The Creator chose for our first parents the surroundings
best adapted for their health and happiness. He did not
place them in a palace or surround them with the artificial
adornments and luxuries that so many today are struggling
to obtain. He placed them in close touch with nature and in
close communion with the holy ones of heaven.
In the garden that God prepared as a home for His children,
graceful shrubs and delicate flowers greeted the eye at
every turn. There were trees of every variety, many of them
laden with fragrant and delicious fruit. On their branches
the birds caroled their songs of praise. Under their shadow
the creatures of the earth sported together without a fear.
Adam and Eve, in their untainted purity, delighted in the
sights and sounds of Eden. God appointed them their work
in the garden, "to dress it and to keep it." Genesis 2:15. Each
day's labor brought them health and gladness, and the happy
pair greeted with joy the visits of their Creator, as in the cool
of the day He walked and talked with them. Daily God
taught them His lessons.
The plan of life which God appointed for our first parents
has lessons for us. Although sin has cast its shadow over the
earth, God desires His children to find delight in the
works of His hands. The more closely His plan of life is
followed, the more wonderfully will He work to restore suffering
humanity. The sick need to be brought into close touch
with nature. An outdoor life amid natural surroundings
would work wonders for many a helpless and almost hopeless
invalid.
The noise and excitement and confusion of the cities, their
constrained and artificial life, are most wearisome and
exhausting to the sick. The air, laden with smoke and dust,
with poisonous gases, and with germs of disease, is a peril to
life. The sick, for the most part shut within four walls, come
almost to feel as if they were prisoners in their rooms. They
look out on houses and pavements and hurrying crowds, with
perhaps not even a glimpse of blue sky or sunshine, of grass or
flower or tree. Shut up in this way, they brood over their
suffering and sorrow, and become a prey to their own sad
thoughts.
And for those who are weak in moral power, the cities
abound in dangers. In them, patients who have unnatural
appetites to overcome are continually exposed to temptation.
They need to be placed amid new surroundings where the
current of their thoughts will be changed; they need to be
placed under influences wholly different from those that have
wrecked their lives. Let them for a season be removed from
those influences that lead away from God, into a purer
atmosphere.
Institutions for the care of the sick would be far more
successful if they could be established away from the cities. And
so far as possible, all who are seeking to recover health should
place themselves amid country surroundings where they can
have the benefit of outdoor life. Nature is God's physician.
The pure air, the glad sunshine, the flowers and trees, the
orchards and vineyards, and outdoor exercise amid these
surroundings, are health-giving, life-giving.
Physicians and nurses should encourage their patients to be
much in the open air. Outdoor life is the only remedy that
many invalids need. It has a wonderful power to heal diseases
caused by the excitements and excesses of fashionable life, a
life that weakens and destroys the powers of body, mind, and
soul.
How grateful to the invalids weary of city life, the glare of
many lights, and the noise of the streets, are the quiet and
freedom of the country! How eagerly do they turn to the
scenes of nature! How glad would they be to sit in the open
air, rejoice in the sunshine, and breathe the fragrance of tree
and flower! There are life-giving properties in the balsam of
the pine, in the fragrance of the cedar and the fir, and other
trees also have properties that are health restoring.
To the chronic invalid, nothing so tends to restore health
and happiness as living amid attractive country surroundings.
Here the most helpless ones can sit or lie in the sunshine or in
the shade of the trees. They have only to lift their eyes to see
above them the beautiful foliage. A sweet sense of restfulness
and refreshing comes over them as they listen to the murmuring
of the breezes. The drooping spirits revive. The waning
strength is recruited. Unconsciously the mind becomes peaceful,
the fevered pulse more calm and regular. As the sick grow
stronger, they will venture to take a few steps to gather some
of the lovely flowers, precious messengers of God's love to
His afflicted family here below.
Plans should be devised for keeping patients out of doors.
For those who are able to work, let some pleasant, easy
employment be provided. Show them how agreeable and
helpful this outdoor work is. Encourage them to breathe the
fresh air. Teach them to breathe deeply, and in breathing and
speaking to exercise the abdominal muscles. This is an education
that will be invaluable to them.
Exercise in the open air should be prescribed as a
life-giving necessity. And for such exercises there is nothing better
than the cultivation of the soil. Let patients have flower
beds to care for, or work to do in the orchard or vegetable
garden. As they are encouraged to leave their rooms and
spend time in the open air, cultivating flowers or doing some
other light, pleasant work, their attention will be diverted
from themselves and their sufferings.
The more the patient can be kept out of doors, the less care
will he require. The more cheerful his surroundings, the
more helpful will he be. Shut up in the house, be it ever so
elegantly furnished, he will grow fretful and gloomy. Surround
him with the beautiful things of nature; place him
where he can see the flowers growing and hear the birds singing,
and his heart will break into song in harmony with the
songs of the birds. Relief will come to body and mind. The
intellect will be awakened, the imagination quickened, and
the mind prepared to appreciate the beauty of God's word.
In nature may always be found something to divert the
attention of the sick from themselves and direct their thoughts
to God. Surrounded by His wonderful works, their minds
are uplifted from the things that are seen to the things that
are unseen. The beauty of nature leads them to think of the
heavenly home, where there will be nothing to mar the loveliness,
nothing to taint or destroy, nothing to cause disease or
death.
Let physicians and nurses draw from the things of nature,
lessons teaching of God. Let them point the patients to Him
whose hand has made the lofty trees, the grass, and the flowers,
encouraging them to see in every bud and flower an
expression of His love for His children. He who cares for the
birds and the flowers will care for the beings formed in His
own image.
Out of doors, amid the things that God has made, breathing
the fresh, health-giving air, the sick can best be told of
the new life in Christ. Here God's word can be read. Here
the light of Christ's righteousness can shine into hearts darkened
by sin.