Disease Never Comes without a Cause
By W. S. Sadler
THE MISSION OF PAIN AND THE LANGUAGE OF DISEASE. NO. 2.
Disease Never Comes without a Cause.
HERE we have in a nutshell the whole question of mental and moral suffering, physical and spiritual disease. In all the Scriptures there can not be found a more concise statement of all the problems of health and disease, of spiritual growth and backsliding. We must ever bear in mind, in our study of health and disease, that we are observing the footprints of an infinite God, who is all the while at work carrying toward its completion an eternal purpose. So oftentimes the divine purpose of affliction will necessarily be incomprehensible to the finite mind of sinful man. If we are studying divine healing, it is only reasonable to expect that every now and then we shall come across things entirely beyond our understanding; because things divine are infinite and eternal, and in their fulness are far beyond the grasp of man’s vision or the reach of human understanding. In the mind of God—in the infinite plan of the Eternal—there is a cause for every curse, for every pain, for every spiritual or physical affliction; for the God with whom we have to do does nothing arbitrarily. He does not in anger seek to punish the wrong-doer because he has chosen to disobey. On the other hand, he has arranged that the penalty and the consequence of disobedience shall be such as to exert every possible influence to lead the transgressor to repentance and back into the path of obedience. God is a Being of infinite justice, and will not permit to come upon his creatures any hardship, suffering, or anguish, unless there is a just and good cause for it. Our Father above never seeks to accomplish by sickness or suffering that which could have been accomplished by happiness and health. How wrong it is to charge God with having afflicted us in wrath and anger, when we are suffering the inevitable consequences of our own wrong-doing; how wrong to attribute to a “mysterious dispensation of Providence,” disease and death which human beings have brought upon themselves by gross neglect of the laws and conditions that regulate our physical well-being. Let us, then, in every time of sorrow, distress, or suffering, seek to learn the purpose of God in permitting these things to overtake us; and then conscientiously and perseveringly co-operate with the Spirit of God in cleansing “ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit.” 2 Cor. 7: 1. If, after having done our best to learn the cause of our affliction, we have been unable to discover it, let us not criticize the God whose hand is on the lever of circumstances, but rather submit with patience to that which has overtaken us, and say with Paul: “I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content;” for “we know that all things work together for good to them that love God.” Phil. 4: 11; Rom. 8: 28.