Sanitariums

by Ellen White

I could say much more on the subject of the location of our sanitariums. We have not yet learned all that is to be learned in regard to the establishment of sanitariums. God calls for a reformation. We are to locate our sanitariums in places more favourable to sanitarium work. So far as possible, medical institutions should be established in quiet, secluded places, where opportunity will be afforded for instructing the patients concerning the love of God and the Eden home of our first parents, which through the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ is to be restored to man. It is the expressed will of God that our sanitariums shall be established as far from cities as is consistent. 17MR 355

[ Simple Remedies in the Sanitarium Program ] I have received much instruction regarding the location of sanitariums. They should be a few miles distant from the large cities, and land should be secured in connection with them. Fruit and vegetables should be cultivated, and the patients should be encouraged to take up outdoor work. Many who are suffering from pulmonary disease might be cured if they would live in a climate where they could be out-of-doors most of the year. Many who have died of consumption might have lived if they had breathed more pure air. Fresh outdoor air is as healing as medicine, and leaves no injurious after-effects.... 2SM 291

The treatment we gave when the sanitarium was first established required earnest labour to combat disease. We did not use drug concoctions; we followed hygienic methods. This work was blessed by God. It was a work in which the human instrumentality could co-operate with God in saving life. There should be nothing put into the human system that would leave its baleful influence behind. And to carry out the light on this subject, to practice hygienic treatment, and to educate on altogether different lines of treating the sick, was the reason given me why we should have sanitariums established in various localities. 2SM 293

He who created men and women has an interest in those who suffer. He has directed in the establishment of our sanitariums and in the building up of schools close to our sanitariums, that they may become efficient mediums in training men and women for the work of ministering to suffering humanity. In the treatment of the sick, poisonous drugs need not be used. Alcohol or tobacco in any form must not be recommended, lest some soul be led to imbibe a taste for these evil things.--Letter 90, 1908 (To J. A. Burden and others bearing responsibility at Loma Linda). 2SM 296

Encourage the patients to live healthfully and to take an abundance of exercise. This will do much to restore them to health. Let seats be placed under the shade of the trees, that the patients may be encouraged to spend much time out-of-doors. And a place should be provided, enclosed either with canvas or with glass, where, in cooler weather, the patients can sit in the sun without feeling the wind.... 2SM 298

Fresh air and sunshine, cheerfulness within and without the institution, pleasant words and kindly acts--these are the remedies that the sick need, and God will crown with success your efforts to provide these remedies for the sick ones who come to the sanitarium. By happiness and cheerfulness and expressions of sympathy and hopefulness for others, your own soul will be filled with light and peace. And never forget that the sunshine of God's blessing is worth everything to us. 2SM 298

[ Trees With Medicinal Properties. ] --The Lord has been giving me light in regard to many things. He has shown me that our sanitariums should be erected on as high an elevation as is necessary to secure the best results, and that they are to be surrounded by extensive tracts of land, beautified by flowers and ornamental trees. 2SM 301

In a certain place, preparations were being made to clear the land for the erection of a sanitarium. Light was given that there is health in the fragrance of the pine, the cedar, and the fir. And there are several other kinds of trees that have medicinal properties that are health promoting. Let not such trees be ruthlessly cut down.... Let them live.-- Letter 95, 1902 (To workers in the South). 2SM 301 (PH144 25)

I have had the situation opened to me, my brother, and the results for which a sanitarium should be conducted. The Boulder Sanitarium had, in the fear of God, taken the ground that our leading sanitariums have taken--to discard meat, tea, coffee, spirituous liquor, and the drug medications. Temperance principles had been taught in parlour lectures, and in other ways. Wholesome foods were served, and genuine health reform was taught. This institution should have had the right of way. But by the location of another sanitarium so nearby, the principles of which are in some respects quite different from those of the Boulder Sanitarium, difficulties will be presented which should not exist.--Letter 196, 1906. 6BIO 036

The Lord has instructed me to warn those who in the future establish sanitariums in new places, to begin their work in humility, consecrating their abilities to His service. The buildings erected are not to be large or expensive. Small local sanitariums are to be established in connection with our training schools. In these sanitariums young men and young women of ability and consecration are to be gathered--those who will conduct themselves in the love and fear of God, those who, when prepared for graduation, will not feel that they know all that they need to know, but will diligently study and carefully practice the lessons given by Christ. The righteousness of Christ will go before such ones, and the glory of God will be their rearward. 7T 059

[ Our sanitariums a Refuge for Workers ] Often these ministers need special care and treatment. Our sanitariums should be a refuge for such and for all our worn workers who need rest. Rooms should be provided where they can have a change and rest, without continual anxiety as to how they are to meet the expense. When the disciples were worn with labour, Christ said to them: "Come ye yourselves apart, . . . and rest awhile." Mark 6:31. He would have arrangements made whereby His servants now may have opportunity to rest and recover strength. Our sanitariums are to be open to our hard-working ministers, who have done all in their power to secure funds for the erection and support of these institutions, and at any time when they are in need of the advantages here offered they should be made to feel at home. 7T 292

We wish to build a sanitarium where maladies may be cured by nature's own provisions, and where the people may be taught how to treat themselves when sick; where they will learn to eat temperately of wholesome food, and be educated to refuse all narcotics,--tea, coffee, fermented wines, and stimulants of all kinds,--and to discard the flesh of dead animals. CD 281

Our sanitariums are to be the means of enlightening those who come to them for treatment. The patients are to be shown how they can live upon a diet of grains, fruits, nuts, and other products of the soil. I have been instructed that lectures should be regularly given in our sanitariums on health topics. People are to be taught to discard those articles of food that weaken the health and strength of the beings for whom Christ gave His life. The injurious effects of tea and coffee are to be shown. The patients are to be taught how they can dispense with those articles of diet that injure the digestive organs. . . . Let the patients be shown the necessity of practising the principles of health reform, if they would regain their health. Let the sick be shown how to get well by being temperate in eating and by taking regular exercise in the open air. . . . By the work of our sanitariums, suffering is to be relieved and health restored. People are to be taught how, by carefulness in eating and drinking, they may keep well. . . . Abstinence from flesh meat will benefit those who abstain. The diet question is a subject of living interest. . . . Our sanitariums are established for a special purpose, to teach people that we do not live to eat, but that we eat to live. CD 444

I think I have answered the question, why do we not pray for the healing of the sick, instead of having sanitariums? The education of many souls is at stake. In the providence of God, instruction has been given that sanitariums be established, in order that the sick may go to them, and learn how to live healthfully. The establishment of sanitariums is a providential arrangement, whereby people from all places are to be reached and made acquainted with the truth for this time. It is for this reason that we urge that sanitariums be established in many places outside of our cities. LLM 031

[ The Source of Success ] The Lord has instructed us that all our sanitariums are to be conducted, not as if the success of the work done were due to the skill of the physicians, but because of the divine power connected with the physician. The Great Healer is to be magnified. It is to be represented that the favour of God is on the institution because the principles of health reform are respected and because Christ is acknowledged as the Chief Physician. Our sanitariums have been in the past, and will continue to be, if rightly conducted, a means of blessing and uplifting to humanity. If the truth is rightly represented, those who patronise our sanitariums will learn much regarding its principles, and many will be converted. These institutions have been represented to me as beacon lights showing forth the truth as it is in Jesus. The Lord Jesus is the great minister of healing, and His presence in our institutions has been a savour of life unto life. Christ came to the world as the Great Physician of mankind. Our sanitariums, wherever they are established, should be made educational forces. The Lord would be pleased to have you with chosen helpers build up your work to do a more special work in religious lines. MM 025

Because we have sanitariums for the healing of the sick we are not to cease to call upon the Great Healer. When we are urged to establish sanitariums, it is not that we may depend alone upon the simple remedies used, but that we may point the afflicted ones to the Mighty Healer of disease. We are to plead for His power to work in harmony with our medical ministrations. The work of our sanitariums would be far more successful if the physicians would read the word more earnestly and put its precepts into practice, if they would preach the kingdom of God and pray for the healing grace of Christ to come upon the afflicted. MM 028

[ Many Small sanitariums ] It is that thirsting souls may be led to the living water that we plead for sanitariums, not expensive, mammoth sanitariums, but homelike institutions, in pleasant places. MM 323

As to drugs being used in our institutions, it is contrary to the light which the Lord has been pleased to give. The drugging business has done more harm to our world and killed more than it has helped or cured. The light was first given to me why institutions should be established, that is sanitariums were to reform the medical practices of physicians. PH144 12

The drug science has been exalted, but if every bottle that comes from every such institution were done away with, there would be fewer invalids in the world today. Drug medication should never have been introduced into our institutions. There was no need of this being so, and for this very reason the Lord would have us establish an institution where He can come in and where His grace and power can be revealed. 'I am the Resurrection and the Life,' He declares. PH144 12

It would have been better if, from the first, all drugs had been kept out of our sanitariums, and use had been made of such simple remedies as are found in pure water, pure air, sunlight, and some of the simple herbs growing in the field. These would be just as efficacious as the drugs used under mysterious names, and concocted by human science. And they would leave no injurious effects in the system. PH144 15 (2SM 291)

We should make decided efforts to heed the directions the Lord has given in regard to the care of the sick. They should be given every advantage possible. All the restorative agencies that the Lord has provided should be made use of in our sanitarium work.--MS 19, 1911. PH144 16

We are not building sanitariums for hotels. Receive into our sanitariums only those who desire to conform to right principles, those who will accept the foods that we can conscientiously place before them. Should we allow patients to have intoxicating liquor in their rooms, or should we serve them with meat, we could not give them the help they should receive in coming to our sanitariums. We must let it be known that from principle we exclude such articles from our sanitariums and our hygienic restaurants. Do we not desire to see our fellow-beings freed from disease and infirmity, and in the enjoyment of health and strength? Then let us be as true to principle as the needle to the pole. SPTB03C 003

It is that people may become intelligent in regard to these things that sanitariums are to be established. A great work is to be done. Those who are ignorant are to become wise. By the work of our sanitariums, suffering is to be relieved and health restored. People are to be taught how, by carefulness in eating and drinking, they may keep well. Christ died to save men from ruin. Our sanitariums are to be His helping hand, teaching men and women how to live in such a way as to honour and glorify God. If this work is not done by our sanitariums, a great mistake is made by those conducting them. SPTB05 028

The Lord sees the work that must be done in his vineyard. He sees the places in which there should be memorials for him, in order that the truth may be represented. He sees the fields that are unworked and destitute of facilities. He requires from all who serve him equity and just judgement. A large amount of means should not be absorbed in one place. Every building erected is to be erected with reference to the other places that will need similar buildings. It will not be pleasing to God for you to bind about the work of establishing small sanitariums. In many places sanitariums are to be established. These sanitariums are not to be large. In a mammoth institution, such as the Battle Creek Sanitarium has been, it is difficult to maintain the high spiritual standard that should be maintained; for it is hard to provide workers enough who have capabilities and talents that enable them to conduct the affairs of the institution in a way that is after God's order. Let many small sanitariums be built. Let treatment-rooms be established in many cities. Let hygienic restaurants be started that people may learn what health reform really is. SPTB06 040

RETURN TO TOPIC LIST