Observation
Quote
Now, this Spirit of God, that is in man, is doing the best it can to keep him alive and well; this divine Spirit, - the Holy Ghost in man - is all the while laboring to keep man alive and well. This is the healing power in him.
The basis of this theory Dr. Kellogg found in Genesis 2:7.
The Holy Spirit is keeping the man alive. This is true:
14 If he set his heart upon man, if he gather unto himself his spirit and his breath;
15 All flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust.
Transcript
Note: the available scan of the lecture is not complete. Bellow is what could be transcribed by certain level of accuracy.
SANITARIUM GYMNASIUM LECTURE, Oct 4, 1900.
How we can aid Nature in the Struggle against Disease.
J.H.Kellogg, M.D.
Ladies and Gentlemen: Most of you I suppose are interested in the battle that we are to talk about tonight, - the fight between nature and disease . In expressing myself in this way, I am guilty of a misdemeanor, for there is not such thing as a fight between nature and disease. Disease is not an entity. The ancients looked upon disease as being something which took possession of a man. A man who was a lunatic, or crazy was supposed to have a crazy daemon inside of him. A man with epilepsy was supposed to have another kind of devil within him. And so every sort of diseased person was supposed to have his own demon; and when the demon got into a man, he was supposed to be possessed of a devil, and needed to have the devil cast out, and so, all sorts of means were used for this purpose. One ancients resorted to all sorts of magic to cast out the demon of disease, sometimes burning fragrant herbs and applying them to the nose of the patient, and sometimes applying flagellations with sticks, until the patient was nearly dead, for the purpose of persuading the demons to leave. In Tartary, even at the present day, this same theory is carried out and in full operation. The Tartar physician goes out during the latter part of the Summer and fall, carrying his leather bag on his shoulder, and he gathers up and puts into his leather the leaves, roots and herbs which he thinks will be useful. Then he goes to a sick man and gives his diagnosis. He then delves down into his bag for the thing which he thinks is best for the man, and if he don’t find the right root or herb, he writes the name of it a little piece of air, rolls it up into a ball, and the patient swallows it as a sort of notification to the demon that if he don’t act out pretty soon, the real thing will be sent down after him, - a sort of service of notice on him to quit. Then the doctor says to the patient, if he is a rich or well-to-do-patient, that he has a big demon - a “swelled sort” of demon - and that he cannot be dislodged in the ordinary way; that the only way the matter could be arranged is, by bringing out the patient’s best horse so that the demon may have a good place to… [page 3 is missing in scan]
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holy; God put it into man when he made him. That is the reason man was alive, -he was nothing more than a clod of earth without the Spirit of God; God put it into him when he made him, -he put his own Spirit, and made him alive by putting his own life into him. The spirit of God in man is the thing that makes him alive - that makes him a living and intelligent being; and when this Spirit departs from man, he is simply dust again; he undergoes putrefaction and goes back to earth again, just as a dead animal or vegetable would.
Now, this Spirit of God, that is in man, is doing the best it can to keep him alive and well; this divine Spirit, - the Holy Ghost in man - is all the while laboring to keep man alive and well. This is the healing power in him. The ancients kew something about this power, and the ancient Roman physicians called it, the “vis medicatrix naturae,” or natural healing power of the body, - and that is nothing more nor less than the living Spirit, - God himself, who dwells in man. It is nothing less than the divine power. Why? Because it is the creative power: here is a man who has broken a bone - how can that bone be healed? There must be a new creation there; there must be a cement made to hold the ends of the bone, and which is, after awhile, to be converted into a condition where it will grow. So you have something there that wasn’t there before; you have there, actually a part of a new man - there is a new creation there, a new arm, in part. Or suppose you tear off a piece of skin from your arm: In a month there is a new skin created there, —this is a new creation.
It is marvelous to what extend this creative work is carried on by this healing power! Suppose you cut a nerve of the arm, - the part of the nerve extending to the hand will be paralyzed; but in six months that paralyzed nerve will be reproduced; there will be a shooting out of the healing (illegible) end of the nerve, and it grows and grows and grows until the whole nerve is reproduced. Sometimes, by inflammation, or some other cause, the entire nerve from the spinal chord to the extreme limit of the nerve, is destroyed. In six months that nerve will be reproduced from the spinal chord out. That is the reason it take a…