184
Counsels on Health
influence is powerful to heal sickness caused by fashionable life, a life
that weakens and destroys the physical, mental, and spiritual powers.
How grateful to weary invalids accustomed to city life, the glare
of many lights, and the noise of the streets are the quiet and freedom
of the country! How eagerly do they turn to the scenes of nature! How
glad would they be for the advantages of a sanitarium in the country,
where they could sit in the open air, rejoice in the sunshine, and breathe
the fragrance of tree and flower! There are life-giving properties in
the balsam of the pine, in the fragrance of the cedar and the fir. And
there are other trees that are health-promoting. Let no such trees be
ruthlessly cut down. Cherish them where they are abundant, and plant
more where there are but few.
For the chronic invalid nothing so tends to restore health and hap-
piness as living amid attractive country surroundings. Here the most
helpless ones can be left sitting or lying in the sunshine or in the shade
of the trees. They have only to lift their eyes and they see above them
the beautiful foliage. They wonder that they have never before noticed
how gracefully the boughs bend, forming a living canopy over them,
giving them just the shade they need. A sweet sense of restfulness and
refreshing comes over them as they listen to the murmuring breezes.
The drooping spirits revive. The waning strength is recruited. Uncon-
sciously the mind becomes peaceful, the fevered pulse more calm and
[171]
regular. As the sick grow stronger, they will venture to take a few steps
to gather some of the lovely flowers—precious messengers of God’s
love to His afflicted family here below.
Healthful Exercise Will Work Miracles
Encourage the patients to be much in the open air. Devise plans
to keep them out of doors, where, through nature, they can commune
with God. Locate sanitariums on extensive tracts of land, where in
the cultivation of the soil patients can have opportunity for healthful
outdoor exercise. Such exercise, combined with hygienic treatment,
will work miracles in restoring and invigorating the diseased body, and
refreshing the worn and weary mind. Amid conditions so favorable
the patients will not require so much care as if confined in a sanitar-
ium in the city. Nor will they in the country be so much inclined to
discontentment and repining. They will be ready to learn lessons in