burden to himself. To think that
in any work that he may plan to do God will sustain him, while he
piles upon himself studies and subjects himself to exposures that
imperil health and life and violate the laws of nature, is contrary
to the light that God has given. Nature will not be imposed upon.
She will not forgive the injuries done to the wonderful, delicate
machinery.
The pale, weak student is a continual reproach to health reform.
Far better would it be for students to go outdoors and work in the soil.
Exercise is good. God designs that all parts of the human machinery
shall be worked. There should be regular hours for working, regular
hours for eating, without studying the exact cost of every article
of food and providing the cheapest kind. Procure those articles of
food that are the best for making steam to run the living machinery.
[80]
There is no extravagance in providing those articles of food that the
system can best take in and digest and send to every part of the living
organization that all may be nourished.
He Must Know Himself
This is the first duty of every student. No one is to measure out
what he supposes his fellow student is capable of doing. Let every
student reason soundly regarding what he can endure. Each has an
individuality that no one can handle as successfully as himself. No
one can submerge his identity in another’s. He must know himself,
and give himself a favorable chance to come forth with an unbroken