WASHING IN JORDAN.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3333, 9 August 1926, Page 8

WASHING IN JORDAN.

(By Dr Leonard Williams.)

When Elisha the prophet counselled jSaaraan the Syrian to heal him ol his leprosy by washing seven times in Jordan, the latter went away in a rage. But his servants, with true insight, endeavored to calm him by pointing out that it the holy man had prescribed some great thing the Captain of the Host would have performed it, “How much rather, then, wbcn be saitli unto thee, wash and be clean.” , In matters ol mailing ibis attitude of contempt lor the simple, and insistent demand for the heroic, seems tc bo innate in ns all. it existed before Naamau, and survives even unto the present day. Each one of us is / liable to suppose that there is something grandiose about his own particular malady, and when it is summarily reduced to the denominator ol the commonplace his vanity is sure to be hurt. The ordinary invalid likes to think that there is something occult or eso teric about his ailment: something which puzzles knowledge and defies wisdom. He is completely satisfied only when his case is unique, so that in this, at any rate, he can honest);, boast that ho is not as other men are. To tell such a man to go and wash in Jordan is to give him a slap in the fate. The slap is often very salutary but it is none the less a slap, and unless he be a super-diplomatist, tlu doctor who administers it is almosl certain to lose his patient. To a similar general attitude of mind must be attributed the intense dislike of most sick people to any remedial measure which is passive and not active. /‘The enemy,” they cry in effect “the enemy is at my gate; don’t look ou. Do something.” Now for (several generations past the policy o! the medical profession in the face ol illness has always been to “do something.” But,with the advance oj knowledge this policv has undergone ai, ever-increas.ng degree of modification. In acute disease the modern doctor is content to hold a watching brief, to relieve symptoms and forestall complications; ho no longer seeks, as his grandfathers did, to hew the enemy liin am thigh because he realises that th.s kind of active intervention is more likclv tt do harm than good; that Nature is treating the patient, and Nature is wiser than the wisest of men. The pos tion is much the same whore chronic ailments are concerned. -*ie demand of the patient is for a remedy, for active measures, for a lightning cure, in fact. He dates to be told to possess his soul in patience, ami to surround his habits w.th negatives. He is indignant when, in answer to Jus cry of “What shall I do to be saved?” ho is coldly advised to abstain from alcoholic drinks. It is ’intolerable. he thinks, that so serious a matter should ’ be dismissed without any semblance of the pomp and circumstance which, it certainly deserves. ■ If, on the other hand, he is advised to undergo an operation, however serious a,nd costly, he finds the advioe entirely fitting. But ho will have nothing to do with negatives. And as to washing in Jordan, he is entirely of Naaman’s opinion. He, too, goes away in a rage.