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Counsels on Health
the will of My Father which is in heaven, the same is My brother, and
sister, and mother.”
Matthew 12:48-50
.
The enmity kindled in the human heart against the gospel was
keenly felt by the Son of God, and it was most painful to Him in
His home; for His own heart was full of kindness and love, and He
appreciated tender regard in the family relation. But with their short
measuring line His brothers could not fathom the mission that He came
to fulfill and therefore could not sympathize with Him in His trials.
Enmity of the Pharisees
Some of those whom Christ healed He charged to tell no man.
He knew that the more the Pharisees and Sadducees and rulers heard
of His miracles, the more they would try to hedge up His way. But
notwithstanding His precautions, “so much the more went there a fame
abroad of Him: and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be
healed by Him of their infirmities.”
Luke 5:15
. Again and again He
was followed by the priests, who expressed their violent sentiments
against Him in order to stir up the enmity of the people. But when He
could no longer safely remain in one place He went to another.
In doing medical missionary work we shall meet the same oppo-
sition that Christ met. He declares: “Ye shall be hated of all men for
My name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved. But
when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another: for verily I
say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the
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Son of man be come.”
Matthew 10:22, 23
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The life of Christ and His ministry to the afflicted are inseparably
connected. From the light that has been given me, I know that an
intimate relationship should ever exist between the medical missionary
work and the gospel ministry. They are bound together in sacred union
as one work, and are never to be divorced. The principles of heaven are
to be adopted and practiced by those who claim to walk in the Saviour’s
footsteps. By His example He has shown us that medical missionary
work is not to take the place of the preaching of the gospel, but is to be
bound up with it. Christ gave a perfect representation of true godliness
by combining the work of a physician and a minister, ministering to
the needs of both body and soul, healing physical disease, and then
speaking words that brought peace to the troubled heart....