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Testimonies for the Church Volume 2
even a small amount of the least hurtful meat would do less injury
than to suffer strong cravings for it.
I was shown that both B and C have dishonored the cause of
God. They have brought upon it a stain which will never be fully
wiped out. I was shown the family of our dear Brother D. If this
brother had received proper help at the right time, every member of
his family would have been alive today. It is a wonder that the laws
of the land have not been enforced in this instance of maltreatment.
That family were perishing for food, the plainest, simplest food.
They were starving in a land of plenty. A novice was practicing
upon them. The young man did not die of disease, but of hunger.
Food would have strengthened the system and kept the machinery
in motion.
In cases of severe fever, abstinence from food for a short time
will lessen the fever and make the use of water more effectual. But
the acting physician needs to understand the real condition of the
patient and not allow him to be restricted in diet for a great length
of time until his system becomes enfeebled. While the fever is
raging, food may irritate and excite the blood; but as soon as the
strength of the fever is broken, nourishment should be given in a
careful, judicious manner. If food is withheld too long, the stomach’s
craving for it will create fever, which will be relieved by a proper
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allowance of food of a right quality. It gives nature something to
work upon. If there is a great desire expressed for food, even during
the fever to gratify that desire with a moderate amount of simple food
would be less injurious than for the patient to be denied. When he
can get his mind upon nothing else, nature will not be overburdened
with a small portion of simple food.
Those who take the lives of others in their hands must be men
who have been marked as making life a success. They must be
men of judgment and wisdom, men who can sympathize and feel
to the depths, men whose whole being is stirred when they witness
suffering. Some men who have been unsuccessful in every other
enterprise in life take up the business of a physician. They take
the lives of men and women in their hands, when they have had
no experience. They read a plan which somebody has followed
with success, and adopt it, and then practice upon those who have
confidence in them, actually destroying the last spark of life; yet