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Mind Cure
167
manifested for the sick is combined with medical knowledge, the
physician’s very presence will be a blessing.
Frankness inspires a patient with confidence and thus proves
an important aid to recovery. There are physicians who consider it
wise policy to conceal from the patient the nature and cause of the
disease from which he or she is suffering. Many, fearing to excite
or discourage patients by stating the truth, will hold out false hopes
of recovery and even allow them to go down to the grave without
warning them of their danger. All this is unwise.
It may not always be safe or best to explain to patients the full
extent of their danger. This might alarm them and retard or even
prevent recovery. Nor can the whole truth always be told to those
whose ailments are largely imaginary. Many of these persons are
unreasonable and have not accustomed themselves to exercise self-
control. They have peculiar fancies and imagine many things that
are false in regard to themselves and to others. To them these things
are real, and those who care for them need to manifest constant
kindness and unwearied patience and tact. If these patients were told
the truth in regard to themselves, some would be offended, others
discouraged. Christ said to His disciples, “‘I still have many things
[135]
to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.’”
John 16:12
.
But though not all the truth may be spoken on every occasion,
it is never necessary or justifiable to deceive. Never should the
physician or nurse stoop to prevarication. Those who do this place
themselves where God cannot cooperate with them, and in forfeiting
the confidence of their patients, they are casting away one of the
most effective human aids to their restoration.
The power of the will is not valued as it should be. The will,
kept awake and rightly directed, will impart energy to the whole
being and will be a wonderful aid in maintaining health. It is a
power also in dealing with disease. Exercised in the right direction,
it would control the imagination and be a potent means of resisting
and overcoming disease of both mind and body. By exercising will
power in placing themselves in right relation to life, patients can do
much to cooperate with the physician’s efforts for their recovery.
There are thousands who can recover health if they will. The
Lord does not want them to be sick. He wants them to be well
and happy, and they should make up their minds to be well. Often