have asked me, “Why should we have sanitariums? Why
should we not, like Christ, pray for the sick, that they may be healed
miraculously?” I have answered, “Suppose we were able to do this
in all cases; how many would appreciate the healing? Would those
who were healed become health reformers, or continue to be health
destroyers?”
Jesus Christ is the Great Healer, but He desires that by living
in conformity with His laws, we may co-operate with Him in the
recovery and the maintenance of health. Combined with the work of
healing there must be an imparting of knowledge of how to resist
temptations. Those who come to our sanitariums should be aroused
to a sense of their own responsibility to work in harmony with the
God of truth. [35]
We cannot heal. We cannot change the diseased conditions of
the body. But it is our part, as medical missionaries, as workers
together with God, to use the means that He has provided. Then we
should pray that God will bless these agencies. We do believe in a
God; we believe in a God who hears and answers prayer. He has
said, “Ask, and ye shall receive; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and
it shall be opened unto you.”—Medical Ministry, 13.
When Prayer for Healing Is Presumption
Many have expected that God would keep them from sickness
merely because they have asked Him to do so. But
