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.

What we have said on this subject is not for the purpose of ridiculing the Scriptural teaching, for we regard this description of St. John as one of the most beautiful figures of speech to be found in all literature, but we insist that it was simply his material illustration of the spiritual fact. The Gospel of truth brings forth fruit, constantly and in sufficient variety, and even the leaves of this tree, the smallest and most insignificant offspring of the tree of life, serve the purpose of healing the nations, overcoming sin, sickness, and death.

While we raise no objection to the use of medicine on the part of our brethren who are not ready to depend alone upon divine power, we deem it wise to enter a kindly protest against the effort to represent the Word of God as being in the support of any material practices, whether medical or otherwise.

It is commendable that, in spite of their belief in the efficacy of materiality, many hold fast to the supremacy of God. Christian Scientists, however, are proving that better results can be obtained by an implicit and exclusive dependence upon the divine power and a complete abandonment of material remedies. Alfred Farlow.

Boston Times.

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