Who Healeth All Our Diseases
By D. H. Kress
Probably nine tenths of all our diseases have their origin in the mind, or brain. It is through the brain that the Creator communicates with man. Through it he transforms the life, and imparts life and health to every part of the body. Through the nervous system conscious and unconscious impulses are conveyed from the brain to other organs and members of the body. These impressions influence them either for good or for evil. It is well known that the organs of digestion may be retarded or entirely arrested in their work, and actual disease produced, through fear, worry, despondency, fault-finding, anger, impatience, etc. If the stomach is deranged, all other organs are deranged. How important then to heed the warning: “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” The issues of life proceed from it because it is the seat of the Author of life. “The kingdom of God is within you.” “We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.” “Ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them.” “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” “If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you;” for the Spirit itself giveth life. If God is allowed his place in the mind, if he is permitted to rule upon his throne, life and health will flow from it to every organ and tissue of the body. Thus he heals our diseases. “I am the Lord that healeth thee.” “Who healeth all thy diseases.” Healing comes from within, not from without. The fruits of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance—are the life-giving impulses sent forth from the brain to the various members of the body when Christ is enthroned within. In these there is health. These are the evidences of Christ’s rule. By these we, and our neighbors as well, can tell whether Christ abides within. “Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” “Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven (that is, to bring Christ down from above)? Or, Who shall descend into the deep (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead)? But what saith it? The word [Christ] is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart.” Christ is our life. Christ in us is the only hope of health and glory. On one occasion, as I was called to visit a patient, his wife said to me, before I saw him, “He is a Christian, doctor, but an inveterate smoker. I think this has much to do with his illness.” He was a little hard of hearing, but we carried on, as best we could, the following conversation: “You are a Christian?” “Yes,” he replied. “You use tobacco?” “Yes,” was his answer. Then I said, “Christ does not use tobacco.” He looked at me surprised, and said, “No, I use tobacco.” “But,” I said, “I am dead, nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me;” and Christ in you does not use tobacco.” I could see that this made quite an impression. It is true that Christ within does not lead a man to gluttony or intemperance, or to defile his holy temple with tobacco, alcohol, or any other poison or impurity. “He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.” When a captive in Babylon, “Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank.” It was witnessed of him that “an excellent spirit was in him.” This excellent spirit was God’s Spirit. God’s Spirit in man to-day will keep him from defiling his body, and will lead him to eat and drink that which is pure and good. Daniel requested, “Let them give us pulse to eat [the simple products from the earth], and water to drink.” The result was, the three captives were fairer and healthier than all the children that ate the king’s meat. “Unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings.” When Jesus entered upon his ministry, he cleansed the temple at Jerusalem. But his mission to this earth is not to cleanse lifeless temples made with bricks, stone, and mortar, and built by human hands. This is merely held up as an object lesson. His work is to cleanse living temples, made without hands. To the members of the Laodicean church he says, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock [showing that Jesus is on the outside]: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” When he enters, he will again say, “Take these things [the things which cause disease, and defile the temple] hence.”12 The difficulty with the human family is, they have chosen the mystery of iniquity, or sin, in place of the mystery of godliness, which is Christ in you. There can be but one remedy for our diseases, and that is to welcome Jesus into our temple once more, and let him cleanse it, and let his house once more become a house of prayer, instead of a den of thieves. “He shall save his people from their sins.” By saving them from their sins, he saves them also from the consequence of sin, which is disease and premature death. They that are saved “shall call his name Emmanuel, which . . . is, God with us.” Transformation must precede reformation. Reformation always follows transformation. It is the product of the renewed mind. The only thing that is of any avail is a new creation with new desires and new tastes. Such a person will love the things he once hated, and hate the things he once loved. The carnal mind will always be at enmity with that which is good, whether it is good food, pure drink, or whatever it may be. This was illustrated in the experience of Israel. With most of them it was an effort at reformation without transformation. But it proved a failure; they soon turned back in their hearts to the fleshpots, leeks, and onions of Egypt. “With many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. . . . Now all these things happened unto them for examples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore let him [the reformer] that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” “Finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.” When these laws are written not upon tables of stone, but upon the fleshy tables of the heart, the keeping of them becomes a delight, a pleasure. Reforms will then be taken up cheerfully. It will not be so difficult to give up tea, flesh, and other impurities. We shall not regard self-denial a hardship, and God as a hard master. When God is allowed to take his place in the mind, we shall not lust as Israel did. When his kingdom is set up within, his will will be done in these earthen vessels as it is done in heaven. It will be said, “I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.” I have seen men under the influence of a mesmerist eat tallow candles, and call them sweet because they were called sweet by the mesmerist. They seemed to enjoy them until they came from under his influence, then they showed signs of disgust and nearly vomited. Satan, the great mesmerist, has blinded the minds of most men, so that they call good evil, and evil good. They are led captive by him at his will. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed [not reformed] by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” Only the transformed, or renewed, mind can appreciate fully that which is good. Until Satan’s spell is broken, men will despise that which is good, and will say, as did the children of Israel, “There is nothing at all, beside this manna, before our eyes.” “Our soul loatheth this vile bread,”—the very bread from heaven, angels’ food. “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you.”