Books: Personal Experience of a Physician

J >> John Ellis >> Personal Experience of a Physician

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METHODS FOR RESTRAINING AND CURING SPIRITUAL AND NATURAL DISEASES.

As there is a correspondence between the natural and spiritual causes of
disease, so there must be a correspondence between the methods of
restraining and curing natural and spiritual diseases.

First: Spiritual diseases or evils are restrained by punishments which, by
force, as it were, counteract the inclination to do evil; corresponding to
this method we have the Antipathic method of restraining natural diseases,
which is one of the prevailing methods; for instance, for constipation
cathartics are given, for a diarrhoea astringents, and opiates are given to
forcibly relieve or restrain the symptoms of disease. Every one can but see
that such remedies for the cure of natural diseases, like punishments for
the cure of spiritual diseases or evils, are but palliative; for the
reaction, if reaction ensue, is not in the right direction. It is true that
a cure sometimes results in spite of the treatment, especially in transient
cases, the vital forces restoring health during the temporary restraint of
the diseased action; but in many cases the constipation is only aggravated
by cathartics, and diarrhoeas are not benefited by astringents; and the
evil man often becomes more vicious after punishment.

Second: Spiritual evils are often restrained by exciting one passion to
restrain evil acts in another direction; for instance, acquisitiveness and
vanity are often excited to restrain evil men from evil acts, which might
result from hatred and a desire for revenge, thus calling off the attention
from the prevailing evil inclination. Corresponding to this method of
restraining spiritual diseases we have the Allopathic method of restraining
diseased action in one organ by exciting diseased action in another organ
or part, as is done when a cathartic is given for disease of the head or
lungs, or when a blister is applied to the skin in case of internal
diseased action; thus, as it were, calling off the attention of the vital
forces from the diseased structures, and thus palliative relief is often
obtained in natural as in spiritual diseases.

Third: Either from afflictions, suffering, disappointments, or from
voluntarily hearkening to the truth, a man begins to feel a desire to
change his life, and looking to the Lord he repents and resolves to obey
the Divine Commandments by shunning evils as sins against God. But when he
commences to do this, evil spirits flow into his mind and tempt him to
again do evil acts; if the temptations are too strong he falls, but he may
fall to rise again; he will either do this by renewing his resolution to
overcome the evil inclination, or he will fall to rise no more, and keep on
in his old course of life, perhaps worse than before. Thoughts come before
actions; if a man, when tempted to do evil, resists the thoughts of doing
the evil acts, every one can see that he is striking a blow at the
perverted affection through which he has been tempted to do evil;
consequently the step toward a cure is far more radical and permanent than
it would have been if he had done the evil act.

Children and the young should be taught that to violate the Divine
Commandments is a sin against God, and that they should resist their
hereditary or acquired inclination to speak wrong words or do evil acts the
moment such inclinations are manifested in their thoughts, which is far
better than to allow them to move them to do evil acts. The cure of
spiritual diseases by the resisting of temptation is a genuine method of
cure. Corresponding with this for the treatment of natural diseases, we
have their treatment by the use of Homoeopathic remedies. Only spirits of a
similar inclination can tempt a man to do an evil act and thus manifest his
unsubdued inclination to him, which enables him to see and overcome the
inclination by resisting it. So, on the natural plane, it is only a
poisonous substance or remedy, which is capable of causing a similar
disease to the one existing, which can manifest the disease to the vital
forces and thus enable them to react against the disease. But if the dose
of the remedy given is too large it will aggravate the disease, as a
cathartic dose of a cathartic remedy will aggravate a diarrhoea; but the
vital forces may react and overcome the disease, or they may not, and the
disease continue even worse than before. It is the reaction of the vital
forces that overcomes the diseased action and effects the cure, and not the
remedy, any more than it is the evil spirit that tempts man that overcomes
his spiritual evils during regeneration. As it is not necessary that the
temptation should be so strong as to make a man take the first step toward
performing an evil act, to enable him to resist it if he will the moment
the inclination is seen in his thoughts, so it is not necessary that a dose
of a Homoeopathic remedy should be so strong as to aggravate the natural
diseased action in the slightest degree before it can be seen by the vital
forces, and a reaction follow. The size of the dose must be determined by
experience; but we know that its effects need only to equal the effects of
temptations which proceed no further than the thought of doing evil before
reaction may follow, therefore we can form no conception of the minuteness
of the dose which may be sufficient for a cure to follow.

But if a man would be restored to spiritual health by getting rid of his
hereditary and acquired inclinations to do evil, he must acknowledge the
Lord, diligently search His Word, and be willing to see and obey His
commandments, which are the laws of spiritual health and life, and must be
obeyed conscientiously, in intention, thought, word, and deed, if health is
to be restored; otherwise, punishment, hope of reward, and temptations can
only afford palliative relief at best. So in regard to natural diseases. If
a man would be restored to physical health by getting rid of his hereditary
and acquired inclinations to diseases, he must recognize that the laws of
nature are the laws established for his good by the Lord, and he must
diligently study the laws pertaining to health and life, and be willing to
see and obey those laws as to sunlight, air, exercise, clothing, and in
eating and drinking, etc., if he would be restored to health; otherwise,
antipathic, allopathic, and even homoeopathic remedies will prove only
palliative at best. If we expect to be well, spiritually or naturally, we
must strive to know and obey the laws of health and life.

Temptations by evil spirits permitted and controlled by the Lord for the
sake of removing many spiritual evils, and a corresponding action of
homoeopathic remedies administered by a skillful hand, for the sake of
removing natural diseases, are curative methods which belong to the New
Jerusalem Dispensation, now descending from God out of heaven, making all
things new--the Church of the future.

CHAPTER IX.

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE CONTINUED--AND EFFORTS.

Soon after I commenced reading the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, while
residing in Detroit, I was invited to attend a social gathering at the
residence of one of the members of the congregation of believers in his
writings in that city. During the evening, to my astonishment, fermented
wine was passed around to the guests, of which quite a number partook. As
already stated in the preceding pages, while a young man, through the
efficient teachings of Baptist and Congregational clergymen and prominent
members of the churches, and the results of drinking which I witnessed, I
was providentially enabled to see that to use drinks which endangered
health, reason, and life was wrong, and consequently a sin; and with many
others I signed a pledge never to drink intoxicating drinks during health.
The reader can imagine how I was shocked to see intoxicating wine presented
and partaken of among gentlemen and ladies who professed to be receivers
and believers in a new revelation of Divine truth from God to man. I
immediately saw the clergyman of the society, and asked him if Swedenborg
teaches that it is right and proper to drink an intoxicating wine. He
replied that he did.

He and members of his society were holding Sunday afternoon meetings for
the purpose of reading the writings and discussing such questions as might
arise, which meetings I attended. I said to the reverend gentleman that I
would like to have this wine question discussed at our next meeting, to
which he assented. At that meeting, I brought up the medical and scientific
aspects of the question, and endeavored to show that fermented wine was a
dangerous poison, it having destroyed vast multitudes of the human race,
and that it performed no use when taken into the stomach of healthy men and
women; and, consequently, that it is wrong to drink a wine which does so
much harm. The clergyman tried to justify its use by quoting certain
comparisons which Swedenborg had made between the apparent combat which
takes place during fermentation and the combat which ensues during the
regeneration of man, and the clearness of resulting wine after fermentation
and that of truth in the mind after regeneration, and also of the purity of
alcohol after it has been through certain processes, which he named,
compared with pure truth.

But we know that pure alcohol cannot be used as a beverage, and therefore
it is certain that these comparisons were simply as to the clearness of
fermented wine after fermentation, and the purity of alcohol after being
purified; and that they have nothing to do with the inherent quality of
these fluids, or their ability to affect man when he drinks them. We had an
earnest discussion of the question from our different standpoints, but
neither of us was satisfied with the result; and, consequently, we
adjourned the discussion of the subject until the next Sabbath afternoon.
In the meantime, the clergyman prepared a discourse, which he delivered on
Sunday morning, in which he endeavored to show that fermentation was caused
by an influx of angels from the highest heaven into the juice of the grape,
stirring it up and cleansing it from "inherent impurities." Providentially,
during the week, I had obtained a copy of Swedenborg's work on the "Angelic
Wisdom Concerning the Divine Love and Wisdom," in which he teaches that all
poisonous substances which do harm and kill man derive their life from or
through hell. When we came together in the afternoon to discuss the
question, we were about as far apart as it was possible to be, as the
reader can readily see. He took the ground that fermentation was caused by
influx from the highest heaven, and I took the ground that it was caused by
influx from the lowest hell, and we had an earnest discussion; but he
certainly did not satisfy me nor many of his audience, if any, that his
position was true. How could he? for there is no doubt but that fermented
wine has harmed and killed more of the human race in ages past than any
other poison. As a result of that discussion, within my knowledge,
fermented wine was never again used at the sociables of that society during
my residence in Detroit.

Within perhaps a year after that discussion, I was baptized and united with
the Detroit Society of the New Church. When I came to understand, from the
writings of Swedenborg, the true signification of water and the ordinance
of baptism--that water signified natural truth and that baptism introduced
one into the Church, and signified that man is to be regenerated or
purified by living a life according to the truth, and that the head
represented the man--I did not regard immersion as so important as I had
previously, consequently I was baptized by the application of water to the
head. There is, I think, no serious objection to any one being baptized by
immersion who prefers it. Children should, I think, be baptized into the
Church, and be brought up to feel that they belong to the Church, and are
expected to live the life of the Church. More and more have I seen the
importance of bringing children up under the influence of the Church, where
they should be instructed and entertained and thus kept away from bad
company.

WHY A SEPARATE NEW-CHURCH ORGANIZATION.

Swedenborg made no attempt to organize the believers in the revelations
made by the Lord through his instrumentality into a separate church
organization, and nowhere in his writings does he express the opinion that
such a separate organization would ever be needed or desirable. And he
apparently expected that the prevailing false doctrines of the churches
would, in the increasing light of the New Jerusalem, be seen to be false by
the clergy of existing church organizations; and that through them the
laity would be enabled to see that they are false, and thus they would be
put away, as is manifest in passages which I have quoted elsewhere; also
see T. C. R. 784.

When individual men or churches put away false doctrines, they are
prepared, if in the good of life, to see and receive the truth;
consequently Swedenborg says that although the First Christian Church has
come to its end through false doctrines and evils of life, yet it is to
revive again through the instrumentality of the newly revealed science of
correspondences; consequently it is not to utterly perish, for there is a
remnant within its borders.

Then the reader will inquire, "Why was an external New-Church organization
ever formed?" We have not to look far to find the reason. First, there was
a vast multitude of intelligent men and women who did not belong to any
church organization, and when some of them came to see and believe the new
doctrines, they naturally desired to be baptized and to join a church
organization; but seeing clearly in the light of the new revelations that,
according to the Sacred Scriptures, God is one in essence and in person,
and that that one God was manifested to man in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and that He made that human form Divine and is henceforth to be
worshiped as one God in His Divine Humanity, and that a life according to
His sayings and the commandments is essential to salvation, they could not
join the prevailing churches, for they could not assent to their creeds.

Second. When, as soon occurred, both clergymen and laymen, belonging to
various church organizations, began to read the writings, and to see that
the Lord is in very deed now coming in the clouds of heaven, and desired to
let the new light shine among their brethren, they found that they were
often not free to do so without giving offense; and in not a few instances
clergymen found that they were silenced as preachers, and sometimes both
clergymen and laymen were expelled, for believing the Heavenly Doctrines
instead of the creeds; consequently the receivers of the doctrines of the
New Dispensation had no choice but to form a new church organization. But
at this day there is a vast change, and I trust that from but a very few if
any church organizations would a lay member be expelled for believing in
the Supreme Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that the Sacred
Scriptures are Divine and plenarily inspired, and that a life according to
the Lord's sayings and His Commandments is essential to salvation.
Consequently there are thousands of earnest receivers of the Heavenly
Doctrines of the New Jerusalem scattered throughout the various churches,
gradually leavening, as I trust, the whole lump; and there are clergymen
not a few who are gradually beholding, with more or less fullness, the
light of this New Day; and as they receive it, large numbers of them are
not slow to let the light shine among their fellow-men, as they are
prepared to receive it.

The Lord has given to men freedom and reason, and they are responsible for
their acts. To whom do a clergyman and members of a church organization owe
fealty, to the Lord and His Word and the members of the congregations where
they worship, or to a creed and church or a church organization formulated
and organized during darker ages of the world and Church? Should men or
should they not, when they behold the glorious light of the Lord's Second
Coming in the clouds of heaven, stand in their place and proclaim the glad
tidings to all who are willing to hear?

Swedenborg, in giving the spiritual sense of the second chapter of the
Apocalypse, in No. 69 of the _Apocalypse Revealed_, says:--

"This and the following chapter treat of the seven churches, by which are
described all those in the Christian Church who have any religion, and out
of whom the New Church, which is the New Jerusalem, can be formed; and this
is formed by those who APPROACH THE LORD ONLY, AND AT THE SAME TIME PERFORM
REPENTANCE FROM EVIL WORKS. The rest, who do not approach the Lord alone,
from the confirmed negation of the divinity of His humanity, and who do not
perform repentance from evil works, are indeed in the Church, but have
nothing of the Church in them."

If all clergymen and members of our churches, the moment they begin to see
that portions of their creeds are false and injurious in their tendency,
instead of trying, by proclaiming the truth among their brethren, to have
the false doctrines removed and true doctrines substituted, were to
immediately forsake the church organization in which, in the good
providence of the Lord, they stand, what hope would there be for the
perpetuation of existing churches as Christian organizations at all? The
great danger at this day is that false doctrines will be seen faster than
true doctrines will be seen to take their place, and thus our churches and
members will be left desolate and return to a Gentile state. For instance,
if our clergy and intelligent laymen begin to see, as many of them seem to
be doing already, that the doctrine of a tri-personal God, instead of a
trinity in unity, and the doctrine of the vicarious atonement are contrary
to the teachings of the Sacred Scriptures, and unreasonable and
inconsistent, and do not at the same time see clearly the scriptural
doctrine that God is one in essence and in person, and that in the person
of our Lord Jesus Christ that one God was manifested for the purpose of
reconciling the world unto Himself, such individuals are almost sure sooner
or later to deny the Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that the Sacred
Scriptures are divine and special revelations from God to man, and
consequently plenarily inspired.

The doctrines which are false in the prevailing church organizations must
go--they are going--from the minds of their members if not from their
creeds. Then are these organizations to become Gentile and stand like the
remnants of the Ancient Church, which we behold in southern and eastern
Asia? I think not; for we are told, as has been already stated in the
revelations made by the Lord through Emanuel Swedenborg, that the science
of correspondences was revealed that the Christian Church "may revive and
again draw breath from the Lord through heaven." Gentiles received the Lord
at His first coming with joy; and so I believe the Gentiles in and out of
our church organizations will receive Him now as He comes in the clouds of
heaven. In the light manifested in the Sacred Scriptures by the aid of the
science of correspondences, every willing and obedient man and woman is
able to see that God is one, and that the Lord Jesus Christ, or God in His
Divine Humanity, is that one God and the only Being whom men should and
whom angels do worship. Then of what unspeakable importance it is that the
attention of all clergymen and laymen be speedily called to the writings
for the Church of the New Jerusalem which is now descending from God out of
heaven!

After practicing medicine for ten or twelve years, and on accepting the
chair of "Theory and Practice of Medicine" tendered by the Western
Homoeopathic College at Cleveland, Ohio, I commenced, as it were, the study
of the practical department of my profession anew, in order to prepare
myself for filling the chair profitably to the students and creditably to
myself. While preparing forgiving lectures, and especially in after years
while away from my active medical practice at Detroit, giving a course of
lectures at Cleveland every winter, I began to study and investigate in my
leisure hours the causes of diseases. Step by step I pursued my
investigations, until I became satisfied that most of the deformities,
diseases, and insanity which exist have been caused by the violation of the
physical and spiritual laws of our being which could have been avoided in
the past, and which can and must be in the future, if our race is to be
restored to a state of healthy, symmetrical, and noble manhood.
Consequently I came to the conclusion that it is far more important that
men, women, and children should be taught the laws of health and to
understand the causes of the prevailing deformities and diseases, and how
to shun them, than it was for them and their children to get sick,
deformed, and suffer, and often to pay their hard-earned money to doctors
for the uncertain chance of being cured--in fact, that "an ounce of
prevention is worth more than a pound of cure."

As a result of my investigations I wrote a series of articles for the
_Detroit Tribune_ on the bad habits which cause diseases, insanity,
and deformity; and, as opportunity offered, I gave lectures upon such
subjects; and finally I wrote a work entitled the "Avoidable Causes of
Disease," of 348 pages, of which I printed several editions, the first of
which was in 1859, and furnished to different publishers, and advertised to
a limited extent; after that it was published for several years by Messrs.
Mason Brothers, of New York; after which it came into my hands again. I
also wrote a pamphlet of 48 pages on "Marriage and its Violations," which,
for a time, was bound separately, but afterward was bound with the
"Avoidable Causes of Disease." In all, eleven editions of the work have
been printed; the last edition was printed by Messrs Boericke & Tafel, of
Philadelphia, who will probably publish any future editions which may be
demanded.

I soon found, what my publishers found after me, and other writers and
their publishers have found, that it does not pay to advertise books which
contain the greatest amount of practical and useful information which is
calculated to benefit readers, especially if they call in question the bad
habits and evils of life in which so many people indulge; consequently,
feeling that a work treating of diseases and their cure, in which I could
advertise my first work and call special attention to it, would sell more
readily, I wrote a book of 404 pages, entitled "Family Homoeopathy," in
which I took great pains to carefully describe in few words the various
diseases, and gave as definite and positive instruction as was practicable
to guide laymen, so that harmless homoeopathic remedies might take the
place of drastic drugs and injurious domestic remedies, which are so
frequently used when it is thought not necessary to call a physician, or
before his arrival when called. At the end of this volume I inserted a
carefully prepared table of the contents of the "Avoidable Causes of
Disease," occupying three pages, and referred not unfrequently to that work
when treating of various diseases.

With but very slight efforts, and no advertising on my part, "Family
Homoeopathy" sold very well--principally through the different
homoeopathic pharmacies in our country; and this increased the sale of "The
Avoidable Causes of Disease" very materially, as I expected it would.
Seventeen editions of "Family Homoeopathy" have been printed and sold, the
last edition by Dr. E. R. Ellis, of Detroit, Michigan, who will continue to
print and supply applicants as wanted.

SPIRITUAL CAUSES OF DISEASES.

As I continued my investigation into the causes of disease, and especially
as I read the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, I began to see more and more
clearly that diseases, to a large extent at least, have a spiritual origin,
and that the great obstacles to the removal of their causes lie in the
false doctrines of Christian churches. When selfish men who were leaders in
the churches desired to exercise their love of rule in spiritual and
natural things and to exercise despotic power, when they desired to reduce
other men to slavery and to hold them as slaves, or when they desired to
gratify other perverted passions and sensual appetites, they all went to
the Bible and strove to justify their conduct from its pages, with the
expectation of reaching heaven at last; for this purpose it required the
invention of special doctrines, and these they taught to their children,
and thus the Word of God was made of no effect by the traditions and
doctrines of men.

Unfortunately for the Protestant Church, early in its history, instead of
"If ye would enter into life, keep the commandments," there was substituted
the doctrine of justification by faith alone; which led men, especially the
young, to hope that by getting religion and having faith, they could at any
time escape the legitimate penalties which are attached by the Lord to evil
doing. No young man, religiously brought up, expects to go to hell; but he
intends to repent and be converted before he dies; he often thinks he will
"sow his wild oats" first, instead of earnestly and faithfully striving to
keep the Divine commandments from his youth up. Evil thinking and doing
develop an infernal life within him, which often gradually gains strength
until he is ruled by his perverted appetites and passions; and day by day
his ability to regain his freedom grows less.

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