Chapter 13—Consulting Spiritualist Physicians
      
      
        From time to time I have received letters from both ministers and
      
      
        lay-members of the church, inquiring if I think it wrong to consult
      
      
        spiritualist and clairvoyant physicians. So numerous are these agents
      
      
        of Satan becoming, and so general is the practice of seeking council
      
      
        from them, that it seems needful to utter words of warning.
      
      
        God has placed it in our power to obtain a knowledge of the laws
      
      
        of health. He has made it a duty to preserve our physical powers in the
      
      
        best possible condition, that we may render to him acceptable service.
      
      
        Those who refuse to improve the light and knowledge that have been
      
      
        mercifully placed within their reach, are rejecting one of the means
      
      
        which God has granted them to promote spiritual as well as physical
      
      
        life. They are placing themselves where they will be exposed to the
      
      
        delusions of Satan.
      
      
        Not a few in this Christian age and Christian nation resort to evil
      
      
        spirits, rather than trust to the power of the living God. The mother,
      
      
        watching by the sick-bed of her child, exclaims, “I can do no more. Is
      
      
        there no physician who has power to restore my child?” She is told
      
      
        of the wonderful cures performed by some clairvoyant or magnetic
      
      
        healer, and she trusts her dear one to his charge, placing it as verily
      
      
        in the hands of Satan as if he were standing by her side. In many
      
      
        instances the future life of the child is controlled by a satanic power
      
      
        which it seems impossible to break.
      
      
        I have heard a mother pleading with an infidel physician to save
      
      
        the life of her child; but when I entreated her to seek help from the
      
      
        Great Physician, who is able to save to the uttermost all who come to
      
      
         [112]
      
      
        him in faith, she turned away with impatience.
      
      
        When Ahaziah, king of Israel, was sick, “he sent messengers,
      
      
        and said unto them, Go, inquire of Baal-zebub, the God of Ekron,
      
      
        whether I shall recover from this disease.” On the way they met Elijah,
      
      
        and instead of a message from the idol, the king heard the awful
      
      
        denunciation from the God of Israel, “Thou shalt not come down from
      
      
        that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die.” [
      
      
        2 Kings 1:4
      
      
        .]
      
      
        94