Principles of Healthful Living

Another Preparation for the Crisis

We do not have to be sick all the time. The laws of nature are the laws of God. Learning them and obeying them can enable each of us to live a fuller, happier life. Our minds will be clearer, our bodies stronger, and we will be able to better serve our God.

Here are principles of healthful living which can help you — 

 We today are so accustomed to chemical drug medications, that it is surprising to learn that the natural healing centers of a hundred years ago used a combination of eight natural principles (pure air, sunlight, abstemiousness, rest, exer­cise, proper diet, the use of water, and trust in divine power) to restore health from nearly every type of disease—without the dangerous side effects of drugs, all of which are poisonous to one extent or another. Here are helpful statements from that earlier era, written by the author of chapters 1 through 6:

“A practice that is laying the foundation of a vast amount of disease and of even more serious evils, is the free use of poisonous drugs. When attacked by disease, many will not take the trouble to search out the cause of their illness. Their chief anxiety is to rid themselves of pain and inconvenience. So they resort to patent nostrums, of whose real properties they know little, or they apply to a physician for some remedy to counteract the result of their misdoing; but with no thought of making a change in their unhealthful habits. If immediate benefit is not realized, another medicine is tried, and then another. Thus the evil continues.

“People need to be taught that drugs do not cure disease. It is true that they sometimes afford present relief, and the patient appears to recover as the re­sult of their use; this is because nature has suffi­cient vital force to expel the poison and to correct the conditions that caused the disease. Health is recovered in spite of the drug. But in most cases the drug only changes the form and location of the dis­ease. Often the effect of the poison seems to be over­come for a time, but the results remain in the sys­tem, and work great harm at some later period.

“By the use of poisonous drugs, many bring upon themselves lifelong illness, and many lives are lost that might be saved by the use of natural methods of healing. The poisons contained in many so-called remedies create habits and appetites that mean ruin to both soul and body . .

“The only hope of better things is in the educa­tion of the people in right principles. Let physicians teach the people that restorative power is not in drugs, but in nature. Disease is an effort of nature to free the system from conditions that result from a violation of the laws of health. In case of sickness, the cause should be ascertained. Unhealthful con­ditions should be changed, wrong habits corrected. Then nature is to be assisted in her effort to expel impurities and to reestablish right conditions in the system.

“Pure air, sunlight, abstemiousness, rest, exercise, proper diet, the use of water, trust in divine power,—these are the true remedies. Every person should have a knowledge of nature’s remedial agencies and how to apply them. It is essential both to understand the principles involved in the treatment of the sick and to have a practical training that will enable one rightly to use this knowledge.

“The use of natural remedies requires an amount of care and effort that many are not willing to give. Nature’s process of healing and upbuilding is gradual, and to the impatient it seems slow. The surrender of hurtful indulgences requires sacrifice.

But in the end it will be found that nature, untrammeled, does her work wisely and well. Those who persevere in obedience to her laws will reap the reward in health of body and health of mind . .

“We cannot be too often reminded that health does not depend on chance. It is a result of obedience to law . . It is not mimic battles in which we are engaged. We are waging a warfare upon which hang eternal results. We have unseen enemies to meet. Evil angels are striving for the dominion of every human being. Whatever injures the health, not only lessens physical vigor, but tends to weaken the mental and moral powers. Indulgence in any unhealthful practice makes it more difficult for one to discriminate between right and wrong, and hence more difficult to resist evil. It increases the danger of failure and defeat . .

“Apart from divine power; no genuine reform can be effected. Human barriers against natural and cul­tivated tendencies are but as the sandbank against the torrent. Not until the life of Christ becomes a vitalizing power in our lives can we resist the temptations that assail us from within and from without.

“Christ came to this world and lived the law of God, that man might have perfect mastery over the natural inclinations which corrupt the soul. The Physician of soul and body, He gives victory over warring lusts. He has provided every facility, that man may possess completeness of character.”—Ministry of Healing, 126-131.

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