1899年11月9日
1899年11月6日写于新南威尔士州梅特兰
亲爱的彼得·韦塞尔斯弟兄：
我有些话要跟你说，是你需要的。有些位置你可以充任，在这些位置你可能会在很多方面成为福气。但是错误的想法使你无法填补这些位置。你的品格需要修剪;因为有一种多余的生长需要从你身上被切掉。你所认为的不应为病人使用任何疗法的观点是错误的。上帝并非不借助人力所能及的治疗方法医治病人;只是有人不肯受益于上帝所提供的清洁的空气和水等简单疗法。{PC 26.3}
在基督的时代和使徒的时代就有医师。路加被称为亲爱的医生。他信靠主，使他能够灵巧地使用疗法。当主告诉希西家要延长他十五年的寿数，并以使日头向后退十度为实现祂应许的兆头时，为什么祂没有把直接使人复原的能力加在王身上呢?祂告诉他取一串无花果放在他的痛处，那个自然的疗法因上帝的赐福医治了他。自然界的上帝现在仍指导人使用自然的疗法。{PC 26.4}
我的弟兄，对这件事我可以讲很多，但我现在只讲几个例子。一位弟兄患病得了肠炎和出血性痢疾。他不是一个审慎的健康改良者，而是放纵食欲的人。我们正在准备离开德克萨斯州。在那里我们已辛劳了几个月。我们预备好了马车准备带走这位弟兄和他的家人，还有其他几个患有疟疾发烧的人。我丈夫和我认为我们承受得起这笔费用，不能让几个家庭的男主人死去，使得他们的妻儿们无人养活。两三个人被放进一辆大马车的弹簧垫子上。但这个患有肠炎的人，是派人请我来看他的。我丈夫和我认为让他搬动不妥。我们担心发生坏疽。然后有了像是主传达给我的念头让我用炭粉，并在其上加水，给病人喝，同时把裹上炭的绷带包扎在他的肠子和胃上。我们离丹尼森城约有三里路，但病人的儿子去了一家铁匠铺，得到了木炭，磨成粉，让后按照所给的指导使用。结果半个小时后就有好转。我们不得不继续行程，把这一家人留在后面，但令我们吃惊的是，第二天看到他们的马车赶上了我们。病人正躺在马车的床上。上帝的赐福与简单的方法同工了。{PC 26.5}
我还记得另一个病例。在我们在布莱顿这里举行的第一次帐篷大会上，一位年轻的女士被带到营地，在聚会的大部分时间里一直生病。她被认为得了伤寒，尽管为她献上了许多祷告，但她还是病倒了。巴特尔克里克的J.H.凯洛格的同父异母兄弟M.G.凯洛格医生当时在照料她。一天早上，他来找我，说：普赖斯姐妹很痛苦。我无法减轻她的痛苦。她睡不着，每一次呼吸似乎都是她最后一次呼吸。我们为她祈祷，然后我突然想到木炭，就像一道闪电一样。“去铁匠那里拿木炭，把木炭磨碎，”我说，“把木炭涂在她肋旁。”他试了一下，一个小时后就来找我说：“那药方是上帝的启示。要是未经发生任何改变，普赖斯姐妹原本活不到现在。生病的人宁静地睡着了;危机过去了，她开始改善。几天后，她被从墨尔本带到她在墨尔本的家(?)，现在还健在。{PC 27.1}
这一切的事都教导我们当非常谨慎，免得接受极端的观点和印象。你对于药物治疗的想法，我必须尊重;但即使在这件事上，你也不必始终让病人知道你完全弃绝了药物，直到他们在这个问题上聪明起来。你时常置身于伤害自己感化力的地位，对任何人都没有益处，因为你一股脑儿地表达了自己的信念。这就使你与人们脱节。你应当改变自己强烈的偏见。{PC 27.2}
我不能如我所愿的那样充分地讲论这个问题，但我要说：“将彼得·韦塞尔斯隐藏在基督里面。”我必须就此离开你了;因为我没有时间再写了。{PC 27.3}
Maitland, N.S.W.,Nov. 6,’99
Dear Brother Peter Wessels,
I have some things to say to you which you need. There are places you might fill, places in which you might be a blessing in many ways. But erroneous ideas keep you from filling these places. Your character needs to be pruned; for there is a superfluous growth that needs to be cut away from you. The idea which you hold that no remedies should be used for the sick is an error. God does not heal the sick without the aid of the means of healing which lie within the reach of man; or when men refuse to be benefitted by the simple remedies that God has provided in pure air and water.?{PC 26.3}
There were physicians in Christ’s day and in the days of the apostles. Luke is called the beloved physician. He trusted in the Lord to make him skilful in the application of remedies. When the Lord told Hezekiah that He would spare his life for fifteen years, and as a sign that He would fulfill His promise, caused the sun to go back ten degrees, why did He not put His direct, restoring power upon the king? He told him to apply a bunch of figs to his sore, and that natural remedy blessed by God, healed him. The God of nature directs the human agent to use natural remedies now.?{PC 26.4}
I might go to any length in this matter, my brother, but I leave it now with a few instances. A brother was taken sick with inflammation of the?bowels and bloody dysentery. The man was not a careful health reformer, but indulged his appetite. We were just preparing to leave Texas, where we had been laboring for several months, and we had carriages prepared to take away this brother and his family, and several others who were suffering from malarial fever. My husband and I thought we would stand this expense rather than have heads of several families die and leave their wives and children unprovided for. Two or three were taken in a spring wagon on spring mattresses. But this man who was suffering from inflammation of the bowels, sent for me to come to him. My husband and I decided that it would not do to move him. Fears were entertained that mortification had set in. Then the thought came to me like a communication from the Lord to take pulverized charcoal, put water upon it, and give this water to the sick man to drink, putting bandages of the charcoal over the bowels and stomach. We were about one mile from the city of Denison, but the sick man’s son went to a blacksmith’s shop, secured the charcoal, and pulverized it, and then used it according to the directions given. The result was that in half an hour there was a change for the better. We had to go on our journey and leave the family behind, but what was our surprise the following day to see their wagon overtake us. The sick man was lying in a bed in the wagon. The blessing of God had worked with the simple means used.?{PC 26.5}
I still remember another case. At our first camp-meeting here, held in Brighton, a young lady was taken sick on the ground, and remained sick during most of the meeting. She was thought to have typhoid fever, and although many prayers were offered in her behalf, she left the ground sick. Dr. M.G. Kellogg, half-brother to J.H. Kellogg, of Battle Creek, was attending her. He came to me one morning, and said, Sister Price is in great pain. I cannot relieve her. She cannot sleep, and every breath seems as though it would be her last. We prayed for her, and then like a flash of lightning there came to me the thought of the charcoal. “Send to the blacksmith for charcoal, and pulverize it, I said, “and put a poultice of it on her side.” He tried this, and in one hour he came to me and said, “That prescription was an inspiration from God. Sister Price could not have lived until now if no change had come. The sick one fell into a restful sleep; the crisis passed, and she began to amend. In a few days she was taken from Melbourne to her home in Melbourne (?), and is alive and well today.?{PC 27.1}
All these things teach us that we are to be very careful lest we receive radical ideas and impressions. Your ideas regarding drug medication, I must respect; but even in this you must not always let the patients know that you discard drugs entirely until they become intelligent on the subject. You often place yourself in positions where you hurt your influence and do no one any good, by expressing all your convictions. Thus you cut yourself away from the people. You should modify your strong prejudice.?{PC 27.2}
I cannot speak as fully on this subject as I would like to, but let me say, “Hide Peter Wessels in Christ.” Here I must leave you; for I have not time to write more. -?{PC 27.3}
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