290 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 15 



OUR 

 HOMES, 



BY A. I. R O OT. 



Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of 

 the church; and let them pray over him, anointing 

 him with oil in the name of the l,ord. — James 5:14. 



Ever since I began reading the Bible 

 carefully and prayerfully I have wondered 

 that there is so little said in it regarding 

 caring for the sick, curing disease, etc. Of 

 course, there were prophets in the olden 

 time who healed by word or touch; but even 

 when God dealt directly with his children, 

 there seems to be an absence of any specif- 

 ic directions for the care of these bodies cf 

 ours. Among the ten commandments given 

 to Moses there is one that says, "Honor thy 

 father and thy mother, that thy days may 

 be long upon the land," etc. This is a re- 

 mote reference to the matter of health and 

 length of life; but, if I am correct, it is the 

 only one of the commandments that reallj' 

 has much to say about the matter. The 

 Bible fceems to be especially devoted to the 

 moral and spiritual health of humanity. 

 But for all this it has seemed strange to me 

 that the all-seeing Father should not have 

 told us more about what his wishes are in 

 the way of using remedies, and regarding 

 the whole matter of healing the sick. Later 

 on, when Jesus came down from his home 

 in heaven because of his love and sympathy 

 for poor humanity, while he gave rules and 

 laid down directions without number for 

 our moral and spiritual up-building, he has, 

 I have sometimes thought, almost avoided 

 either discussing or indorsing the common 

 methods of healing the sick. Of course, it 

 is true no medicines or remedies were ever 

 needed whenever he was near, for he was 

 the great healer, the one physician who 

 never lost a patient. But why did he not 

 give us seme specific rules that might be a 

 help to us after he had gone back to his 

 heavenly home? It is evident the Bible is 

 not in any sense a '''' doctor book." There 

 "are various places where we are told to 

 pray when in trouble of any kind; and our 

 text is clear and distinct in regard to this 

 matter. But the words of the text are not 

 the words of Jesus. James is supposed to 

 be the brother of our Lord, or at least the 

 son of Joseph the husband of the virgin 

 Mary. Now, may be our ministerial breth- 

 ren will think I am not quite orthodox when 

 I suggest that James could not speak with 

 the same authority that the Savior did. I 

 believe James is right; but I do not believe 

 he had divine inspiration so that he knew 

 about these things as did God the Father, 

 or Jesus the Son later on. 



I have always curiously considered this 

 expression about anointing with oil; and 

 several times, if I am correct, pious people 

 have undertaken to heal diseases by pray- 

 ing over and anointing the sick with oil; 

 and sometimes I have wondered what kind 

 of oil James had in mind, and I have won- 



dered, too, whether it were possible, among 

 the great mass of remedies in vogue in his 

 time, he meant to recognize the value of only 

 this one. Jesus tells us, in that wonderful 

 parable, that the good Samaritan poured 

 "oil and wine" on the wounds of the poor 

 sufi^erer. Did he, by this expression, in- 

 tend to authorize the use of oil and wine as 

 remedies? 



Just a few days ago that excellent period- 

 ical, the Sunday School Times, gave me a 

 little light on this matter. They made a 

 statement something like this: The inspired 

 writers seemed to fall in line with the gen- 

 eral belief of the time in which they wrote, 

 and they simply meant to indorse harmless 

 remedies; and what James intended, when 

 he spoke about oil, was only an exhortation 

 to the people to do the best they could or 

 the best they knew how for a suffering 

 brother. In his day oil was one of the reme- 

 dies in use, and it is a good one still. I 

 have seen mechanics take an oil-can and 

 pour oil on a sore or a burn that was hot 

 and feverish. When my corns and chil- 

 blains become dry, and the flesh hard and 

 painful, a little nice oil, or vaseline (which 

 is the same thing) , sometimes gives wonder- 

 ful relief. Sometimes the smarting of a 

 burn may be stopped almost instantly by 

 the use of oil. Now, James simply intend- 

 ed that we should make use of every thing 

 we could lay our hands on for a sufi^ering 

 friend, at the same time we prayed for wis- 

 dom and understanding. When Jesus spoke 

 of what the good Samaritan did, it seems 

 quite probable to me it was along in the 

 same line, and so on all through the Bible. 



Do some of you ask why God the Father 

 or Jesus the son did not tell us more about 

 this vital question that so much concerns 

 human happiness? I might say I really do 

 not know; but on a little more reflection I 

 really do know something about it — at 

 least I think I do. The father who helps 

 his child over every log he comes to, espe- 

 cially after that child is large enough to 

 climb and work hard himself, is doing the 

 child an injury. You can find rich men's 

 children who are really "crippled for life" 

 in this very way. For some reason which 

 I do not exactly understand, God seems to 

 think best to let us work out our own physi- 

 cal salvation through much pain and suffer- 

 ing. This thing we do know — that Chris- 

 tian nations are making far greater prog- 

 ress in the way of securing general physi- 

 cal health than heathen nations. We know, 

 too, that righteousness and Christianity are 

 highly conducive to the highest state of 

 health to any people. I have not touched 

 on Christian Science yet; but you may have 

 gathered that I have but little faith in 

 Christian Science or any thing of that sort 

 unless it is coupled with an honest, earnest 

 faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe 

 in the kind of religion that, while it prays, 

 it also looks after the matter of pure water 

 to drink, sends the patient out of doors to 

 get over consumption by the use of pure air, 

 and general cleanliness and purity, not 



