Counsels on Health - Ellen G. White

creatures and has set their feet in the path that leads
to perdition. How terrible to trust our loved ones in
the hands of an impure man, who may poison the
morals and ruin the soul! How out of place is the
godless physician at the bedside of the dying!
Familiarity With Suffering
The physician is almost daily brought face to
face with death. He is, as it were, treading upon the
verge of the grave. In many instances familiarity
with scenes of suffering and death results in
carelessness and indifference to human woe and
recklessness in the treatment of the sick. Such
physicians seem to have no tender sympathy. They
are harsh and abrupt, and the sick dread their
approach. Such men, however great their
knowledge and skill, can do the suffering little
good; but if the love and sympathy that Jesus
manifested for the sick is combined with the
physician’s knowledge, his very presence will be a
blessing. He will not look upon his patient as a
mere piece of human mechanism, but as a soul to
be saved or lost.
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