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Counsels on Health
ciate. Fresh air, exercise, pure water, and clean, sweet premises, are
within the reach of all with but little expense; but drugs are expensive,
both in the outlay of means and the effect produced upon the system.
A Healer of Spiritual Maladies
The work of the Christian physician does not end with healing the
maladies of the body; his efforts should extend to the diseases of the
mind, to the saving of the soul. It may not be his duty, unless asked, to
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present any theoretical points of truth; but he may point his patients
to Christ. The lessons of the divine Teacher are ever appropriate. He
should call the attention of the repining to the ever-fresh tokens of the
love and care of God, to His wisdom and goodness as manifested in
His created works. The mind can then be led through nature up to
nature’s God, and centered on the heaven which He has prepared for
those that love Him.
The physician should know how to pray. In many cases he must
increase suffering in order to save life; and whether the patient is a
Christian or not, he feels greater security if he knows that his physician
fears God. Prayer will give the sick an abiding confidence; and many
times if their cases are borne to the Great Physician in humble trust, it
will do more for them than all the drugs that can be administered.
Satan is the originator of disease, and the physician is warring
against his work and power. Sickness of the mind prevails every-
where. Nine tenths of the diseases from which men suffer have their
foundation here. Perhaps some living home trouble is, like a canker,
eating to the very soul and weakening the life forces. Remorse for
sin sometimes undermines the constitution and unbalances the mind.
There are erroneous doctrines also, as that of an eternally burning hell
and the endless torment of the wicked, that, by giving exaggerated
and distorted views of the character of God, have produced the same
result upon sensitive minds. Infidels have made the most of these
unfortunate cases, attributing insanity to religion, but this is a gross
libel, and one which they will not be pleased to meet by and by. The
religion of Christ, so far from being the cause of insanity, is one of its
most effectual remedies; for it is a potent soother of the nerves.
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The physician needs more than human wisdom and power that he
may know how to minister to the many perplexing cases of disease of