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ONLY ONE WAY 3
"THERE ARE
MANY WAYS OF PRACTICING THE HEALING ART,
-BUT THERE IS ONLY ONE WAY THAT HEAVEN
APPROVES."
FAMILIARITY
BREEDS CALLOUSNESS
This
remark is occasionally heard by the nurses from a departing patient, "I
feel worse than I did when I came in.' And well he might. He is carrying away a
load he did not have when lie entered the institution- A friend of mine was
visiting a hospital patient recently, and the patient complained, "I
didn't feel so bad when I came in, but I am feeling terrible now. I think it is
some medicine they are giving me.' Doctors, nurses, and patients take such
complaints for granted as a necessary evil. One is reminded of the well-know
verse:
-
Vice
is a monster of such horrid mein,
-
That
to be hated needs but be seen.
-
But
seen too oft, familiar with her face,
-
We
first hate, then pity, then embrace.
Are
there as many pages in the Spirit of Prophecy writings devoted to the evils of
drinking alcoholic beverages, as are devoted to the drug practice?
-No,
and we have (had) a lively, wide-awake Temperance Departments to warn men against
spirituous, death-dealing liquors. But what General Conference, union, or local
conference departments do we have that have an active program of education about
the dangers and contraindications of the death-dealing drugs that are so freer
dispensed today throughout the land.
We
have a chain of medical institutions circling the globe, which according to
Medical Ministry, page 27, "were established to reform the medical practice
of physicians in regard to drugs." Dr. David Paulson made a collection of
unpublished Spirit of Prophecy testimonies regarding the use of drugs. In it
we read: I thought the matter of using drugs had been settled for us years
ago by the testimony of the Spirit of Lord. But the Lords warning has been
unheeded. I am ashamed and distressed over this matter, and I tell you that a
decided reformation must take place. The physicians at the Sanitarium are
departing a long way from the light the Lord has given concerning drugs.
WONDER
DRUGS -OR GOD'S ONE WAY?
Medical
Science is constantly modifying its concepts and practices. During the Dark
Ages the scrapings from the skulls of people who had died from a certain disease
were administered to the sick. In the present enlightened age we inject cow pus
and horse pus into the patient. In the course of wonderful new scientific
discoveries, one powerful drug after another is discarded, when continual usage
reveals its harmful effects, and in its place a more powerful one is used.
Disturbing
is the fact, that despite wonder drugs and the wonderful claims made for them,
hospitals and cemeteries are doing very well. New construction on these twin
facilities is hardly keeping pace with the needs of our time. Never before has
one disease, such as cancer, affected over half of our population. Cancer deaths
keep pace with new drugs. Administering reined filth defiles and destroys the
temple of God with loathsome disease. "Lo, this only have I found, that
God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions."
Ecclesiastes 7:29.
"Satan
knows that he cannot overcome man unless he can control his will. He can do
this by deceiving men so they will co-operate with him in transgressing the laws
of nature, which is transgression of the Law of God. -Healthful Living, page
25.
"It
is just as much sin to violate the laws of our being as to break one of the Ten
Commandments, for we cannot do either without breaking God's Law."
Testimonies, volume 2, page 70.
"God,
the Creator of our bodies, has arranged every fiber and nerve and sinew and
muscle, and has pledged Himself to keep the machinery in order if the human
agent will cooperate with Him and refuse to work contrary to the laws which
govern the human system." -Healthful Living, page 22.
"Wherefore
it shall come to pass, if ye hearken to these judgments, and keep and do them,
that the Lord thy God will keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy which He
sware unto thy fathers.
..And
the Lord will take away from thee, all sickness and will put none of the evil
diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, upon thee; but will lay them upon all
them that hate thee." -Deuteronomy 7:12,15.
"The
Lord will not work a miracle to preserve anyone in health who will not make an
effort to obtain knowledge within his reach concerning this wonderful
habitation that God has given. "-Medical Missionary, volume 2, page 216.
Man's
Maker does not need to change the methods of healing He has ordained, in order
to conform to the shifting and confused ideas of men. The Creator who
established the laws that govern men's bodies, knows far better than does
erring, mortal man the rules that should be followed in order to preserve
mankind in health. And He understands very well what must be done in order to
regain health when these rules have been broken. Thank God for the Inspired
Word! Listen to His counsel:
"There
are MANY ways of practicing the healing art; but there is only ONE way that
Heaven approves. God's remedies are the simple agencies of nature that will
not tax or debilitate the system through their powerful properties. Pure air and
water, cleanliness, a proper diet, purity of life, and a firm trust in God, are
remedies for want of which thousands are dying; yet these remedies are going out
of date because their skilled use requires work the people do not appreciate.
Fresh air, exercise, pure water, clean sweet premises, are in the reach of all
with but little expense; but drugs are expense, both in the outlay of means, and
the effect produced on the system. "--Testimonies, volume 5, page 443;
Counsels on Health, page 323.
It
is gratifying to learn that there is an ever-increasing number of those who are
studying the Blueprint, and in alarm are turning from the erroneous custom of
introducing into the human system a foreign and poisonous substance to cover
over the signals that nature is displaying to warn of toxins and irritants
already distressing the body. And we are also thankful for the many intelligent
physicians of our own church who recognize the danger of drug-medication and
are striving to counteract it. It is time that prominence be given in our
medical institutions, as well as in our health publications, to the use of
the simple natural remedies of nature that God told us to use. It is too late to
compromise with worldly ideas and with worldly methods.
"There
is no such thing NOW as a neutral position. We are all decidedly for the right,
or decidedly for the wrong. Testimonies, volume 3, page 328. There are no
perplexing choices to make between harmful and non-harmful drugs when, in our
hearts we accept the fact that "there is only ONE WAY that Heaven
approves."
"To
make plain NATURAL LAW and to urge the obedience of it, is the work that
accompanies the Third Angel's Message to PREPARE a people for the coming of the
Lord."-Testimonies, volume 3, page 161.
WHO
CAN ENDURE THE FINAL TEST?
We
must yet, as a people, face our test. It will constitute part of the great final
test that all the word must face over obedience to the Law of God.
"The
truth for this time the Third Angel's Message, is to be proclaimed with a loud
voice, (meaning with increased power) as we approach the GREAT FINAL TEST. This
test must come to the churches in connection with true medical missionary work,
a work that has the Great Physician to dictate and preside in all it
comprehends. "-Loma Linda Messages, page 62.
"Be
not deceived; many will depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits
and doctrines of devils. We have now before us the Alpha of this danger. The
Omega will be of a most startling nature."-Series B, number 2, page 16.
The
Alpha of the danger occurred when one man, medical doctor, apostatized in the
field of religion. What could be more startling than to see our church papers
seriously-and
officially--extolling the virtues of the wonder drugs and vaccines, while
currently the daily newspapers quip about the need for medical science to
discover "anti-anti-drugs" and "counter-counter-irritants"
to "help you hurt the help that hurts you."
Our
heavenly Father gave Israel of old the divine commission of proclaiming to the
world a knowledge of the one true God. If she had obeyed this commission, she
would have become its leading nation. But Israel turned her back on the Lord's
bright promises and embraced the gods of the heathen-and
became the least-respected nation on earth.
God
gave modern Israel a most wonderful health message to proclaim to the world, a
message that would have made her the head and not the tail. But astonishment of
astonishments!
-Our
denominational medical organization has put the Lord's methods in the background
and in its place have embraced the medical practices of the world.
And,
an even stranger anomaly-
those leading out in a return to the simple remedies given in nature-are
thinking men out in the world who reason from cause to effect and who refuse to
compromise principle when lives are at stake.
"The
church has turned her back from following Christ her Leader, and is steadily
retreating toward Egypt.. Doubt and even disbelief of the testimonies of the
Spirit of God is leavening our churches everywhere. Satan would have it thus.
The testimonies are unread and unappreciated."-Testimonies, volume 5,
page 21.7.
"There
is a spirit of opposition to the plain Word of God and to the testimony of His
Spirit. There is a spirit of idolatrous exaltation of mere human reason above
the revealed will of God." -Testimonies, volume 5, page 79.
"But
the days of purification of the church are hastening on apace. God will have a
people pure and true. In the mighty sifting soon to take place, we shall be
better able to measure the strength of Israel . . Those who have rendered
supreme
homage to 'science falsely so-called,' will not be the leaders then. . The time
is not far distant when the test will come to every Soul."-Testimonies,
volume 5, page 80-81.
I
asked the meaning of the shaking I had seen and was shown that it would be
caused by the straight testimony called forth by the counsel of the True Witness
to the Laodiceans. Some will not bear this STRAIGHT testimony. They will rise up
against it, and this wilt cause a shaking among God's people."-Testimonies,
volume 1, page 181.
"Satan
will work his miracles to deceive, he will set up his power as supreme. The
church may appear as about to fall, but it does not fall. It remains while the
sinners in Zion will be sifted out. The chaff is separated from the precious
wheat. This is a terrible ordeal, but nevertheless it must take place. None
but those who have been overcoming by the blood of the Lamb and the word of
their testimony will be found with the loyal and true, without spot or stain of
sin, without guile in their mouth. The remnant that purify their souls by
obeying the truth, gather strength front the trying process exhibiting the
beauty of holiness amid the surrounding apostasy. The great issue so near at
hand will weed out those whom God has not appointed, and He will have a pure
true, sanctified ministry prepared for the latter rain.''-Letter 55,. 1886.
"My
attention was then turned to the company I had seen, who were mightily shaken
.. The numbers of this company had lessened. Some had been shaken out and left
by the way."-Testimonies, volume 1, page 181-182.
"Those
who come up to every point, and stand every test, and overcome, be the price
what it may, have heeded the counsel of the True Witness and they will receive
the latter rain, and thus be fitted for translation."-Testimonies, volume
1, page 187-188.
"Oh,
how many I saw in the time of trouble without a shelter! They had neglected the
needful preparation." Early Writings, page 71.
A
creeping paralysis seems to be holding many of us back from making the needful
preparation. It is a paralysis engendered by the twin infections of complacency
and fear. The organism that produces the complacency is the preaching of
"smooth things" that suggest to us that getting rid of sin is a long
drawn-out process. The organism that produces the fear is the dread of losing
one's job, or the fear of social ostracism, or the embarrassment of being called
a 'fanatic." The opprobrium usually attached to the connotation of the word
fanatic would be dispelled if we were to accept its dictionary definition:
"One who is zealous for God."
If
Ellen White said back in her day that only one in twenty was then ready for what
was ahead [1T 632 and ChS 41], it is left to the reader to decide whether he
thinks the ratio is greater or lesser in our day. "Not one of us will ever
receive the seal of God while our characters have one spot or stain upon them.
" -Testimonies, volume 5, page 214.
WE
CANNOT SERVE TWO MASTERS
Our
heavenly Father is using many agencies to arouse a deeper interest in health
reform and the natural remedies, both among His people and in the world around
us. I send this little pamphlet out in the hope that it will help us realize
which master we are serving in the medical missionary work we carry on. My
objective is that we may return in unity to God's Divinely-given Plan, -not that
we merely react to this material with excuses or dissension.
For,
you see, the stage is being set for the GREAT FINAL TEST. In the first test,
Satan told Eve: "Ye shall not surely die. Eve died. Eve's modern
children "who receive not the love of the truth," are bowing before
one of His modern lies: "Medicine is a thing to be desired to make one
well." But God says about these poisonous substances, "Medicines kill
hundreds where they benefit one." May the Great Physician lead His people
back to the ONE WAY-the
one way of healing that Heaven approves.
-Conclusion
of the study.
"DRUG
TRIAL ABANDONED-Alarmed by continued reports of undesirable effects from the
drug carbutamide, given by mouth for the relief of diabetes (Time, Oct. 29),
Indianapolis'. Eli Lilly and Co. asked 2,900 doctors who have been testing it
on 10,000 patients to abandon the trial. Most disturbing was a report that at
least in animals-carbutamide can cause liver damage which might be worse than
the diabetes it is meant to control. Lilly was already experimenting with
other promising drugs."-Time, November 12, 1956.
"DRUG
OF SULFA FAMILY MAY CAUSE SERIOUS POISONING-Modern medicine has produced a
miracle drug-sulfathiazole -which will cure gonorrhea if properly administered.
Taken by mouth in dosages prescribed by a physician, this new drug of the sulfa
family will eradicate the disease in eighty or ninety percent of all gonorrhea
cases within a few weeks. The treatment is the same for women as for men. It
must be emphasized, however, that self-administration of the drug may cause
serious poisoning . . "-How to Keep Well, published by, Life and Health,
"Venereal Diseases and War, "by R.A. Vonderlehr M. D., p. 48.
"SEVERAL
HUNDRED DEATHS FROM THE USE OF PENICILLIN-Los Angeles-Penicillin was accused
as deadly in certain cases by Dr. Jason E. Farber, Highland-Alameda County
Hospital at Oakland, speaking here at a recent meeting of the California Medical
Association. 'Probably several hundred deaths from penicillin have occurred in
the United penicillin have occurred in the United States since the drug was
first used. Shock-like reactions, sometimes fatal, following the injection of
penicillin or related drugs have shown a disturbing increase during the last
two years,' Dr. Farber disclosed. 'There is no doubt that the public is
developing hypersensitivity to the 'miracle drug.' He said a survey in Central
California revealed that more than 300 patients suffered severe reactions
following penicillin injections and that seven died. All seven deaths occurred
within three minutes after the injection. None had been reported previously in
medical literature, he reported."-Article, "Deaths Blamed on
Penicillin," in Let's Live, September, 1954.
"NEGATIVE
REACTIONS OF PENICILLIN AND OTHER MODERN DRUGS
Penicillin
is losing its punch; aureomycin can cause mouth ulcers; terramycin can make you
so nauseated you might wish you'd never heard the name; chloroycetin too, unless
properly used. And the latest of the miracles ACTH and cortisone are as
potentially dangerous as they are potentially good . . We are now learning that
penicillin carries a punch for the patient as well as for the disease the
hypodermic needle is directed toward. Although penicillin when first released
was considered almost non-toxic, physicians now report reactions in as many as
30 percent or more of their patients. Because millions of persons are
receiving the drug at one time or another, more and more reactions can be
expected . .
"Like
penicillin, these three wonder drugs-aureomycin, terramycin, and chloromycetin
-often cause reactions, among them a sore, red ulcerated mouth . , Another
disturbing effect of this trio of wonder drugs is the intense nausea and
vomiting they can produce in some patients. Gastro-intestinal upsets occurring
in both adults and children have been reported by many doctors . . Although
itching and skin rash are less frequent with these wonder drugs than with
penicillin, there are, nonetheless, other annoying reactions . ."-J. De
Witt Fox, M.D., article, in Review and Herald, February 2, 1956, "Are the
Wonder Drugs so Wonderful?"
"EVIL
EFFECTS OF ASPIRIN IN THE SYSTEM-Although, because of its low toxicity, its
inability to dull the pain-reaction sense, and its lack of any effect on normal
body temperature, acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin) ranks high among the safest of
chemotherapeutic agents, it is by no means entirely innocuous. It has its savage
side. Like most substances, it can produce a variety of allergic reactions
-dizziness,
ear ringing, nausea, vomiting, skin eruptions, asthmatic seizures, muscular
spasms . Some of these idiosyncratics are so exquisitely responsive that a
single grain can have a shattering, or even fatal, impact .. '-The New Yorker
Magazine, "Annals of Medicine," March 31, 1956, page 49.
"Children
are much more sensitive to any drug than adults are, and an overdose even of
aspirin can have drastic and even fatal effects on them .."-Changing Times,
April, 1956.
"ANTIBIOTICS
ARE POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS AND PRODUCE TOXIC EFFECTS-Some micro-organisms
originally sensitive to the action of antibiotics have developed resistant
strains. And, finally, all of the drugs are potentially dangerous. Too many
patients demand an antibiotic from the physician without realizing that it
could turn a relatively mild, self-limiting infection into an extremely serious,
or even fatal, one .. Since the last report, more has been learned about two
very serious reactions to antibiotics, both of which emphasize the need for care
and discrimination in their use. One is the severe, sometimes fatal,
shock-like 'anaphylactic' reaction to penicillin, occurring within a very
short period after injection . . It happens less frequently and is less severe
when the antibiotic is given by mouth.
"The
second serious reaction to antibiotics is a gastro-intestinal disorder-such as
sore mouth, cramps, diarrhea, or anal itch-which occurs most frequently after
use of the tetracycline group, but has also been reported after penicillin and
streptomycin. It is believed that these reactions result from suppression of
normal intestinal bacterial flora by the antibiotic-resistant staphylococci,
which are almost normally present in the intestine, are then free to flourish
and cause infection . .
"Other
antibiotics that have toxic effects include streptomycin and dihydrestroptomycia,
which may affect certain cranial nerves; bacitracin, polymiyxin and neomycin,
which may injure the bone marrow . .
'When
injected, these drugs (neomycin, polymyxin, and bacitracin) are capable of producing
serious toxic side-effects, and they are used in this way only with great
caution Excerpts from an article entitled, Antibiotics," Consumers
Reports, October, 1956.
"A
sour note in the development of the preponderance of new wonder drugs is the increase
in allergy problems, says Dr. W.C. Spain of New York University in the [medical]
journal, GP.
"About
500 different drugs can be proved to be sensitizing substances, he says. Any of
the antibiotics are capable of producing allergic reactions, with penicillin
being the chief offender, followed by streptomycin and chlortetracycline,
chloramphenicol, or exytetracycline. About ten percent of the users become
sensitive to penicillin. Sometimes the reaction doesn't set in for weeks or
months and the patients may have forgotten about having had penicillin. Then may
come hives, fever, a rash and various kinds of skin inflammations. Some severe
effects have been reported following the use of as little as 100 units of
penicillin.
"Dr.
Spain advises that doctors give patients who are allergic to drugs a card to be
carried in the wallet or purse, describing the sensitivity. The person with the
more dangerous sensitivity should be advised to wear an identification
bracelet bearing his name and address and a warning concerning the
allergy."-Science Digest, February, 1957, article, "Allergies Haunting
New Wonder Drugs. "
"COMMON
DRUGS IN PROLONGED USE MAY HARM BRAIN -New York-In rats and presumably in
people, also, the prolonged taking of certain drugs which are in common use
causes brain and nervous system damage from which the rats never recover.
"Dr. Richter cited indirect
evidence for a presumption that what these drugs did to rats they are capable of
doing to people -if taken steadily over long periods.
"Although
in common use, all of the drugs belong to chemical families for which all
physicians have the greatest respect . . The chemical families are: The sulfa
drugs, represented by sulfamerazine; drugs which suppress secretion of the
thyroid gland, represented by propylthicuracil and thiouracil; the barbiturates,
which often are prescribed as sleeping pills, represented by barbital,*
fever-reducing drugs . . , and sex hormones, such as the estrogens and androgens
- .
"He
(Dr. Richter] suggested the damage (caused by these drugs) most probably had
been done in the hypothalamus, a regulatory section of the brain which many
scientists believe is the boss of the whole system of internally secreting
glands. The doctor stated that cells of the hypothalamus either were hit
directly
by the continuing intake of the drugs or they were exhausted by their efforts to
restore the harmonious balance disturbed by drug intake. Sacramento Bee,
November 21, 1957.
"Every
dose of medicine is a blind experiment on the vitality of the patient "-Bostwick,
History of Medicine.
"Food
will be the medicine of the future."- Dr. Harvey W. Wiley, founder of the
federal agency, the Food and Drug Administration.
"The
harmful effects of certain drugs pointed out by the Testimonies [of Ellen G.
White] given in 1865 were not demonstrated by scientific research until after
the turn of the century and some of them not until ten or fifteen years beyond
1900."-G.K. Abbott, M.D., The Witness of Science, page 9.
"Beware
of Acetanalid and acetphenetedin (Phenacetin) in headache cures. These drugs
depress the heart, Injure the blood, and produce a[n addictive]
habit:]-William E. La Rose, M.D., Youth at Seventy, page 33.
"Acetanilide
(antifebrin), which results from action of acetic acid (acetic anydride, acetyl
chloride) and aniline is used as a remedy for headache, neuralgia, and mild
fever. Methyl ecetanilide is also anti-neuralgic, but is more toxic than
acetanilide."-Weirtheim, Organic Chemistry.
"Within
a few years penicillin may lose much of its power to cure some of the most
prevalent diseases."-Hans Molitor, director of Merck Institute, in Pageant,
February 1949, page 5.
"Hammersmith
Hospital in England, 1946, reported 14.1 per cent of germ strains cultivated
there are resistant to penicillin. In 1948, the percentage had increased to 38
percent."-Your Health, vol. 9, no. 4, page 62.
"The
harmfulness, long ago proved, of such drugs as calomel as a cathartic, strychnine
as a stimulant, quinine as a medicine for colds, acetanilide for fevers, and
alcohol for colds, pneumonia, etc., has become known among well-informed people.
But ignorance still keeps these drugs in all too common use. To these have been
added a host of new drugs which are no less harmful. Old fashioned soda now
parades under pseudo-scientific dress as an alkalizer. New coal-tar drugs, such
amidapyrine are sold in so many forms and under such a variety of trade names
as to be confusing even to the physicians; and many deaths have resulted from
damage done by these drugs to nature's own protective means against infections-
the white blood cells and their activities."-G.K. Abbott, M.D., Witness
of Science, pages 219-220.
"Over
6,000,000 pounds of aspirin was sold in this country in 1940. Aspirin is acetylsalicylic
acid and is used as an antipyretic [antifever], and for headache, sore throat,
and neuralgia. Most of you take headache powders without realizing your danger
in taking them. According to the greatest association of doctors in America,
most of these headache powders are really dangerous. About the best known is a
preparation known as aspirin. It was invented by a German chemist named Dresser
and at first it had a large sale in Germany. But that nation investigated this
preparation and found out its real nature. They passed a law so that aspirin
cannot be sold in Germany without a doctor's ?? in that category. So it was
dumped into America where it now has such a large sale."-Youth at
Seventy, William E. La Rose, M. D.
'We
have listed in medical science 407 different diseases and out of the 407 only
six are curable."-Richard C. Cabot, M.D., of the Massachusetts General
Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts.
"Most
drugs have no effect on the disease for which they are administered, William
Osler, M.D., one of the founders of Johns Hopkins.
"No
drugs-save quinine and mercury will cure a disease. Only rest, food, sunshine,
and fresh air can do that miracle."-Woods Hutchinson, M.D.
"Drugs
and medicines that work while you are asleep, a little later are going to
prevent your working while you are awake."-Elbert Hubbard, the noted
lecturer and writer.
"Back
of disease lies a cause-and that cause no drug can reach."-S. Weir
Mitchell, M.D.
"Poisonous
drugs poison the human system and weak drugs have no effect."-L.W. Edwards,
M.D., of Omaha, Nebraska.
"Already
the number of preparations devised by the chemist for the drug treatment of
disease exceeds 75,000 different 'remedies.' The array of material from which to
select is so great as to constitute a perpetual riddle in medicine."-Dr.
L.F. Kebler, of the U.S. Bureau of Drugs.
"The
amido of psulfanilic acid (sulfanilmide) is one of the new 'sulfa' compounds
whose use in medicine has affected a revolution in treatment of systemic
bacterial infections. . They are the only chemicals available which are
effective in doses so small as to be harmless to the patient."-Wertheim,
Organic Chemistry, second edition, section entitled, `Sulfa Drugs."
"All
sulfa drugs damage the phagocytes, one of nature's chief means of protection
against the pneumococcus and many other disease organisms. Nearly every drug
ever used in pneumonia produces serious damage to the phagocytes (granulocytes)
and lessens oxidation. These are proven scientific facts and show the basis of
the condemnation of poisonous drugs in the treatment of disease, especially of
infectious fevers, and the great advantage of nature's remedial agencies."-G.K.
Abbott, M.D., Witness of Science.
"The
Testimonies are scientific, reliable, and have given us advance information
years before science discovered these same facts. They are just as true today In
reference to toxic drugs and to natural physiologic methods of treatment as the
day they were written. Scientific advance in drug making has only given us
more highly toxic drugs, more damaging to the body's delicate structures and
mechanisms than those of fifty years ago. Let us show by our practice that we
believe the Testimonies. They do not need our personal interpretations. They
mean just what they say, and should be taken just as they read. With this
determination to study and practice God's methods for the treatment of the
sick, may we not read them again and with a working faith in them-decide to
study physiology as God has so urgently pleaded with us to do?"-G.K.
Abbott, M.D., Witness of Science, page 230.
CARING
FOR THE SICK
"God's
servants should not administer medicines which they know will leave injurious
effects upon the system; even if they do relieve present suffering." -4
Spiritual Gifts, 140.
"Not
a poisonous drug should be used. When you have a case that does not respond to
simple remedies, take it to the Lord in prayer. -Letter 16, 1910.
THE
HUMBLE WILL HE GUIDE IN KNOWLEDGE
"When
a physician enters upon his work as practitioner, the more genuine, practical
experience he has, the more fully will he feel his want of knowledge. If
self-sufficient, he will read articles written in regard to diseases and how to
treat them without nature's aid; he will grasp statements and weave them into
his practice, and without deep research, without earnest study, without
sifting every statement, he will merely become a mechanical worker. Because he
knows so little, he will be ready to experiment upon human lives, and sacrifice
not a few. This is murder, actual murder. He did not do this work with evil
design; he had no malicious purposes. But life was sacrificed on account of
his ignorance, because he was a superficial student, because he had not had
that practice that would make him a safe man to be intrusted with human lives.
It requires care taking, deep, earnest taxation the mind to carry the burden a
physician should carry in learning his trade thoroughly. Every physician who has
received a thorough education will be very modest in his claims. It will not do
for him to run any risk in experimenting on human life, lest he be guilty of
murder,
and this be written against him in the books of heaven. There should be a
careful, competent physician who will deal scarcely ever in
drugs."-Manuscript 22, 1887.
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