"When Ephraim saw his sickness and Judah saw his wound, then went Ephraim to the Assyrian, ... yet could he not heal you nor cure you of your wound" Hosea 5:13.

"I will restore health unto thee and I will, heal thee of thy wounds," saith the Lord." Jeremiah 30:17.

The General Conference combined the Country Living and Medical Missionary Departments, because there is a natural connection between the two if we return to natural methods. When we add humus, mulch and ground rocks or shells to depleted soils, and make living soils, they develop resistance to disease. When we see so much disease in plants, animals and man, there must be something wrong with man-made methods, for we are told:

"If men would read the Old Testament scriptures they would see that the Lord knew better than they in regard to proper treatment of land." Fundamentals of Christian Education, page 523.

Some of the instruction referred to was given to the Jewish nation in Leviticus 25:5: "That which grows of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap ... neither gather the grapes during the year of rest for the soil," Recent discoveries prove that plant residues must be returned to the soil to make food for beneficial bacteria, molds, enzymes, mycelium and earthworms that digest the elements in the soil for the plants. When only bare mineral soil is provided for the plants, they lose something vital. Again we read a warning, "If ye will not for all this hearken to me, then will I punish you seven times more for your sins .. your strength shall be spent in vain for your land shill not yield her increase . . . and I will bring your land into desolation and your enemies that dwell therein shall be astonished at it." Lev. 26:18, 20, 32.

Because the people were too greedy to let the land rest, or to return a part of the crops to restore the soil, the rich land they inherited was left desolate. Likewise in our rich land, over one third of the soil has been ruined by using artificial methods of cultivation What shall we do about it?

"Let our people show that they have a living interest in Medical Missionary Work. Let them prepare themselves by studying the books that have been written for our instruction in these lines.

. . . These may learn much in their own homes ... from the study of books and publications. Form a home reading circle in which every member of the family shall lay aside the busy home cares and unite in study." 7 T. 63.

"Tracts ... containing pointed, well written articles on this great question should be scattered like the leaves of autumn." Counsels on Diets and Foods, No. 794. Read also C. D. F., pages 38 and 81.

To learn how to put the principles to work that have been covered in this pamphlet, form reading circles and build up a library of such books as:

NATURAL BREAD $ .50 With whole gain recipes.

COMPOST .50 How to make it.

ORGANIC FOOD 2.00 Recipes and Herb

THE HERBALIST 1.00 For health, in colors.

This book is sent to you with the request that you send the names of five who need the information about prescription diets for cancer, etc., with $1. to H. Skadsheim, St. Helena, Calif.

On a homestead in the north woods of Minnesota we lived a natural life. We had achieved almost complete independence of commercial sources, and did not have to be victims of artificial controls and high-jacked prices, or completely deprived by the action of some labor union boss cutting off all sources, as we do in highly organized, super-civilized communities. Our fuel was abundant, and we slashed down only the choicest, and cut it up with the buzz saw. We grew our own grains, mostly wheat, rye and corn. We worked the ground and planted it ourselves, harvested it ourselves, thrashed it with our own machines, ground it ourselves, baked it ourselves and ate it ourselves. There were no middlemen’s profits or sales taxes to take the lions share. We figured out that we could sell a bushel of corn for fifty cents, and then buy it back in corn flakes packages for about nine dollars a bushel—highly devitalized at that. That is the shortest road to the poorhouse I know of—to dispose of everything you produce and buy everything you use.

We raised loads of potatoes, pumpkins and squash, cut up the culls for the live stock and used the choicest ourselves. Mother made me lord of the garden when I was ten, and we grew all the standard vegetables ourselves, and also the flavoring herbs, especially sage and thyme, and we picked wild hops to make our own yeast for the bread, and wild fruits from strawberries in the spring to high and low bush cranberries in the fall. The cellar was full to the ceiling, of vegetables in the bins and cabbages hung head down, and canned fruits on the shelves, crocks of preserves, bins full of grains.

Life was really primitive. We produced much of our own clothing. We sheared a large flock of sheep and carded, spun and knit our socks, mittens tom-o-shanters, sweaters and even underwear. When the animals grew older, we ate up all their carcasses before they died, so there would be no waste—most primitive people do that. It reminds me of a soldier meeting a cannibal in the South Pacific, who had heard how many thousands of people were killed in the great war. So he asked: "What do civilized people do with all those bodies when they kill all those people. He explained, ‘They bury them—dig them down in the ground.’ ‘My, what a waste!’ said the cannibal.

Now going back from civilization to the more primitive ways of living. There was quite a panic about 1907. We found out about it when we went seventeen miles to the nearest town to cash a small check. They said nobody could cash checks. Also a little later a six months railway strike was threatened. That was before the days of trucking, and city people were in panic again. They said everybody would starve if food could not be shipped in. We said, let them keep their checks, and let them strike, six months or sixteen months, it made no difference, for we had a barrel of salt and a keg of nails, and five gallons of oil for the steam engine, so we could eat and build and even renew our own clothes in a pinch. Finance wizards and labor bosses could not panic us. We were independent.

Then came the problem of education. A need of scientific knowledge would drag us out of our smug isolation from human society. We had only five months school a year, and in the spring we had to miss some of that to help plant our crops and in the fall again we had to dig potatoes and thresh grains. I was the first one who finished the eighth grade in the 27 years the district existed

FORMAL EDUCATION

At the academy the registrar said I had to take algebra and Latin and other ologies and osophies. I was not ready to ossify yet, so asked why I had to take such studies. "Scholastic standards required them," she said. Finding they were only a hangover from scholasticism and had little relation to real life, I told the registrar I wanted to take living languages and useful subjects first, and if I had time to spare later, I would come back and get some of the frills. "But they will not let you graduate if you do not line up," she pleaded. However when graduation time came around, even the state standards had discarded Latin, and in the course in methods of teaching in high schools, by Parker, I learned how much more practical a course in applied mathematics was, where the material was arranged according to the needs of the learner, instead of artificially arranged as a systematic subject, such as algebra.

Of course we had been prepared for such sophistries, by readings every evening from the counsels of Mrs. E. G. White, such as:

"In the colleges and universities, thousands of youth devote a large part of the best years of life to the study of Greek and Latin. And while they are engaged in these studies, mind and character are molded by the evil sentiments of pagan literature.... Far better would it be for the world were the education gained from such sources to be dispensed with.... Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?" Ministry of Healing, p. 443. Fund. of Chr. Education. p. 467.

Later, my brother who is much brighter than I am, came back from college and remarked that he had taken all the mathematics they teach in any college, and got straight A’s in every one. I was putting up a forty foot building at the time so I suggested that he figure out the gables for me, and the length of all the studdings and rafters, so I could cut them without climbing up to fit them. I gave him all the measurements needed for the calculations. After puzzling for considerable time, he said, "No. I can’t do it." Of what use is an education if you cannot use it?

Dr. Fryklund also said. "There is no development in merely acquiring information. Development comes in applying knowledge. That is why there is no such a thing as education, without an industrial program connected with it." In contrast a preacher said. "We cannot waste the time of our students on bookbinding, printing, carpentering and agriculture or other secular pursuits. We must make preachers of them." From a standpoint of logic, that sounds plausible, but it feels very sacrilegious after you have studied the Counsels of the Spirit of Prophecy.

How wonderful it is to have higher sources of counsel for life than the sophistries of the worldly wise. The following comes to mind:

"While attending school, the youth should have an opportunity for learning the use of tools. Under the guidance of experienced workmen, carpenters who are apt to teach, patient, and kind, the students themselves should erect buildings on the school grounds and make needed improvements, thus by practical lessons learning how to build economically. The students should be trained to manage all the different kinds of work connected with printing, such as type setting, press work, and bookbinding, together with tent making and other useful lines of work. Small fruits should be planted, and vegetables and flowers cultivated.

"Culture on all these points will make our youth useful in carrying the truth to foreign countries. . Missionaries will be much more influential among the people if they are able to teach the inexperienced how to labor according to the best methods.

"A much smaller fund will be required to sustain such missionaries, because, combined with their studies they have put to the very best use their physical powers in practical labor; and wherever they go, all they have gained in this line will give them vantage ground." Testimonies Vol. 6, p. 176.

MISSION EXPERIENCES

In the mission field this was verified in so many experiences. One day we had charge of a crew of thirty workmen, and making the furniture for the church, as a man came up and inquired of one of the workers who had charge of the project. "An American," he explained. "Oh, those Americans are real engineers," he responded. "I have seen a lot of them in Panama." What a letdown it would have been for the reputation of our country if a missionary from here would have been ignorant of practical things. The editor of the paper also came and observed us. He wrote:

"Now that the leaders of the Seventh-day Adventist churches have set such a worthy example, in not being too proud to build and to work as carpenters, masons and painters, the lesson should be taken to heart by every denomination and class of people among us. There is so much false pride and poor greatness in these regions, as our young people are not taught the honor and dignity of honest labor, but rather to despise the man who works with his hands."

We called these experiences the sermons we preached in overalls. Often, however, as we sat on conference committees and mission boards, we were appalled at the lack of technical knowledge of the problems of building mission stations, schools and churches, and lack of plain common sense on the part of those with an artificial education for life.

We had not gotten off the steamer as the mission director came out on the launch to meet us, before he asked us about our experience in printing, the care of books and editing. He explained that one of my duties would be to write and edit the conference paper each month, and as one third of the Book and Bible house stock was ruined by tropical climate and insects, we were glad that we knew something about book binding, the care of books and had prepared copy for the Union for two years, doing the rewriting of long articles under the direction of the editor. Our denomination produces more literature than any other, hence knowledge in these lines are of primary importance in denominational work.

We must mention a particularly appreciated experience in meeting Elder Edmed who had a long experience in Africa and other missions. We learned that for weeks he had been worried about a young American coming down, who might think he knew everything, and would not be amenable to the guidance of long experience and what it had taught them in a practical way. His first leading question was. "I understand you have been a treasurer of several conferences already and may have a lot of bright ideas that will help us in our work down here." Fortunately I had responded offhand. "All those bright ideas may not work down here." He had remarked to other workers that he was so relieved and delighted.

As we had always raised a good garden at home, and whether I had worked in an office in the middle of a large city, or the cold shores of Lake Superior, or the hot regions of the tropics, we continued to make gardening our hobby. When we hired natives to help us weed our garden, we noticed that they carried off all the weeds as greens, and ate them. If we had known what they were and realized their importance in our dietary, our health would have been preserved much longer. Coming from Northern Minnesota and with absolutely no knowledge of tropical
conditions, or taste for the entirely different foods, which cannot be acquired over night, we began to loose our appetite from the exhausting heat and overwork, and then sent to New York for more of the devitalized commercial foods, which hastened the complete physical collapse.

On a small tropical island without mountains, there is no relief from the exhausting heat. One day, however, we saw a long column in the paper about the worst cold wave in a whole generation, and that natives were without clothes or shelter against the elements. The article finished with the statement that the temperature had fallen to the record low of 76 above. Imagine the condition of the blood of people in such temperature. We found many who wore heavy woolen underwear the year round, where the sun shines in on the south porch in the summer and the north porch in winter, and sets at six the year round.

To recuperate we were invited to spend the winter with that wonderful man, Dr. Charles Cave of Barbados. What an education to associate with such a character. I could fully appreciate the statement by Dr. V. C. Fryklund to a group of us taking a course in Industrial Education. "If you teachers could only realize, that what you are is of much greater consequence educationally, than all the subjects you can teach. Much of the subject matter is forgotten, but your personality impresses itself indelibly on those young people." It is the more remarkable for having been said in a large secular University, How important that we choose our teachers, more than our subjects. Tell me who you associate with and I will tell you what you are.

Six months in the hospital, and we were able to return to America and then an operation by Dr. W. T. Truman in Washington Sanitarium, and then Veterans Hospitals for nearly two years, and being told that we were permanently disabled, we had the rude awakening of realizing we had to do some rethinking of life. How thankful we were (some words missing) to fall back on. Stranded in the hospital, gives the first chance modern man has to really think. He is too busy while preoccupied with a routine job, to do any creative thinking. Then we noted the waste of a lot of valuable magazines, like the Geographic, and figured out how they might be salvaged for visual and other educational purposes, and bound up in classified form. Making no progress health-wise in the great institutions, we decided to return to natural living, as it is pleasanter to even be miserable there, than in congested wards.

We wrote our friend E. L. Green, the conference treasurer that our qualifications were that we could do absolutely no physical work or mental work, but we wanted a job. I wanted to be caretaker of the conference camp ground. The conference thought I could be trusted. Even when completely disabled, a reputation, or character, can be of value. I swung a hammock among the trees and listened to the birds, and enjoyed the scenes of nature. As I had studied general agriculture in our academy and then gone to a larger school and taken courses in Soil Chemistry, Fertility, Feeds and Feeding, and Crops, I wanted to try gardening. The soil was pure silicate sand, every vestige of vegetation burned off every year, and not enough rain. I could not hoe or even pluck the small weeds, so had to hire a neighbor. It cost $26 to raise eight dollars worth of vegetables. When camp meeting time came, I asked them not to burn the straw stack, as I wanted to work it into the soil. Then I planted soy beans, peas and beans to build up the nitrogen in the soil. I needed to renew technical knowledge, and later findings, so I sent for every agriculture bulletin available from Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D.C. and several Universities. These were classified and bound into reference books, and one day I took (some words missing) that I could do this for farmers, "Not interested," he remarked. "I am interested." said the county nurse noticing my physical condition. Incidentally, she was the wife of the State Rehabilitation Officer, and after visiting our home, suggested that I take a rehabilitation course, bringing my bookbinding and printing knowledge up to date, since the rehabilitation course I had taken after the First World War, ten years earlier.

Again it was industrial education to the rescue. But how the doctors of philosophy despise it. A college dean remarked. "I do not think that we should give any credit for agriculture, bookbinding, printing and carpentering. Those subjects are suitable for such as do not have sufficient mental capacity for intellectual education." Students soon get influenced by these leaders. Brother L. N. Holm, agriculture teacher and college business manager, said one day. "How many do you think I got in my agriculture class. Out of over 500 students I have lined up today, I got only three." And this is the very subject that should be the ABC of all our education.

The year 1930 the depression was coming on and so I invited some students who were unable to earn their education, to join me in the bookbinding. They had the physical strength I lacked, but I could teach them how to do this skilled work. I was averaging a net profit of about $125 a month, when the school invited me to move my bindery on to the campus and give other students work. Soon these students who learned skilled work were earning exactly twice as much per hour as those who did ordinary dishwashing, janitor work and similar work for the school. One day the principal of the school said that on account of his health, he was to be let out of his job, and wondered if I would take him in as a partner. I told him I did not believe in joint ownership, but give me twenty minutes to think and I will have a plan. I proposed I would teach him and his wife the trade the rest of the school year, leave the foreman I had in the shop, and a nucleus of trained workers, and then I would go and start other binderies.

At the college in Michigan I anticipated association with the best agriculture men in our denomination. The University had offered to grant $20,000 every year if the college would permit these men and their crews to carry out research for them, especially in recognition of professor Glen Houck’s development of chlorophyll plant feeding direct by spray application of mineral compounds, ripening fruits weeks earlier and a finer appearing product on the market. I rented a garden. Then I proceeded to learn the latest developments in agriculture problems, by the use of chemical fertilizers and poison sprays to fight insects and pests we had never heard of in the virgin lands of the natural forest regions. I was told we could work the soil only twenty minutes, between the time it was too wet and sticky to work, or set almost as hard as a cement floor. To further complicate matters, my physical handicaps made it impossible to use a hoe, but I got a flat blade cultivator which pushed more gently, and cut off the roots just below the surface, making only a shallow mulch. We eked out a meager crop and put it in the cellar. In a few weeks it was all decayed and we had to take it out and bury it. The plants I had poisoned so intensively to carry them through the growing period, did not have resistance to storage diseases either. All these things were interesting problems to study as a diversion from the shop work. I had drilled my students on the ideal that where there was problem, there is where you find an opportunity. So I set to work, on them.

First I had to work on the problem that I was not able to work the hard ground. I went to the woods with a wheelbarrow and hauled in loads of black leaf mold, and put it on top of the ground, after plowing, and then put small leaves and other trash that would not hinder the cultivator, on top of the humus, as a mulch. I remembered our agriculture teacher said, if you want the best, in agriculture, study nature and imitate it. In the woods and meadows, we always found the black loam on top of the ground. Man-made methods put the fine mineral soil on the surface and buried the plant residues. Dust mulch was advocated everywhere, but it produced mostly dust bowl storms. If it rained, the drops puddled the fine mineral soil and made an impermeable pie crust, so the water could not sink into the subsoil, but washed away more land. When this dried it made a hard crust and air could not penetrate to the roots, and the remedy advocated was more dust mulch cultivating. The methods that the Creator used in nature, are ignored in our machine age.

Another problem was the sprouting and stooling out of crops, and getting them to ripen in the north, or getting more of the growing finished during the wet spring months before the summer droughts came on. Light colored mineral soils plowed up to the surface reflected back the heat from the sun, so badly needed to heat the soil. Capillary action was bringing up water to the surface for evaporation that produced more chilling. Mineral soil is a good conductor of heat, so during cold nights the soil lost more heat, during those wet spring months when exactly the opposite was needed on every count.

Then I noticed that humus was a good insulator and would keep the soil warmer. It matted on the surface so no dust could blow away. Like a blotter it absorbed rain which sank into the soil, and it made the soil so mellow to work. Adding lime made the subsoil also more friable. I began learning simple lessons from nature. So I got an inspiration to form a garden and nature club. I lived in the grove. Professor B. H. Phipps, the biology teacher also lived in the grove. One day as we passed his garden he remarked that he had no diseases or pests in his fruits or vegetables, but there were plenty of them all around it because the neighbors had sprayed six times already that season. His plants seemed to develop natural immunity. "We see this before our eyes, but cannot explain it," he said. Then he pointed out how he always put a good mulch of leaves, weeds, waste and garbage on his garden, but neighbors burned theirs. I was putting mulch on my garden too, and after a few years, when we put our vegetables in the same cellar, some kept till the following April or May, instead of decaying in a few weeks. Going back to natural methods built up the resistance in the cells to disease while growing, as well as well as in storage.

Dark colored humus also absorbs many times as much heat from the sun, as light colored mineral soils do. It also forms a good insulates, so the soil does not lose its heat during chilly nights, or by fast evaporation. Sweet potatoes, large corn, etc, can be grown 200 miles further north with rich humus than with bare mineral soil.

Methods of plowing are also important from a health angle. We all know that if we seal out the air in cans, ptomaine poison, botulism and other germs multiply by the billions, but these germs cannot live in the presence of air. Neither can tetanus germs that cause lockjaw, nor gangrene or dysentery. If we take manure from a barn that has been contaminated by diseased animals, and plow it down so the air is shut out, putrefaction or decay sets in and germs increase tremendously in the soil. If we leave this material near the surface it gets moldy and does not stink. The molds produce penicillin and dozens of other mycelium which counteract disease germs. Therefore the man made method is a disease producer, but the natural way we learn from nature, is a disease resistance program.

Professor E. H. Falconer says in his book, Plowman’s Folly, p. 60:

"I had seen the same fields pass through several alternate periods of cultivation and neglect, and had noted that the mere growth of weeds and briars had renewed productivity on such land." Modern science has not found any better method of restoring land than the creator’s method’s explained in the Old Testament. We find actual experiences everywhere confirming the need of learning natural living. Louis Broomfield tells in his book, ‘Beautiful Valley’:

"All around is a country of abandoned or run down farms, houses and barns fallen, the fields a wilderness of weeds, underbrush and seedlings reclaiming once rich land. In the midst of this is the Blumbaugh place like a jewel in a tarnished setting. His first years were hard going. The soil was miserably poor in minerals and humus—that residue of decayed and decaying organic material without which all soil is dead.

"Blumbaugh was learning from his land. He said: ‘I was feeling my way, but I did know enough to pile on that soil every scrap of manure, trash, spoiled hay and corn fodder from neighbors farms, and put it on our land. A big corn sheller in Danville gave us 5000 bushels of corn cobs. We had a big sawdust pile in the woods. Everybody said sawdust would poison the land, but we used it to mulch our trees.’ At the U.S. Conservation station he saw hillsides planted in contour with alternate strips of cultivated crops and hay sod, and trash farming which chops manure and rubbish into the soil and makes it porous.

"In less than ten years corn yields leaped from 15 to 100 bushels, wheat from 18 to 35. Another miraculous thing happened: Springs which had dried up, yielded an inexhaustible flow, the ponds were full of water, even last summer during the worst drought Ohio had known in 50 years. The water trapped on the hillsides went into the ground and came out again clear, instead of running with tons of precious top soil. This is only part of the story, for with it has been the best of diets, good living and one of the most beautiful spots on earth."

By learning this natural agriculture method, our people can buy economical land, instead of expensive farms, and improve the soil with leaves, cuttings from roadsides and lawns, garbage and wastes. We read about the famous C. W. Carver, on page 73, Reader’s Digest for Dec. 1942:

"When Carver arrived in Tuskegee, there seemed little for him to work on and nothing for him to work with... . He wanted a school farm; the soil was defiant. He wanted grass on the lawn; there was only sand. The soil on his 16 acre ‘experiment farm’ was sandy, eroded and impoverished. He sent his students into the swamps and woods armed with buckets and day after day they brought back muck and leaf mold and covered the ground with it. On these acres he demonstrated that the South’s worst soils can be made to produce."

Notes on lecture by W. M. Roberts, M. D., Seattle, Washington.

"My conscience would not let me follow the drug healing program after I had taken my medical course, for I was a preacher before I became a doctor. That is why I have been seeking natural remedies, without the use of surgery and drugs. I learned that tumors could be removed by protein fasting. When the body begins to live on itself, it uses up the diseased cells first, because the healthy cells have more resistance. It takes 72 hours to open up the cells (by osmosis) using mineral broths, fruit and vegetable juices. Then if you take even a spoonful of protein, you have to start all over again. As cells cannot grow without protein, the humor or cancer just has to stop growing.

"Deep diaphragm breathing, using abdominal muscles, activate intestines, pumps liver fluids and stimulates eliminative organs. I find all yellow herbs good for constipation. Press lower lip for reflex stimulation of colon.

"Reflex-therapy was developed by a nurse in Edinburgh using foot massage first. Now we treat through other reflexes or the reflex nervous system. No one who does not live right can get results from reflex massage. It is the blood that heals, and to get good blood we must eat right. Then when you have a good flow of blood, it heals. You can relax a congestion in any organ by knocking out the whole nervous system with drugs, but then the body has the double burden of fighting both the poison and the disease. When you relax a congestion by treating the reflexes to each organ affected, there is no harmful after effect. Never massage injured or inflamed tissue. Go to the reflex area and stimulate through the sympathetic nervous system.

We must learn to eat foods as the Creator made them. Each generation is getting further from nature and sicker. We cannot get well and stay well without paying some heed to this book.

"The Bible tells us in Genesis 1:29 what is natural food. How many come anywhere near heeding that command? Most people disobey the laws of the Universe in this book. It tells us to use herbs for medicine. (Another who is weak, eateth herbs. Romans 14:2. The leaves were for the healing of the nations. Rev. 22:2, etc.).

"There is a field for all the healing arts, even surgery in accidents.

"As man is the only animal that uses cooked foods, I experimented with living on only raw foods for five years. I lived almost entirely on fruit for a while and learned we do not need so much protein. When I came to Tacoma I could run five miles without puffing.

"Never use animal fats or blood, says the good book. Lev. 3:17; 17:12. The only way to take milk is by nipple. The Bible says it is for babes. 1 Pet. 2:2. I Cor. 3:12, Heb. 5:13, 14. Milk is the worst source of food. According to the increase in use of milk, so has been the increase in cancer... Folic acid inhibits cancer growth. (Folic acid is destroyed by pasteurizing.) Use Vitamin E for cancer."

The first principle to understand is as explained by Dr. Roberts of Seattle at a vegetarian lecture in Portland. He said:

"Medicines do not heal. It is the blood that heals—if you eat right, and have free circulation. When congestion occurs in any part of the body and interferes with the circulation, you can relax it by knocking out the entire nervous system with drugs, but then the body has the double burden of fighting both the poison and the disease. It is much better to relax a congestion with hot and cold water treatments, or massage, especially a reflex compression massage."

A study on why we must improve the soils to better our health is given in Senate Document 264 which begins: "Do you know that most of us are suffering from dangerous diet deficiencies which cannot be remedied until the depleted soils from which our foods come are brought back into mineral balance… The hard stalks of weeds even, are rich in good minerals, if we get them from roadsides and swamps.

All this can become the basis for a medical missionary program as indicated by the experiences of Dr. G. B. Chapman, head of a school health service. He was at first puzzled by the fact that so many students suffered constantly "with colds, influenza, infected tonsils, catarrh and dental decay.’ but suggested:

‘Fruits and vegetables...are grown for the most part in soil fed with chemical fertilizers. Why not return to Nature’s way and fertilize with humus. . . . The results seemed miraculous. . . Many authorities believe that we must return natural biological activity to the soil. Anything that kills angleworms, (beneficial bacteria), etc. that transforms decomposed plant, life and minerals, robs plant life of something vital. Food is the first weapon of preventive medicine. Some authorities believe the solution to many dietary difficulties lies in a return to the old fashioned ‘family farm’."

It is not necessary to learn all the technical names of all the diseases and drugs in order to build resistance to disease. When the body resistance is up, we do not get colds, influenza, cancer etc. Learning the name of pneumonoltraniscroscopicsilicovolcanok oniosia will not teach you how to cure the disease or how to avoid it. The simple fact is that you get it when you live in sooty city air, or work in factories and mines, and your lung tissues become loaded with injurious substances. All you need to learn and obey, is to move out of the cities into the pure, clean country air and seek healthier employment.

It is not necessary to learn the name of nifflidollyphantissianthcmum in order to grow a plant. It is not necessary to learn the name of cyclopenthanoperhy drophenantherene to avoid degenerative diseases. It is enough to know they are caused by animal foods, and avoid them. Learn how to "prepare wholesome foods without these things" as we are told in Testimonies, Vol. 7, page 135. Then the ordinary man can say: "I have more understanding than all my teachers, for thy testimonies are my meditation." Psalms 119:99. Mrs. White says:

"Much good can be done by those who do not hold diplomas as fully credited physicians. Some are to be prepared to work as competent physicians. Many, working under the direction of such can do acceptable work without spending so long a time in study as it has been thought necessary to spend in the past. Many will go out to labor for the Master who have not been able to take a regular course of study in school. God will help these workers. Humble men who hitherto have been in obscurity must now be given an opportunity to become workers." Medical Ministry, p. 538.

We may not learn all the technical knowledge, but if we follow the laws of nature the promise is: "The Lord will take away from thee all sickness and will put none of these evil diseases ... upon thee. Dent, 7:15. Altho not even our wisest scientists know what electricity is, or how magnetism works, yet most of us can learn the laws which govern them, and even a child can turn on the light or power. So the Lord tells the ordinary man that if he will obey His laws, he will "understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts. Psalm 119:100.

There has been much talk about "focal infection" causing disease, but some experts now believe that what causes the general disease also causes the focal infection. Diseases affect the weakest point most with secondary effects elsewhere. Diseases must be treated by building up the resistance of the whole body, and not merely treating symptoms. We do more harm than good by curing diarrhea with constipation, using boiled milk, or calomel, which clog the bowels. Instead we should clean out the cause of the trouble. To understand the general condition that favors diseases of all kinds, let us consider the principle of Osmosis.

In laboratories of agriculture, physiology, botany and physics this action is shown by peeling half the shell of two eggs, and inserting a tube in each opening at the top, with wax. One egg is put in soft water and the other in a salt solution. The difference in balance of salts on both sides of a membrane make the liquid pass through, so it forces the liquid up in the tube over fifteen inches in one egg, but no action occurs in the other egg. In the same way our bowels can be clogged when we lack the proper mineral balance. In fact they can be thrown in reverse by giving a dose of Salts.

It is not only the stomach and bowels that have membranes, but every cell in the body is just like those eggs, that have membranes around them. If you lack proper mineral balance, no nourishment can pass into the cells, and no wastes or poisons pass out, and you feel sick all over. The cells are too weak to fight the germs, and you are sick because the minerals in your garden have not built up your food with the necessary mineral salts. Senate Document 246 begins with the sentence: Most of us are suffering dangerous deficiencies which cannot be remedied until the depleted soils from which our foods come are brought to proper mineral balance." says Dr. Northen.

These simple methods are what laymen can use, even without institutions. So many wish to do big things by establishing a large institution, which only a few are able to do. If you want to do something really big, work out a plan so simple that thousands of others can be taught to do the same thing. and a great work can be done

S HEALTH, instead of disease

T DIET, instead of drugs

U WATER TREATMENTS and

D MASSAGE, instead of surgery

Y HERBS, instead of hypodermics

The use of water treatments, massage and diet, growing vitalized foods on enriched soils, are means of promoting health that any layman can learn to use, and only by doing so will the church be prepared for the time of trouble when they can neither buy or sell or get any work without joining unions. However, we are told that:

"As religious aggression subverts the liberties of our nation, those who would stand for freedom of conscience, will be placed in unfavorable positions. For their own sake, they should while they have opportunity, become intelligent in regard to disease, its causes, prevention and cure, and those who will do this, will find a field of labor anywhere." Counsels on Health p. 506. "Many who desire to obtain knowledge in medical missionary lines . . . can learn much in their own homes . . . from the study of books and publications." Id. 427. "Secure grounds away from the cities where fruits and vegetables can be raised. Agriculture will open resources for self support, and various other trades also could be learned." F.C.E. 322. "God will take ordinary men and give them skill and understanding in the use of the fruits of the earth . . . He will impress business men who are Sabbath keepers to establish industries that will provide employment for His people." 7 T. 128. "Missionary families are needed to settle in waste places. Let farmers, financiers, builders and those skilled in various arts and crafts go to neglected fields to improve the land, to establish industries, to prepare humble homes for themselves and help their neighbors," M.H. 194.

A plan that has proven a success in thousands of cases is called "Home Care" as described in the Readers Digest: Instead of spending millions to build more hospitals, some have arranged to have patients do their convalescing in homes. People are asked to come for short courses in the care of nervous, or other chronic ailments, and these are taken into private homes and have recovered faster in these natural living conditions than under the strain of a different institutional life. After the patient goes to the home, a visiting nurse from the hospital calls regularly and she reports to the doctor when she thinks his calls are needed. Thus laymen can do real medical work and get a modest income right at home. As it is done under professional supervision, no difficulties are encountered with the association requirements. Some may wish to care for old people, or children on the same basis. Having a few live with the family in a private way, makes medical license unnecessary.

It is the food the patients are fed which is the main factor for health. The world famous Dr. McCarrison says: ‘There is no subject more worthy of consideration by those whose life is spent in guarding national health.’ Dr. Karrel said: "The dietitian of today will be the doctor of tomorrow." McCarrison adds: "First instruct the masses on what to eat and why. Second produce natural foods rather than to build institutions. Third, acquire knowledge." These agree with the counsels given by Mrs. White as follows:

"Human wisdom . . . tends to building up of great institutions. Multitudes leave to institutions . . . the work of benevolence; they excuse themselves from contact with the world’s (needs) and their hearts grow cold. They become self-absorbed and unimpressionable. Love for God and man dies out in the soul. Christ commits to His followers an individual work that cannot be done by proxy." Ministry of Healing, page 147.

The diet question seems to affect every stage of our life, for we read:

"When the third angel’s message is received in its fullness, health reform will be given its place in the conference, in the work of the church, in the home, at the table and in all the household arrangements." 6 T. 327. "There arc few as yet who are aroused sufficiently to understand how much their habits of diet have to do with their health, their characters, their usefulness in the world and their eternal destiny. . . Men and women must be instructed, and ministers and people should feel that the burden rests upon them to agitate the subject and urge it home on others." 1 T. 189. "I urge those who are taking a neutral position in regard to health reform be converted . . . The presidents of conferences need to realize it is high time they were placing themselves on the right side of this question. Ministers and teachers are to give to others the light they have received." 6 T. 377.

Whether we realize it or not this diet question is to become an important factor in our lives, affecting every detail. A rude awakening may be in store for some of us. We have been studying about the Holy Spirit and the Latter Rain that will bring the Loud Cry. I was asked once why these were delayed. Because:

"God’s people are not prepared for the loud cry of the third angel. They have a work to do for themselves which they should not leave for God to do for them." 1 T. 486. As you read this page you will see it is the health reform that has been neglected.

In the Sabbath School Lesson for Feb. 21, 1948, is quoted as follows from M.H. p. 319:

"There is real common sense in dietetic reform. The subject should be studied broadly and deeply, and no one should criticize others because their practice is not in all things in harmony with their own."

How astonishing then is the prophecy in Counsels on Health, p. 153:

"There is a large class who will reject any reform movement, however reasonable if it lays a restriction on appetite. All who, leave the beaten track of custom and advocate reform will be opposed and accounted radical . . . let them pursue ever so consistent a course. But no one should permit opposition or ridicule or turn him from the work of reform." "They will not change their course of action to meet the wishes of their friends or relatives, be they one or two or a host. If we move from principle in these things . . . we shall exert an influence which will meet the mind of God. The question is, are we willing to be true health reformers?" C.D.F. D. 408.

"Much of the prejudice that prevents the truth of the third angel’s message from reaching the hearts of the people, might be removed if more attention were given to health reform." Counsels on Health, p. 452. "There is a message regarding health reform to be borne in every church . . . The Lord does not now work to bring many souls into the truth because of the church members who have never been converted would make of no effect the God given message which His people are to hear." 6 T. 371. "It is not alone those who openly reject the testimonies, or who cherish doubt concerning them, that are on dangerous ground. To disregard light is to reject it." 5 T. 680.

For those who have enjoyed the delightful pleasures of tastiness in food, when the coated tongue is cleared up and the body cells are cleansed by the health reform diet it is just as difficult to understand why people want to resist it as it is to realize why people will cling to the filthy tobacco or poison their system with alcohol. Those who have the habit of using stimulants usually do not wish to give them up. All animal foods are stimulating, because they are irritating. Stimulants are like the whip that drives the slave beyond his natural strength. It is so much more delightful to feel that rebound and pleasure, like that of a small child that thrills with enjoyment of a brisk romp. All say they feel ten times more miserable after a night of carousing than if they had never indulged. Why does anyone want to pay good money for a hangover? Why don’t they quit it?

Once Mrs. White asked one of our leaders to lead out in "a reformation in healthful living" and wrote him:

"The Lord has given clear light regarding the nature of the food that is to compose our diet. He has instructed us concerning the effect of unhealthful food upon disposition and character. . . . Who among our brethren will sign a pledge to dispense with flesh meats, and all injurious foods and become health reformers in the truest sense of the term." Letter from Sanitarium, Cal. Mar. 29, 1908.

This leader refused saying he would not want to take the responsibility for something that would "split the church." He did not realize that those who would give the health reform message will not cause the shaking, but "Some will not bear this straight testimony. They will rise up against it and this will cause the shaking among God’s people." I. I. p. 181. It is not those who follow the teachings of the denomination who will cause division, but those who are against the message.

Later the above mentioned leader sent someone to arrange for an audience with Mrs. White regarding problems of the work, but she said: "I have nothing more for him." When we reject a single point, such as the health reform, the Lord will give no further light to that individual. 5 T. 729, Middle of page.

An example of perverting clear statements with personal interpretation, is a story that has had wide and long circulation, saying one of our leaders went to Mrs. White about the statement that "Cheese is wholly unfit for food," and asked "Does this apply to Limburger cheese?" and she is supposed to have answered "Yes." I asked Elder Andrew Nelson who this leading worker was, and he said, "Elder L. R. Conradi." He added that he believed the whole story was made up by him. As he loved cheese sandwiches and beer, he was later put out of the position he held and then spent all his time working against denominational teachings.

It seems to be wrong to use any product of fermentation or decay, such as alcohol, vinegar, cheese, pickles, sauerkraut or sour milk. The pharmacist at the Sanitarium said: Whether cheese is decayed by molds to make Limburger, Roquefort or other green cheeses, or decayed by enzymes to make cream cheese, or decayed by germs to make cottage cheese, they are all products of decay. (See elsewhere statement of American Medical Association Journal about those who were killed by lactic acid germs, which make sour milk, sauer kraut, cottage cheese, etc., also that when germs and yeasts act on milk to make koumis, yogurt etc. considerable amounts of alcohol is produced, explained in U.S. Dept. of Agriculture yearbook for 1939, Food for Life).

In commenting on the statements in 2 T. 362 and 400 Witness of Science raises the question of contradiction when raw eggs with grape juice is recommended in another place. Dr. Kress told us personally that this testimony was given to him as he returned from London and was anemic. He needed to build up his blood, but not till 1947 did scientists find out that folic acid found in greens and vegetables, but also in raw eggs, is needed by the body to make red blood corpuscles. He explained that he had never made known the fact that he could not tolerate coarse vegetables, so it would have been a mistake for Mrs. White to have recommended that source. To make raw eggs safer, grape juice must be added, for the grape cure can counteract cancer and many other diseases. If Dr. Kress could have eaten watercress, parsley, turnip and mustard greens he would not have needed to use the diseased food, with precautions.

Nothing good is witheld in the health diet. Mrs. White specifies it must be appetizing, nourishing and economical, (7 T. 135) before we are at liberty to present it to people. But a man with coated tongue and clogged system cannot enjoy the treat of natural flavors found in organic foods fresh from the garden or orchard or fresh ground mixed grain bread. After eliminating all the diseased and stimulating foods for three weeks, this glorious new experience begins. To explain what we mean, by flavors—sugar is sweet, but honey is sweet with a flavor. Canned peas and corn taste flat, but when brought in fresh from the garden and not heated so much that it kills the natural tang, you have a delicious flavor that can never be equaled by vinegar, pepper, chili or even decayed cheeses, which the traditional cooks depend on for taste. In fact those who depend on strong condiments as appetizers, or on cigarettes, cannot tolerate delicious fruits, or orange juice. They never know what they have missed till they try natural living. I have even seen doctors who were entirely unaware of such a thing as the natural tang of foods which is more delicate than artificial flavorings.

Within recent years we have heard much about the dangers of cholesterol, an animal fat which is considered to be a cause of hardening of the arteries and other symptoms of senility, as well as cancer, gall stones and other diseases. (Gall stones are really cholesterol deposits. It is claimed that the eating of a few eggs introduce into the body enough cholesterol to form a gall stone, when it is not counteracted or eliminated. Lecithin is a chemical that acts antagonistically to cholesterol, for which reason a high lecithin intake is a good preventive of cholesterol deposits and resulting signs of premature old age.)

Cholesterol is an animal fat present in meat, eggs and practically all dairy products. The idea that only fatty meat contains cholesterol, is not correct, as fat contain the most.

In the book "Witness of Science," which the General Conference selected for the Ministerial Reading Course, is a chapter on cholesterol which first quotes from Mrs. White: "He permitted that long lived race to eat animal food to shorten their sinful lives," C.D.F., p. 374. Then Dr. Abbott says: "The principal life-shortening diseases today are the degenerative diseases . . . for the decade increased 20 per cent to a mortality of 44 per cent." This makes it a greater cause of death than cancer, tuberculosis and polio combined. "Pure cholesterol alone produced no sclerosis, while .3 grams fed with milk and eggs produced marked arteriosclerosis." W. S. 109, 113. Egg yolk contains an average of 2000 times as much cholesterol as carrots.

The avocado provides one of the most digestible and alkaline, as well as mineral and vitamin rich sources of fats and proteins. When mashed and used as the base of a salad dressing, it is vastly superior to olive oil and other vegetable oils which are acid forming, because separated from associated alkaline minerals during the process of their manufacture, (Sunflower and hemp seed oils are less acid forming and cocoanut oil is the best.) In the case of the avocado, its lecithin rich fats are in combination with alkaline minerals, which help in their digestion. The fats of the avocado are in perfect emulsion, hence easier to handle than all artificially separated fats. Dr. Uriel Adriana, Page 3. Nature’s Path, May, 1953.