p. 9 | Health and Healing by David Paulson

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 7, 1916

Health and Healing

By David Paulson

DAVID PAULSON, M. D.

God’s attitude toward this question is stated in 3 John 2, R. V.: “I pray that in all things thou mayest prosper and be in health.”

I know some, especially those who are sick, will say, “I can’t understand it.” They should remember that the Bible cannot be studied as any other book. Miners do not go down in a mine and dig up silver in large chunks; they discover a vein of ore and then keep following that vein. So the way to get harmony out of Bible study is to trace a certain vein of truth all through it. That is the great secret of making Bible study interesting. It is hard work, but it is worth while.

If God’s thought for his children is health, then what about all this sickness and misery? God is not to blame for it, although he often succeeds in working great good out of it. “He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.” Lam. 3: 33. On the contrary, he not only forgives iniquities, but heals diseases. Ps. 103: 3.

I can set a broken leg, but God has to unite it. I can create favorable conditions for the cure of gastric ulcer, but God must heal the ulcer. I can wash and apply certain remedies to wounds, but God has to heal them. God is not only the world’s great healer, but also the great maintainer of health. We can coöperate with him, remain inert, or work squarely against him.

Different Remedial Measures

God recognizes different methods of coöperation in the sickroom. When Hezekiah was on his deathbed, he prayed earnestly to the Lord, and Isaiah prescribed a fig poultice. Isa. 38: 21. In that instance both prayer and external remedies were used.

There is another class of invalids who need something more than prayers and poultices. They will never recover until they begin to do something for somebody else, instead of trying to have others do everything for them. Some people have the invalid habit, just as others have the morphine habit; and they will never feel well until they become interested in others who are worse off than they themselves are; until they begin to deal their bread to the hungry, to bring the outcast poor to their own houses, and when they see the naked, cover him.

I know a good woman who lost her only child. She put the child’s little stockings away in the bureau drawer, and every day or two she cultivated neurasthenia by taking those little stockings out, looking at them, and then having a good cry. One day she saw a little child on the street with no stockings and scarcely any shoes. Then God told her to put those stockings on the poor child’s feet. She obeyed, and a great peace came into her heart. There are many of our sacred relics that could be better turned to some equally good use.

One day Napoleon went into a church that contained twelve silver statues of the apostles. Napoleon observed them and asked, “What are those things?” He was told, “Why, those are the twelve apostles.” He said, “Well, take them down, send them to the mint, run them into money, and let them go around doing good as their Master did.”

There was a woman who used to go out every day to her husband’s grave to weep. She was rapidly falling into a decline. But her sister died and left a four-year-old child for her to care for, and then she had no time to go out to weep on any one’s grave. In three months’ time she was perfectly well. That child saved the woman’s life.

The instruction in Isaiah 58 does not set broken legs; neither will it cure headaches that are caused by eyestrain. It will not remove gastric ulcer that is due to vicious eating. It is Christian psychotherapy mingled with practical good sense that thousands of sick people need, and they will never be permanently well until they discover that fact. Then, and not till then, will their health “spring forth speedily.” Isa. 58: 8.

Salve and Hydrotherapy

One day Christ met a blind man. In that particular instance he did not heal him by a word or by a touch. He made a clay ointment, and then commanded the man to go and bathe in a certain pool, and following this second treatment, his sight was restored. John 9: 6, 7.

Christ could certainly have healed him without the ointment or the bath, but he used these remedies so that no faint-hearted person could ever have any good reason for believing that God was opposed to the use of suitable, simple remedial measures.

Internal Remedies

In 1 Tim. 5: 23 we have some wonderfully interesting instruction. Paul, the greatest evangelist in the history of the Christian church, advised Timothy, the young missionary, “Drink no longer water only, but use a little wine for the sake of thy stomach, and thy frequent maladies.”—Conybeare and Howson’s Version.

Paul had been up in the third heaven, and had received more divine instruction than perhaps any man since Christ’s day, and yet he did not suggest special prayers for Timothy’s spells of indigestion. Instead, he advised fruit juice, thus showing that there are certain cases that need regulation of diet rather than any spiritual or physical measures.

The Greatest Remedy of All

We are still working the same vein of truth; each case is not a contradiction of the others. It is the same ore; it just glistens with a little different color; and now the end of our search is in sight, and last but not least, we dig out this beautiful and inspiring truth: “Is any among you suffering? let him pray. Is any cheerful? let him sing praise.” James 5: 13, R. V. Some people prefer to complain when they suffer, rather than to pray. Others, when they are feeling good, would rather indulge in foolishness than praise God.

Furthermore, “Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.” In the old time when any one was set aside for a holy work, he was anointed with oil. When the sick man is willing to pay the price of such a dedication of his life, it is appropriate to have him anointed with oil; otherwise it is a mockery.

“The prayer of faith”—not the prayer of presumption. There is a vast difference between the two: the prayer of faith is in harmony with all God’s known requirements; the prayer of presumption pays no attention to his requirements.

I have been called to unite with others in prayer for the sick, and when I wanted to know whether the patient was ready to give up tobacco, dispense with the juicy beefsteaks that had helped to create the disorder, the tea and coffee that had wrecked the nerves; whether he was willing to have his stuffy bedroom ventilated, he became impatient. But the Bible says, “He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer [not only is not answered, but what is worse] shall be abomination.” Prov. 28: 9.

So reform always goes hand in hand with the prayer of faith. What then? “The prayer of faith shall save the sick.” The most important thing is to get saved. I know many healthy people who are not saved, and I am glad to say that I also know a goodly number of sick people who are thoroughly saved. The most important thing that can happen to a sick man in answer to prayer is to have his soul saved; then, if necessary, he can get along with a sick body.

Infirmities Sometimes a Greater Blessing Than Health

But that is not all: “The Lord shall raise him up.” That may be instantly, or it may be gradually, or it may not be until over in the next world. I hear some one ask, “Do you mean to say that there are some cases—even after such prayer, if we have faith enough—whom God is not pleased to restore instantly?”—Precisely so. Paul had a serious trouble. He said it was a veritable messenger of Satan to buffet him. Did you ever have a wretched trouble which always came upon you when you wanted to do something—a miserable sick headache, for instance? Paul had something worse than that.

In our English translation it is called a thorn in the flesh, but the original thought suggests being impaled. That is the way criminals were sometimes killed. A stake was driven through them and into the earth, and they were left to die by degrees. Think of Paul doing his wonderful evangelistic work with such a misery! It so burdened him that he specially asked the Lord three times for its removal so he would not be handicapped in this wretched way. Did God remove it?—By no means. He permitted it to remain to prevent Paul’s being spoiled by self-exaltation as so many wonderful preachers in our day have been spoiled. He merely comforted him by saying, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness [“infirmity,” Young’s translation].” 2 Cor. 12: 9. When Paul realized the mission of his infirmity, he said, as we may say, “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”

In view of this, we ought always to pray, “Not my will, but thine, be done.” We need not hesitate to avail ourselves of nature’s remedies in connection with our earnest prayers; but after we have done all that we can, if the Lord does not deliver us from our infirmities we ought cheerfully to say, Most gladly will I glory in my infirmity.

I believe if we coöperate intelligently with God in the restoration of health, making use of such opportunities as are within our reach, discarding such things as the Lord has shown us are wrong, that God will give us all the health that he sees in his infinite wisdom we shall make good use of in this life; and he will bless to our good and to the good of his work whatever infirmities he permits us to retain, just as he did in Paul’s case; in other words, he will make them work together for our good.