Article November 26, 1904 Issue

The Healing Leaves

Alfred Farlow

Boston Times

I have been requested to reconcile the non-use of medicine with the Scriptural statement, "And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations."

St. John's picture of the New Jerusalem with its golden streets, the river of life and the tree of life, is without doubt intended to illustrate the beauty and harmony of spiritual life. The description of the tree of life should be taken in the same figurative sense which properly applies to the description of the Holy City. No Bible student expects to witness a material city, fifteen hundred miles in height, coming down through the air. We are accustomed to accept these apocalyptical forms of speech, as they were surely used by the author; namely, as figuration.

If we take the Scriptural reference to the leaves of the tree of life only in a literal sense, we must confine ourselves strictly to such an interpretation throughout, and must not apply the teaching to the leaves of any other tree. If this text is intended to suggest the use of material medicine in the healing of the sick, we should note that only the leaves of this particular tree, the tree of life, are recommended, and to carry out the recommendation literally we must first enter the New Jerusalem, then find the river of life, and find the tree in the midst of it, and on either side of the river, when in fact we have not yet seen the descent of the city. The text does not read "trees" but "tree," and a tree large enough to grow on both sides of the river. Note that we must find the tree "that bears twelve manner of fruits and yields her fruit every month," then pluck the leaves thereof. Let him who is disposed to take the Scriptures in a literal sense first find the tree and procure the leaves before advocating their use.

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