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In Contact With Nature
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crowds, with perhaps not even a glimpse of blue sky or sunshine, of
grass or flower or tree. Shut up in this way, they brood over their
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suffering and sorrow, and become a prey to their own sad thoughts.
And for those who are weak in moral power, the cities abound in
dangers. In them, patients who have unnatural appetites to overcome
are continually exposed to temptation. They need to be placed
amid new surroundings where the current of their thoughts will be
changed; they need to be placed under influences wholly different
from those that have wrecked their lives. Let them for a season be
removed from those influences that lead away from God, into a purer
atmosphere.
Institutions for the care of the sick would be far more successful
if they could be established away from the cities. And so far as
possible, all who are seeking to recover health should place them-
selves amid country surroundings where they can have the benefit of
outdoor life. Nature is God’s physician. The pure air, the glad sun-
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shine, the flowers and trees, the orchards and vineyards, and outdoor
exercise amid these surroundings, are health-giving, life-giving.
Physicians and nurses should encourage their patients to be much
in the open air. Outdoor life is the only remedy that many invalids
need. It has a wonderful power to heal diseases caused by the
excitements and excesses of fashionable life, a life that weakens and
destroys the powers of body, mind, and soul.
How grateful to the invalids weary of 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 to 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 other trees also have properties that are health restoring.
To the chronic invalid, nothing so tends to restore health and
happiness as living amid attractive country surroundings. Here the
most helpless ones can sit or lie in the sunshine or in the shade of the
trees. They have only to lift their eyes to see above them the beautiful
foliage. A sweet sense of restfulness and refreshing comes over them
as they listen to the murmuring of the breezes. The drooping spirits
revive. The waning strength is recruited. Unconsciously the mind
becomes peaceful, the fevered pulse more calm and regular. As the