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Healing Gift Does Not Replace Institutions, July 11
And he put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will: be thou
clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from him. And he
charged him to tell no man: but go, and shew thyself to the priest, and
offer for thy cleansing, according as Moses commanded, for a
testimony unto them.
Luke 5:13, 14
.
The remark is often made, by one and another, “Why depend so much on
sanitariums? Why do we not pray for the miraculous healing of the sick, as
the people of God used to do?” In the early history of our work many were
healed by prayer. And some, after they were healed, pursued the same course
in the indulgence of appetite that they had followed in the past. They did not
live and work in such a way as to avoid sickness. They did not show that they
appreciated the Lord’s goodness to them. Again and again they were brought
to suffering through their own careless, thoughtless course of action. How
could the Lord be glorified in bestowing on them the gift of health?
When the light came that we should have a sanitarium, the reason was
plainly given. There were many who needed to be educated in regard to
healthful living. A place must be provided to which the sick could be taken,
where they could be taught how to live so as to preserve health....
Lectures should be diligently kept up as a means of teaching the patients
how to prevent disease by a wise course of action. By means of these lectures
the patients may be shown the responsibility resting on them to keep the body
in the most healthful condition because it is the Lord’s purchased possession.
Mind, soul, and body are bought with a price.... “Therefore glorify God in
your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s” (
1 Corinthians 6:20
)....
In the providence of God, instruction has been given that sanitariums be
established, in order that the sick may be drawn to them, and learn how to live
healthfully. The establishment of sanitariums is a providential arrangement,
whereby people from all churches are to be reached, and made acquainted
with the saving truth for this time.—
Manuscript Releases 7:378, 379
.
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