God’s Design in Our Sanitariums
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of their suffering and the only way to find relief. He desires them
to see that their well-being—physical, mental, and moral—depends
upon their obedience to His law. It is His purpose that our institutions
shall be as object lessons showing the results of obedience to right
principles.
In the preparation of a people for the Lord’s second coming a
great work is to be accomplished through the promulgation of health
principles. The people are to be instructed in regard to the needs of
the physical organism and the value of healthful living as taught in the
Scriptures, that the bodies which God has created may be presented to
Him a living sacrifice, fitted to render Him acceptable service. There
is a great work to be done for suffering humanity in relieving their
sufferings by the use of the natural agencies that God has provided
and in teaching them how to prevent sickness by the regulation of the
appetites and passions. The people should be taught that transgression
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of the laws of nature is transgression of the laws of God. They should
be taught the truth in physical as well as in spiritual lines that “the
fear of the Lord tendeth to life.”
Proverbs 19:23
. “If thou wilt enter
into life,” Christ says, “keep the commandments.”
Matthew 19:17
.
Live out My law as the apple of thine eye.”
Proverbs 7:2
. God’s
commandments, obeyed, are “life unto those that find them, and health
to all their flesh.”
Proverbs 4:22
.
Our sanitariums are an educating power to teach the people in
these lines. Those who are taught can in turn impart to others a
knowledge of health-restoring and health-preserving principles. Thus
our sanitariums are to be an instrumentality for reaching the people,
an agency for showing them the evil of disregarding the laws of life
and health, and for teaching them how to preserve the body in the best
condition. Sanitariums are to be established in different countries that
are entered by our missionaries and are to be centers from which a
work of healing, restoring, and educating shall be carried on.
We are to labor both for the health of the body and for the saving
of the soul. Our mission is the same as that of our Master, of whom
it is written that He went about doing good and healing all who were
oppressed by Satan.
Acts 10:38
. Of His own work He says: “The
Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me; because the Lord hath anointed Me
to preach good tidings unto the meek.” “He hath sent Me to heal the
brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of