Confession the Pathway to Health
By Daniel H. Kress
“HOWBEIT, thou art just in all that is brought upon us; for thou hast done right, but we have done wickedly.” The children of Israel had passed through troublous times; they were having a hard time when this confession was made by the representatives of Israel. We are apt to ascribe our hard times to everything but the right cause. We say we are having a hard time because of our enemies, or because of our unfavorable surroundings. If we were only differently situated, things would be different. But this is not true, the trouble lies not in our surroundings, but with us. The sooner we learn this, the better it will be for both us and the cause we desire to advance. No one can injure me but myself. No one can mar or destroy my peace but myself. When I am in trouble, there is but one cause of it, and there is but one way out of the trouble. Finding fault with our surroundings will never help us. “For thus saith the Lord, the Holy One of Israel: In returning from your ways, shall ye be saved: in quietness and pious confidence shall be your strength, and ye would not. But ye said, No, we will flee upon horses: therefore shall ye flee: and we will ride upon the swift, therefore shall they be swift that pursue you.”—Loweth’s Translation. Jacob was once in trouble. He had a hard time. He fled from the face of his brother Esau. He had the cold earth for a bed, a hard stone for a pillow. What was the cause of Jacob’s trouble? Who was responsible for it?—He himself. But when, in the midst of his trouble, he acknowledged his sin, the Lord appeared unto him. Jacob beheld a ladder reaching from earth to heaven, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon it. The word came, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” “I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whithersoever thou goest.” Paul adds, “I will not fear what man shall do unto me.” It is only when men do wrong that they begin to fear man. Cain said, “Every one that findeth me shall slay me.” There is a universal law that whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap. We can never avoid the reaping until we avoid the sowing. Be not deceived about this. Is God responsible for the trouble through which we pass? Has he made the way difficult and hard?—No; we are reaping what we have sown. God will help us out of it. We must not find fault with our surroundings, or with12anything or anybody. We must not run away. We must find fault with the one who is responsible for the trouble,—with Jacob, with self. Then we shall say, “Howbeit thou art just in all that is brought upon us; for thou hast done right, but we have done wickedly.” There is no other path leading up out of this horrible pit but the path of confession of individual sin. “Confess your faults one to another . . . that ye may be healed.” When we make this confession, we shall find God not so far off as we had supposed. We shall see the ladder reaching from heaven to earth, on the very spot from which we were desirous of escaping, and with which we were finding fault, and we shall say with Jacob, “Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not.” Every spot our feet tread upon becomes a Bethel. Then we shall be able to endure in every place as seeing him who is invisible. The place that looked so parched will appear differently. The change is not in the surroundings, the change is within. Moisture drawn from the river of living waters makes glad the inhabitants of the city of our God. The gospel gives the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. In the gospel there is health. “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.”