Editorial September 2, 1916 Issue

Truth the Best Preventive

Archibald McLellan

In these days of much education along the lines of public health, and especially that phase of the subject which has been termed "preventive medicine," it is noticeable that not even the most sanguine of the advocates of drastic health laws permits himself to prophesy the utter extinction of disease by these methods. To find a whole nation in perfect health would be considered impossible, yet this was precisely the condition of the children of Israel when Moses led them out of Egypt and through the Red Sea toward the land which had been promised them under the divine covenant. The Israelites believed themselves the chosen people of God, and they turned to Him in all their hardships in the land of bondage. He it was, they had been taught, who would rescue them from the unbearable slavery which had been forced upon them, and He it was who would give them a dwelling-place in a land where they would be able to worship Him without hindrance. Through their leaders they had received a revelation from God, and because of their faith in God, and their willingness at that time to obey Him, they were able to take this momentous step.

Although in their journey to the promised land many wonderful things happened, no one incident seems more remarkable to our present-day thinking than the fact that, although they had endured much at the hands of cruel taskmasters, when the yoke of bondage was lifted from their necks, every last man, woman, and child was physically able to go forth. No doubt many who have read the 105th psalm failed to appreciate the full significance of a statement contained in the thirty-seventh verse, that "there was not one feeble person among their tribes," and when we stop to inquire the number who took part in this movement, the immensity not only of the movement itself but also of the demonstration of perfect health which had been made, is apparent.

In the book of Numbers it is recorded that of this vast host over six hundred thousand of the men were "from twenty years old and upward," and that this included only those who were "able to go forth to war." Although the number who actually took part in the exodus is nowhere given in the Scriptures, we may through this numbering of the men of war make a reasonable estimate. When we remember that it was not a selected few, but the entire Israelitish population—men, women, and children—who were led out of Egypt, we realize that nothing but the hand of God could have so prepared them for their journey. Christian Scientists believe that this exhibition of perfect health in a whole nation was not a miracle in the sense that it was a setting aside of the universal law of God, but rather that it was in fulfilment of this law. We read that "God is no respecter of persons," and in this case the freedom of these people from feebleness came about through their intimate understanding of God, infinite Mind, and of His omnipotence.

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