PHYSICAL TRANSFORMATION THE HOPE OF THE CHRONIC INVALID.
By David Paulson
Often God's wish (3 John 2) that we might be in health, is not carried out. Instead a large number have to cry out in reference to their physical condition, even as Paul did with regard to his spiritual state, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from this body of death?” Rom. 7:24, margin. Thousands of invalids are carrying around decrepit, miserable, and practically useless bodies, and are looking forward, many of them, with a spirit of resignation to the time when they may drop into the grave, where the weary are at rest, and the wicked cease from troubling. Job 3:17. They never dream that it is possible for them to secure a better body on the instalment plan; in other words, to experience physically a large degree of “the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” Ps. 27:13. Putting off the Body of Death.
The scriptural advice to “put off” “the old man” and to “put on the new” (Eph. 4:22, 24), has as great a physical as spiritual possibility and significance. Nature offers to all the wonderful possibility of securing better brains, better nerves, better muscles, and, above all things, better blood, than they now possess; for the body, instead of changing once in seven years, as tradition has it, changes its most important tissues every few months. The blood, which is the source of so much of either the comfort or the discomfort of the human race, changes every few weeks. Other of the soft tissues change more slowly, while the changes in the bones and other solid tissues take place much more slowly; but fortunately these are not the parts of the body that are the source of the ordinary invalid's trouble. The same power that is continually changing a man is the power that heals him when it has an opportunity. There are some who continually trade off their property for something very inferior, until finally they have none at all; and so there are thousands who every few months trade off their bodies, as it were, for others a little more inferior, and thus they finally secure one so weak and decrepit that it falls a ready prey to almost any disease germ; when, with a little exertion on their part, they might be securing such an advantage from this change that in a few years they would possess strong, robust physical constitutions and a good store of nerve power. There are many who have not the patience to wait for this slow process of nature, altho they have been taught from childhood to recognize the element of time in all the operations of nature around them; and so they say, “Why can't God make me well at once?” There can be no question in reference to God's ability to do anything that is right, but the question is, Would it be best? God could make a boy grow into a man in a day; but He has some lessons to teach the boy that it is better for him to secure by a gradual process. God does not love the patient that He intrusts with an instantaneous recovery a particle more than the one who has to secure health by a gradual process. Perhaps in the former case the invalid had learned more fully to co-operate with restorative power, or perhaps he had fewer lessons to learn. We may be sure that God will require us to learn all the lessons He had to teach us in the particular grade of health we are in before He will promote us to the next grade; for while it is true that God is willing to keep us as the apple of His eye, yet it is also a foregone conclusion that He will have no opportunity to manifest this willingness unless we keep His commandments, which include physical law, as the apple of our eye. Ps. 17:8; Prov. 7:2. Before Lazarus could be called back to life, human agents had to roll away the stone (John 11:39); so there are physical obstructions that the human agent must take hold of and remove before healing power can manifest itself. The work involves trouble and effort on the part of the invalid and his friends, and this is the real reason why so often the sick one is constantly looking around for some panacea by which he may be saved the pain of sowing for health. Nature will grow a crop of potatoes in the ground, and it will digest them in the human stomach; but it will not dig them up so as to spare the farmer boy the work of doing it. Likewise there are certain efforts that the invalid must put forth; this many refuse to do, and therefore it is not consistent for God to do that which He stands ready to do. God blesses every seed that is sown for health. The Significance of the Interval between Sowing and Reaping.
The wicked man is sowing for death, and yet in most cases there is at least a short interval between the sowing and the reaping. God evidently allows this delay so that the wicked may have an opportunity to repent if they desire; but instead of using this time of probation in this way, it generally emboldens them to sow more evil seed. We often see people using tobacco, tea, coffee, flesh-foods, etc., and boasting that it does not hurt them. “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.” Eccl. 8:11. Likewise there is often an interval between the sowing for health and the realization of the results. This affords an opportunity to develop patience. “Tho it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come.” Hab. 2:3. “Let us not be weary in well-doing; for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” Gal. 6:9. But how often we see individuals who bitterly complain that they have afflicted their souls in vain, as they regard it; they have tried to carry out health principles so long, etc., and yet they are not entirely well! To such God is simply saying, “Be not weary in well-doing.” God is giving us every moment as much of His blessings, both physical and spiritual, as He can intrust us with. We need have no anxiety but that He will carry out His part without any special urging from the human agent. All we need to do is continually to ask Him for more and more wisdom and more and more willingness to perform the part we have to act. Just to the extent that any function of the body is used simply for the selfish pleasure it can bring to the individual, just to that extent he will have an opportunity to “ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your pleasures.” James 4:3, margin. “He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination.” Prov. 28:9. And this certainly includes a disregard for health principles.