Disease and Providence.
209. The violation of physical law, and the consequence, human suffering, have so long prevailed that men and women look upon the present state of sickness, suffering, debility, and premature death as the appointed lot of humanity.
Disease the Result of Natural Causes.
210. Many persons complain of Providence because of the discomfort and inconvenience which they suffer, when this is the sure result of their own course. They seem to feel that they are ill-treated of God, when they themselves are alone responsible for the ills which they endure.
211. Are these ills visited upon the race through God's providence? --No; they exist because the people have gone contrary to his providence, and still continue rashly to disregard his laws.
212. The souls and bodies of people are fast becoming corrupted, a mass of disease. This would not have been the case if those who had claimed to believe the truth had lived out its sacred principles.
213. There is a divinely appointed connection between sin and disease. Sin and disease bear to each other the relationship of cause and effect.
214. The course professed Christians generally pursue in following fashion, irrespective of health and life, brings upon them a train of evils which they charge back upon Providence, and place arguments in the mouths of infidels wherewith to assail Christianity.
215. God is not responsible for the suffering which follows the non-conformity to natural law and moral obligations to him.--
216. Sickness and premature death do not come without a cause.
God not Responsible for Disease.
217. When standing by the graves of their children, the afflicted parents look upon their bereavement as a special dispensation of Providence, when by inexcusable ignorance their own course has destroyed the lives of their children. To then charge their death to Providence is blasphemy.
218. They should not charge the result of their own sinful course upon our gracious and merciful Heavenly Father. He doth not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men.
219. Mothers are slow to learn that the suffering and death of their children is the result of their own course. They do not become intelligent upon the subject of how to live to prevent disease and premature death. What a thought! Mothers are the murderers of their own children, and are mourning over their death, and are trying hard to be reconciled to Providence, which they think has bereaved them.
The Influence of Disease Upon the Mind and Morals.
Mental Depression.
220. A diseased body affects the brain. With the mind we serve the Lord.
221. All should guard the senses, lest Satan gain victory over them; for these are the avenues to the soul.
222. The brain nerves which communicate to the entire system are the only medium through which Heaven can communicate to man, and affect his inmost life. Whatever disturbs the circulation of the electric currents in the nervous system, lessens the strength of the vital powers, and the result is a deadening of the sensibilities of the mind.
Moral Insensibility.
223. In consequence of the brain's being congested, its nerves lose their healthy action, and take on morbid conditions, making it almost impossible to arouse the moral sensibilities.
224. It should ever be kept prominent that the great object to be attained through this channel is not only health, but perfection and the spirit of holiness, which cannot be attained with diseased bodies and minds.
225. Mental and moral power is dependent upon the physical health.
226. Physical and moral health are closely united.
God Misrepresented.
227. The children of God cannot glorify him with sickly bodies or dwarfed minds. Those who indulge in any species of intemperance, either in eating or drinking, waste their physical energies and weaken moral power.
228. Those whose moral faculties are beclouded by disease, are not the ones rightly to represent the Christian life, to show forth the joys of salvation or the beauties of holiness. They are too often in the fire of fanaticism or the water of cold indifference or stolid gloom.
229. While men and women professing godliness are diseased from the crown of their head to the soles of their feet, while their physical, mental and moral energies are enfeebled through gratification of depraved appetite and excessive labor, how can they weigh the evidences of truth, and comprehend the requirements of God? If their moral and intellectual faculties are beclouded, they cannot appreciate the value of the atonement or the exalted character of the work of God, nor delight in the study of his word. How can a nervous dyspeptic be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh him for a reason of the hope that is in him, with meekness and fear?
230. Perfection and the spirit of holiness cannot be attained with diseased bodies and minds.
HL 54, 55