Medical Treatment, Right Living, and Prayer
I saw that the reason why God did not hear the prayers of His
servants for the sick among us more fully was that He could not be
glorified in so doing while they were violating the laws of health. And
I also saw that He designed the health reform and Health Institute to
prepare the way for the prayer of faith to be fully answered. Faith and
good work should go hand in hand in relieving the afflicted among us,
and in fitting them to glorify God here and to be saved at the coming of
Christ. God forbid that these afflicted ones should ever be disappointed
and grieved in finding the managers of the Institute working only from
a worldly standpoint, instead of adding to the hygienic practice the
blessings and virtues of nursing fathers and mothers in Israel.
Let no one obtain the idea that the Institute is the place for them to
come to be raised up by the prayer of faith. This is the place to find
relief from disease by treatment and right habits of living, and to learn
how to avoid sickness. But if there is one place under the heavens more
than another where soothing, sympathizing prayer should be offered
by men and women of devotion and faith, it is at such an institute.
Those who treat the sick should move forward in their important work
with strong reliance upon God for His blessing to attend the means
which He has graciously provided, and to which He has in mercy
called our attention as a people, such as pure air, cleanliness, healthful
diet, proper periods of labor and repose, and the use of water. They
should have no selfish interest outside of this important and solemn
work.—
Testimonies for the Church 1:561
(1865).
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