Education-- A Religious Responsibility
Beware of Unbalance
While you search for education and wisdom, I need to offer a serious word of caution. Choose carefully what you will learn, whose teachings you will follow, and whose purposes you will serve. And don't place all of your intellectual eggs in the solitary basket of secular learning. Remember this warning from the Book of Mormon:
"O the vainness, and the frailties, and the foolishness of men! When they are learned they think they are wise, and they hearken not unto the counsel of God, for they set it aside, supposing they know of themselves, wherefore, their wisdom is foolishness and it profiteth them not. And they shall perish. "But to be learned is good if they hearken unto the counsels of God" (2 Nephi 9:28-29).
That scriptural counsel was not heeded by a rich friend of mine who once proudly boasted that his climb toward wealth had come from tireless work and lessons learned in the "school of hard knocks." But his financial fortune had come at the expense of his spiritual development. Only when it was too late did he discover, to his regret, that his ladder of success had been leaning against the wrong wall. He had never heeded the following instruction from his Maker:
"Seek not for riches but for wisdom, and behold, the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto you, and then shall you be made rich. Behold, he that hath eternal life is rich" (D&C 6:7; see also 11:7).
In retrospect, I can now see that mankind's general and pervasive lack of knowledge of the scriptures has handicapped great numbers of people for long periods of time. The suffering that has resulted from such ignorance is truly tragic. I will illustrate that point with excerpts from history that pertain to the spread of infection from one person to another.[5]
Back in the 19th century, very little was known about the transmission of infectious disease. Health officials and others ascribed infection simply to "air pollution." They were not concerned about pollution of the air by the visible, smoggy, hydrocarbons of today, but by what they called an invisible miasma. That miasma was blamed for almost every infection. In 1867, for example, the famous surgeon, Lord Joseph Lister, indicted bad air as the chief cause of infection. Because of that notion, in 1869, Dr. J. Y. Simpson of Edinburgh urged a policy that hospitals be taken down and rebuilt every few years.[6] Such a costly practice was also advocated by other experts.[7]
Even Florence Nightingale, a living legend following her heroic efforts in the Crimean War, was unaware of the transmission of infection from one patient to another--this despite her careful notations that wound infection accounted for 40 percent of postoperative mortality.[8] Many others missed the connection, too. For centuries, innumerable mothers and babies died from "childbirth fever"--serious infections unknowingly transmitted among innocent people by the unwashed hands of attendants.[9]
It was only in the latter part of the 19th Century that the great health heroes Robert Koch, Louis Pasteur, and others proved that infection could be caused by bacteria. Infectious organisms in contaminated body fluids were transmitted from one individual to another by attendants who had not washed their hands.
With these painful recollections of history in mind, may I quote the word of the Lord, as recorded long ago in the Old Testament's book of Leviticus, chapter 15:
"The Lord spake unto Moses and to Aaron, saying,
"Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When any man hath a running issue [or as we would say, pus draining] out of his flesh, because of his issue he is unclean.
"And this shall be his uncleanness in his issue . . . ."Every bed, whereon he lieth that hath the issue, is unclean: and every thing, whereon he sitteth, shall be unclean.
"And whosoever toucheth his bed shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water . . . .
"And he that toucheth the flesh of him that hath the issue shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water" (Leviticus 15:1-7; emphasis added).
Several verses follow that reemphasize those important instructions. Then we read this conclusion:
"And when he that hath an issue is cleansed of his issue; then he shall . . . wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh in running water, and shall be clean" (v. 13).
Thus, our loving Heavenly Father clearly revealed, and His prophet faithfully recorded, the principles of clean technique in the handling of infected patients more than 3,000 years ago!
These scriptures are in complete harmony with modern medical guidelines.[10] But during those many millennia, how many mothers needlessly perished? How many children suffered because man's quest for knowledge had failed to incorporate the word of the Lord in that quest?
