by David Paulson, M.D.

NEARLY all the great religious reformers were also health reformers. John Wesley, who stirred England as no other man ever did, wrote a health book, and taught health principles in season and out of season with the same mighty power with which he taught spiritual truth. Can any of us afford to do less today? The following are a few of the many practical health ideas that Wesley advocated:

"Abstain from all mixed, all highly-seasoned food. Use plain diet, easy of digestion; and this as sparingly as you can, consistent with ease and strength. All pickled or smoked or salted food, and all highly seasoned (food), is unwholesome."

What he said to the early Methodist preachers applies equally well to any preacher today: "Are you temperate in all things? Take one instance, of fooddo you use only that kind and that degree which is best for both the body and soul? Do you see the necessity of this? Do you eat no flesh suppers? No late suppers? These naturally tend to destroy the best of health. You may know if you do by a load in the stomach, by drowsiness or heaviness, and in a while, by weak and bad nerves."

He was also an enthusiastic advocate of fresh air. "When the nerves perform their office languidly, good air is the first requisite. The patient should rise early, and as soon as the dew is off the ground, take a walk."

At a time when the use of stimulants was almost universal, he gave this teaching: "Strong and more especially spirituous liquors are a certain though slow poison. Experience shows there is very seldom any danger in leaving them off all at once."

Everyone knows of the deplorable consequences that result from the stoppage of the city sewer, but some have not yet learned that stagnation of the human sewerage system is of equally serious consequence to human health and happiness.

John Wesley was a man who had such a compelling message to humanity that he could hold spellbound outdoor audiences ranging from five thousand to twenty thousand people, yet he had such a full appreciation of the dangers arising from autointoxication that he gave his people this practical advice: "Costiveness [constipation] cannot long consist with health. Therefore care should be taken to remove it at the beginning, and when it is removed, (take) a small cupful of stewed prunes, or live upon bread made of wheat flour with all the bran in it."

Wesley did not recommend his followers to dispense with physicians, for he said: "In uncommon or complicated diseases, where life is in immediate danger, let every one apply, without delay, to a physician that fears God. From one who does not, be his fame ever so great, I should expect a curse, rather than a blessing." How does it happen that so few are observing these principles today? Does it not indicate backsliding, and that the time is ripe for another John Wesley?

Well over one hundred years ago Sylvester Graham, a Presbyterian clergyman, stirred not only that denomination, but the whole country, by his mighty proclamation of health truths. God must have seen that the gospel of health was important for that denomination, or He would not have raised up such a mighty message. Graham anticipated by many years the conclusions of such modern investigators as Chittenden, Prof. Irving Fisher, and Horace Fletcher. He was interested in fundamental health truths instead of fads, and foundation principles never become out-of-date.

The Graham health movement swept over the entire country between the years 1830 and 1840. He taught the people that distilled spirits, wine, beer, cider, tobacco, opium, coffee, tea, pepper, mustard, and every other kind of artificial stimulant, and narcotics, should be totally abandoned, and that food should be taken in the natural and simple state, and plainly prepared, or cooked with no other seasoning than a very little salt, and eaten in moderate quantities, at regular periods, and well masticated; and that the bowels should be kept regular by unbolted wheat meal, bread and fruit.

"Let the last meal of the day be simple and light, and at a good distance from bedtime. Never sleep on a full stomach."

If that was orthodox Presbyterian doctrine over 100 years ago, why is it not true today? Who will dare say that a similar message is not needed now?

Several generations ago, the Congregational Church established Oberlin College. It was one of the most remarkable missionary training centers that the world has seen since the days of Luther. It was located in the heart of what was then the wilderness of Ohio. It was born in prayer. It was reared in adversity, and for years it proved to be an instrument to forward both health and educational reform:

The founders of that institution stood stiffly for great health and temperance ideals. They pledged themselves, by a solemn covenant, that in view of "the degeneracy of the church and the deplorable condition of our perishing world, . . . we will, by industry, economy, and Christian self-denial, obtain as much as we can, above our necessary personal or family expenses, and faithfully appropriate the same for the spread of the gospel.

"That we may have time and health for the Lord's service, we will eat only plain and wholesome food, renouncing all bad habits, and especially the smoking and chewing of tobacco, . . . and deny ourselves all strong and unnecessary drinks, even tea and coffee, as far as practicable, and everything expensive, that is simply calculated to gratify the palate.

"That we may add to our time and health, money for the service of the Lord, we will renounce all the world's expensive and unwholesome fashions of dress, particularly tight dressing and ornamental attire."

The bread served on their tables was made from unbolted wheat flour. Good cream was preferred to butter. Flesh meat and fish in all forms were banished from their tables. Pastry was regarded as an abomination. Spices and fiery condiments were ruled out.

Like all reformers, they met with opposition; for remember, if you have no opposition, you are no reformer. The devil only lets us off easy when we let him off easy. When you hold aloft the standard of reform, you may be certain that "the enemy shall come in like a flood." Isaiah 59:19.

No doubt God committed those vital health and temperance truths to the stewardship of these three great denominations, first of all because they needed them as a part of their preparation to enable them to live through the perils of the last days when sickness and suffering shall become almost universal.

If you happen to be a member of one of those denominations, and are trampling underfoot some or all of these health reform truths, ask yourself, Why you are doing it? Remember the inspired words, "Keep that which is committed to thy trust." 1 Timothy 6:20.

If you are a member of some other church, or belong to no church at all, ask yourself if it is wisdom for you to continue to treat reform principles as a joke, when you can read in your Bible, "If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy." l Corinthians 3:17. Let the Spirit of God burn into your heart the startling significance of the following words: "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." 1 Corinthians 6:19, 20.

You may say: "Nobody thinks that way these days. I never hear my minister talk from that verse." What good will such an excuse do when you are face to face with your Maker at the bar of God? He may say: "You lived in a land of Bibles. You knew that I raised up mighty health prophets to emphasize the importance of these truths. You were not dependent upon either your minister or public opinion."

The time has arrived when the words of Paul should come home to us with a new force, "Every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate [not in a few things but] in all things." Paul did what many spiritual leaders fail to do. "I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection." In other words, he did not eat what he liked when he knew it was not best for him. He did not drink what his appetite craved, just because it had become a habit. He did not trust his body's instincts, for he knew them to be more or less perverted. He determined to become a reformer, even if he had to subdue and discipline some of his tastes, bodily instincts, and passions. Why did he endure all this painful experience? Let him answer: "Lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway." 1 Corinthians 9:25-27.

There is the real reason why thousands of men and women today are outcasts who a few years ago were active Christian workers. And there you have also the story of tens of thousands more who are on the same road, who will come up in the day of Judgment and say, "Lord, Lord, have we not preached in Thy name, and in Thy name done many wonderful works?" No one will deny that; but O, the crushing disappointment of that hour when the Master shall declare to such: "I never knew you!" I never had a chance to come in and save you from yourselfto make of you another Elijah or John the Baptist, a free man both spiritually and physically. So "depart from me, ye that work iniquity" (Matthew 7:22, 23).

If you want to be saved, then you must give the Lord a chance to save you now. And remember that the God who wrote the Ten Commandments is the same God who arranged the laws of life and health in your body; and it is just as great an insult to the Creator to despise one as it is to trample on the others. "Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven." Matthew 7:21.

Healing Agencies

"We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed." Jeremiah 51:9. Healing power is always present in the human system; for it is divine power that maintains all the vital functions of the body.

The principal healing agent is the blood, which is the life. Genesis 9:4. This fluid bathes every portion of the body, for the purpose of repairing and building up tissue, and transferring the resulting waste products to the various eliminating organs. Every organ and each tissue in the body are constantly undergoing more or less change; but there is scarcely any tissue which is so short-lived as the blood. Millions of new blood corpuscles have to be created every few minutes to replace those that have outlived their usefulness. But the blood is made from the food which is eaten. It is difficult to imagine a stream rising higher than its fountainhead, and it seems equally impossible to conceive that God should continue day by day to make pure blood out of impure food; for "who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean" thing?

Infinite wisdom has so arranged that the most important products of digestion must pass through the portals of the liver before they are allowed to proceed to the different parts of the body. One of the important duties of the liver is to neutralize, store up, or destroy various poisons which may have been taken into the system, either ignorantly or deliberately, or those equally serious poisonous products frequently produced within the alimentary canal as the result of unwise diet or unsuitable food combinations. This faithful organ can, however, become so overwhelmed by the unnatural tasks which are imposed upon it that it practically gives up the struggle. The blood becomes flooded with toxic substances of various kinds, and then, instead of carrying life and healing power, it becomes a messenger of disease and death to various parts of the human body.

It is not alone by diet that we have the power to influence this healing agency; for by exercise and appropriating hydro-therapeutic applications, we may increase to a remarkable extent the activity of the circulation of the blood.

There are large blood spaces in the interior of the body, wherein the circulation of the blood is naturally less active than in other parts of the body. Through nervous connection with these internal organs, short, vigorous applications of cold water to the surface of the skin causes their blood vessels to contract, and as a result of the reaction which should follow such treatment, if properly applied, a larger quantity of this blood is brought into active circulation, thus increasing its healing possibilities.

Recent scientific investigations have clearly demonstrated that after a cold bath has been taken, the blood has in it a much larger percentage of corpuscles than it had previous to this application. Cool sponges, sprays, or baths, followed by vigorous friction, are physiological stimulants; they increase the efficiency of the heart's action, and arouse the activities of every cell in the system. There is a marked difference between physiological and artificial stimulants. The longer the natural stimulant is used, the more efficient it becomes, while the longer the unnatural one is used, the more disappointing it is in its results.

Thousands fail to live in harmony with God's plan for them physically; and, as a consequence, they are continually living so far below the disease line that they are an easy prey to any germs which may be in the immediate vicinity. Such persons may wonder why they do not receive the benefits of the healing gifts promised to the people of God, when all the while they are absolutely neglecting to utilize the possibilities of the healing agencies God has already committed to them. The use we make of what God gives us today determines how much He can intrust us with tomorrow.

When an individual who is eating "for drunkenness" asks the Lord for strength, he will find that the way to receive it is to eat "for strength" (Ecclesiastes 10:17). And the Lord is always willing to impart His Spirit to all who desire it, to instruct them how to use this strength to His glory. "If they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them." Mark 16:18. Certainly, this promise does not apply to those who persist in drinking liquor, tea, or coffee, simply to please a perverted appetite. Furthermore, those who have been enlightened regarding rational remedies and healing agencies within their bodies, may, by rejecting this, be reasonably sure that God is not preparing them to experience the possibilities of Mark 16:18, "They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover."

The faithfulness which we manifest in utilizing the possibilities that God has already committed to us for the service of humanity, will be the best indicator as to how much greater possibilities may be committed to us.