HEALTH AND ITS PURPOSE by L. A. Hansen

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jul 27, 1915

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 42, No. 29.

HEALTH AND ITS PURPOSE

By L. A. Hansen

Not the Product of Human Skill—A Gift Direct from God—Bodily Healing Only Partially Restores

By L. A. HANSEN

Health is not an open market product, something to be purchased for dollars and cents. It is not quoted in catalogues, nor is it sold over counters. It is not to be found in newspaper advertisements nor in billboard posters. It is not an article of commerce.

Health does not come in bottles or boxes. It is not dispensed from drug store shelves, nor is it dosed out in so many drops every so many hours. It does not consist in pills, powders, or potions.

Neither is health a product of mechanical device or apparatus. No amount of material appliances can impart it. Health does not lie in institutional equipment or appointments, however complete and perfect.

There is no “pathy” that can claim the power to impart health, no procedure that can insure it, no kind of manipulation or adjustment that can guarantee it. It does not rest with any system of medicine or therapeutic measure.

Human skill, scientific research, professional technique, trained ability, and the highest accomplishments of man, are in themselves wholly helpless in giving health. The doctor, the surgeon, and the nurse are unable to do it.

Health is not made by thinking it. It is not a product of thought, old or new. It cannot be evolved by process of reasoning. It is not the result of mental effort, though ever so well directed. Nor will non-belief in disease bring health.

No, health does not lie within human domain or the power of man alone. It is of God, a divine blessing. Though it is associated with human instrumentality, and comes through natural and material means, it is a gift of heaven. We may not recognize it in its true character, or realize whence it comes; but ever and always it is the exercise of divine power.

God alone can say, “I heal thee,” or, “Be thou whole.” It is the Lord who healeth all thy diseases.” In olden times, this was quite fully recognized. Modern invention has made no change in the fact. Our failure to credit God for all healing does not rob Him of the power to heal, nor does it give that power to man.

God pleases to work through human agency, and has given to man a mind to understand His ways of working, and has intrusted to him intellect and skill to make use of natural means of restoration. He enables man to invent and devise facilities for utilizing curative agencies. He desires, above all things, that man should prosper and be in health, even as his soul prospers (3 John 2), and to this end God makes every possible provision.

God has given us natural laws, obedience to which insures health. The violation of these laws brings disease. A sick man is a sinner, in that he has sinned against natural law, which law is a part of God’s decalogue. To get well, man must get right. He must get back to an observance of the laws of health.

It is not only right and proper, but highly important, that we study the laws of health, and know how to live in conformity to them. To make use of natural means of healing is not a denial of faith in God’s power to heal. It is fitting that we exercise faith in making use of such means, and that we be guided by an understanding faith in our selection of means. At no time are we to look upon the means itself as the healing agency. Whatever the means, it must always be in keeping with established and fundamental laws of health.

“Health . . . is of God, a divine blessing. . . . It is a gift of heaven.”

The blessing of physical health should bring to us spiritual healing, for it is but a part of the fuller blessing that God means us to have, and that He wants to give us. Though we may not know it, we come close to Him when His healing touch gives renewed physical life; and if we would, we could at the same time be made whole, which is, after all, true healing. To be cured of physical ailment is only partial healing.

A knowledge of our dependence on God for physical healing, and a realization of His power to heal, help us to sense our need of divine help for spiritual living, and to know better how to accept it. The joy of physical healing is but a taste of the satisfaction that comes with healing of the soul. Giving us a renewal of our earthly life may be a great blessing to us, but it is small as compared with the gift of eternal life. The renewed life here should indeed be so used that we may be sure of the long life of the future.

Healing is only partial if it reaches merely the physical being. The God “who healeth all thy diseases” is the same God “who forgiveth all thine iniquities,” and both of these acts are spoken of as among the benefits we should not forget. Ps. 103:1-3. The very material evidence we have in our physical healing should be so much evidence of God’s power and goodness, and, far from ever leading us to forget Him as the Healer, should lead us to complete healing.