Personal Experience of a Physician

by John Ellis

While some church organizations are laboring earnestly for the reform of men and women addicted to evils, and are striving to guard the innocent and young; and while in many of the churches in England they are organizing their temperance societies and "Bands of Hope," many of our organizations are as silent as the grave in regard to these evils. Can our churches prosper without teachers who are able to point out the evils of life which are so destructive to our race, and who are sufficiently free themselves to be able earnestly and consistently to call men to repentance, and to lead them to live orderly lives?

Various denominations of Christians, in sending forth missionaries to distant lands, have, of late years, been sending, among others, some well-educated physicians as missionaries, and have found them very efficient in reaching and influencing the people among whom they labor. May not all take a hint when some of the religious organizations around us are beginning to see the advantages of sending out medical missionaries? If we would reach the Gentiles, or non-church goers, in our midst, should we not follow their example? A vast number of children and young people are growing up in our country, who are more ignorant of the spiritual and natural laws of health and life than many in Gentile lands; many of them rarely read or hear the Sacred Scriptures read, and do not even know the Ten Commandments.

CHAPTER VIII.

METHODS FOR RESTRAINING AND CURING SPIRITUAL AND NATURAL DISEASES.

As there is a correspondence between the natural and spiritual causes of disease, so there must be a correspondence between the methods of restraining and curing natural and spiritual diseases.

First: Spiritual diseases or evils are restrained by punishments which, by force, as it were, counteract the inclination to do evil; corresponding to this method we have the Antipathic method of restraining natural diseases, which is one of the prevailing methods; for instance, for constipation cathartics are given, for a diarrhoea astringents, and opiates are given to forcibly relieve or restrain the symptoms of disease. Every one can but see that such remedies for the cure of natural diseases, like punishments for the cure of spiritual diseases or evils, are but palliative; for the reaction, if reaction ensue, is not in the right direction. It is true that a cure sometimes results in spite of the treatment, especially in transient cases, the vital forces restoring health during the temporary restraint of the diseased action; but in many cases the constipation is only aggravated by cathartics, and diarrhoeas are not benefited by astringents; and the evil man often becomes more vicious after punishment.

Second: Spiritual evils are often restrained by exciting one passion to restrain evil acts in another direction; for instance, acquisitiveness and vanity are often excited to restrain evil men from evil acts, which might result from hatred and a desire for revenge, thus calling off the attention from the prevailing evil inclination. Corresponding to this method of restraining spiritual diseases we have the Allopathic method of restraining diseased action in one organ by exciting diseased action in another organ or part, as is done when a cathartic is given for disease of the head or lungs, or when a blister is applied to the skin in case of internal diseased action; thus, as it were, calling off the attention of the vital forces from the diseased structures, and thus palliative relief is often obtained in natural as in spiritual diseases.

Third: Either from afflictions, suffering, disappointments, or from voluntarily hearkening to the truth, a man begins to feel a desire to change his life, and looking to the Lord he repents and resolves to obey the Divine Commandments by shunning evils as sins against God. But when he commences to do this, evil spirits flow into his mind and tempt him to again do evil acts; if the temptations are too strong he falls, but he may fall to rise again; he will either do this by renewing his resolution to overcome the evil inclination, or he will fall to rise no more, and keep on in his old course of life, perhaps worse than before. Thoughts come before actions; if a man, when tempted to do evil, resists the thoughts of doing the evil acts, every one can see that he is striking a blow at the perverted affection through which he has been tempted to do evil; consequently the step toward a cure is far more radical and permanent than it would have been if he had done the evil act.

Children and the young should be taught that to violate the Divine Commandments is a sin against God, and that they should resist their hereditary or acquired inclination to speak wrong words or do evil acts the moment such inclinations are manifested in their thoughts, which is far better than to allow them to move them to do evil acts. The cure of spiritual diseases by the resisting of temptation is a genuine method of cure. Corresponding with this for the treatment of natural diseases, we have their treatment by the use of Homoeopathic remedies. Only spirits of a similar inclination can tempt a man to do an evil act and thus manifest his unsubdued inclination to him, which enables him to see and overcome the inclination by resisting it. So, on the natural plane, it is only a poisonous substance or remedy, which is capable of causing a similar disease to the one existing, which can manifest the disease to the vital forces and thus enable them to react against the disease. But if the dose of the remedy given is too large it will aggravate the disease, as a cathartic dose of a cathartic remedy will aggravate a diarrhoea; but the vital forces may react and overcome the disease, or they may not, and the disease continue even worse than before. It is the reaction of the vital forces that overcomes the diseased action and effects the cure, and not the remedy, any more than it is the evil spirit that tempts man that overcomes his spiritual evils during regeneration. As it is not necessary that the temptation should be so strong as to make a man take the first step toward performing an evil act, to enable him to resist it if he will the moment the inclination is seen in his thoughts, so it is not necessary that a dose of a Homoeopathic remedy should be so strong as to aggravate the natural diseased action in the slightest degree before it can be seen by the vital forces, and a reaction follow. The size of the dose must be determined by experience; but we know that its effects need only to equal the effects of temptations which proceed no further than the thought of doing evil before reaction may follow, therefore we can form no conception of the minuteness of the dose which may be sufficient for a cure to follow.

But if a man would be restored to spiritual health by getting rid of his hereditary and acquired inclinations to do evil, he must acknowledge the Lord, diligently search His Word, and be willing to see and obey His commandments, which are the laws of spiritual health and life, and must be obeyed conscientiously, in intention, thought, word, and deed, if health is to be restored; otherwise, punishment, hope of reward, and temptations can only afford palliative relief at best. So in regard to natural diseases. If a man would be restored to physical health by getting rid of his hereditary and acquired inclinations to diseases, he must recognize that the laws of nature are the laws established for his good by the Lord, and he must diligently study the laws pertaining to health and life, and be willing to see and obey those laws as to sunlight, air, exercise, clothing, and in eating and drinking, etc., if he would be restored to health; otherwise, antipathic, allopathic, and even homoeopathic remedies will prove only palliative at best. If we expect to be well, spiritually or naturally, we must strive to know and obey the laws of health and life.