Article September 12, 1908 Issue

We are told by some critics that the use of drugs is as...

Charles K. Skinner

The Laingsburg (Mich.) News

We are told by some critics that the use of drugs is as reasonable a part of God's plan to cure disease as any other. If such be the case, God's words, "I am the Lord that healeth thee," and "Bless the Lord, ... who healeth all thy diseases," have no meaning. The Scriptures are full of the promises of God to heal, and also the mistake in not going to Him for help, as, for instance, we read that King Asa "sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians. And Asa slept with his fathers." Let us take notice that in God's command to Israel, no mention is made of any specific or formula of drugs to be used, yet He said, "I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds."

Likewise the Master's words, "I must work the works of him that sent me," and "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father." No mention is made of drugs, and at no time did Jesus resort to material remedies to accomplish his wonderful work, but he did say, "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing," emphasizing his teaching with the words, which should remain indelible on the mind of his every follower,—"If ye love me, keep my commandments." Does our brother mean to tell us that, after the great Teacher had proved to the world the efficacy of Spirit to heal all diseases, and when the Church for three hundred years had proved his promises to be true, God intends man to resort to mindless matter for relief from suffering?

While it is true that Luke was called the "beloved physician," it is also true that Jesus was called the "great Physician," and there is nothing more to prove that Luke used material remedies after his having become a disciple of Jesus, than that the Master himself used them. In fact there is a deal more logic and reason to assume that, having learned a better and surer way, he did not use them. The assertion that Luke was a doctor, and was loved on that account, has the merit of novelty but no foundation in fact, as all well-read theologians will admit.

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