An Old but Incredibly Effective Remedy
Thursday, April 25, 2024
Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is there no healing for the wound of my people? Jer. 8:22, NIV.
Charcoal has amazing healing properties. In fact, if I were stranded on a desert island and could take only one thing along to protect me from disease, infection, and injury, I would choose charcoal.
My little grandchild accidentally sat down on a hill of fire ants. Instantaneously hundreds of ants bit her. She screamed hysterically from the intense pain. We grabbed her, stripped off her clothing, and ran for a bathtub. Filling it with water, I added charcoal. In less than two minutes submerged in that charcoal bath, she stopped her crying. The charcoal neutralized the poison, and she was pain-free.
Charcoal has incredible adsorption capacity. The total surface area of the sum of the particles in a small cube of charcoal only two fifths of an inch on each side is 1,000 square meters, a field about 35 yards square! Once a substance is adsorbed onto charcoal, washing it with blood plasma or gastric juice will not cause the adsorbed material to desorb. That's why Bertrand in 1913 survived after swallowing five grams of arsenic trioxide mixed with charcoal, and Touery in 1831 survived after swallowing 10 times the lethal dose of strychnine with an equal amount of charcoal.
Charcoal will even adsorb cancer-producing agents such as methylcholanthrene and benzopyrene, which, when free on the skin, are capable of producing skin cancer.
Ellen White extols the virtues of charcoal poultices for fever and inflamed wounds. Then she adds, "I write these things that you may know that the Lord has not left us without the use of simple remedies which, when used, will not leave the system in the weakened condition in which the use of drugs so often leaves it" (Selected Messages, book 2, p. 296).
God has also provided us a balm for the wounds of sin—His blood. It has such incredible "neutralizing" qualities that there is no sin wound so bad that it can't be healed. But just as with charcoal, its incredible healing power won't do much good unless you apply it to your own life.
Accept Jesus' sacrifice today, and experience God's incredible healing for your wounded heart.
Charcoal has amazing healing properties. In fact, if I were stranded on a desert island and could take only one thing along to protect me from disease, infection, and injury, I would choose charcoal.
My little grandchild accidentally sat down on a hill of fire ants. Instantaneously hundreds of ants bit her. She screamed hysterically from the intense pain. We grabbed her, stripped off her clothing, and ran for a bathtub. Filling it with water, I added charcoal. In less than two minutes submerged in that charcoal bath, she stopped her crying. The charcoal neutralized the poison, and she was pain-free.
Charcoal has incredible adsorption capacity. The total surface area of the sum of the particles in a small cube of charcoal only two fifths of an inch on each side is 1,000 square meters, a field about 35 yards square! Once a substance is adsorbed onto charcoal, washing it with blood plasma or gastric juice will not cause the adsorbed material to desorb. That's why Bertrand in 1913 survived after swallowing five grams of arsenic trioxide mixed with charcoal, and Touery in 1831 survived after swallowing 10 times the lethal dose of strychnine with an equal amount of charcoal.
Charcoal will even adsorb cancer-producing agents such as methylcholanthrene and benzopyrene, which, when free on the skin, are capable of producing skin cancer.
Ellen White extols the virtues of charcoal poultices for fever and inflamed wounds. Then she adds, "I write these things that you may know that the Lord has not left us without the use of simple remedies which, when used, will not leave the system in the weakened condition in which the use of drugs so often leaves it" (Selected Messages, book 2, p. 296).
God has also provided us a balm for the wounds of sin—His blood. It has such incredible "neutralizing" qualities that there is no sin wound so bad that it can't be healed. But just as with charcoal, its incredible healing power won't do much good unless you apply it to your own life.
Accept Jesus' sacrifice today, and experience God's incredible healing for your wounded heart.
Used by permission of Health Ministries, North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists.
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