The Law of Rest in the Healing of Disease
By G. D. Ballou
By G. D. Ballou, for Many Years a Devoted Student of Physical and Mental Therapeutics Miracles and Gifts of Healing.
IN former articles it has been shown that the law of rest is the natural, heaven-appointed remedy for nearly all human ills. Let it be repeated that this does not mean simply the law of sleep or of physical recuperation, but the law of that complete repose in the care of God expressed in the words, “Rest in the Lord;” “Commit thy way unto the Lord,” etc., which, when grasped, takes all the care and worry and fretting and anxiety out of men, and women, too, and gives to every one a happy burden of all life’s duties both toward God and toward men. When one’s ways are committed to the Lord, God’s moral law will be respected, and all the suggestions of natural law in God’s word will also be respected as far as comprehended. He who does this will be as careful to take care of this life as he knows how to be, knowing that the gift of a future life will depend solely on how this life has been used. So the true, well-instructed Christian will have a religious care for the laws of health and will appeal to them for the relief of common ailments as far as he knows. Thus will he fulfil the law of resting in God and committing all his ways to the Lord. And he will trust also in the Lord that He will bring to pass fully all that is for our good and His glory in this life. Psalm 37. See also Matt. 11: 28-30 and Rom. 8: 28. Such is a life of faithful obedience, but, sad truth, it is comprehended by but few. In this it is proposed to show where the laws of health, of which the law of rest is chief, cease to be fully effective in the treatment and cure of disease, and where miracles properly begin. But let us inquire first, What is a miracle? It may be a suspension of natural law, as when the Red Sea and the River Jordan were walled up until Israel passed over, or when the iron “did swim.” It may be an acceleration of natural law, as when at Cana water was changed into wine. It may be a direct act of creative power, as when the cruse of oil and the barrel of meal did not fail, or when the loaves and fishes were increased to feed the multitude. It may be a lifting of the curse for the violation of natural law, as in the cure of leprosy, fever, or palsy, and the removal of the effects of other diseases. Naaman’s Disgust at the Remedy Prescribed.
Most of the human family to-day are like that general-in-chief of the Syrian army, Naaman. When told to bathe in Jordan seven times, he went away in a great rage. He said, “Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper.” 2 Kings 5:11, 12. He wanted to see a demonstration. Bathing was altogether too tame for him. But I want to know what one to-day would see if he should see a miracle. What would he see? Suppose we had the miracle of Cana repeated. There are the water-jars, and there are the drinking-cups. There is the water, and here, after it is drawn, is the wine. Is water any new thing? Is wine anything new? But the shortening of the process! you say. Yes, but did you see the process, or the power back of it? Out in nature you see far more of the process. It takes several months out in the vineyard to turn water into wine, and you can see much of the various steps all the way. This abnormal desire to see something surprising and startling stands right in the way of our becoming acquainted with natural processes. We hide our eyes from the continuous daily, hourly, and momentary manifestations of divine energy all about us, especially in regard to our own bodies, and then we demand of the Lord that He interpose His divine power in a new and startling way to make up for our failure to observe the every-day laws of life. Applying the Proper Remedy.
To illustrate: Some earnest Christian soul has a headache. It may be due to cold feet and a lack of water in the blood or it may be due to some drug taken, like tea or coffee. Now why not take this case to the Lord and ask Him to interpose His power to relieve the oppressed nerves of the brain? Seems to me the common sense thing to do would be first of all to warm the feet and at the same time dilute the blood with water hot or cold, as is most palatable, quit the use of the drug and give the powers of life God has already placed in the body a chance to do their work naturally and easily in washing out of the brain the accumulation of poison which caused the ache. The gift of miracles is as distinct from the gifts of healing (see 1 Cor. 12: 8-10, 28, and read carefully) as are any of the other gifts of the Spirit. The gifts of healing are, as the writer understands it, the special enlightenment given in the correct application of natural laws and principles to the cure of disease. They may be in nowise more miraculous than any other enlightenment of the understanding by the Spirit of God. But miracles have to do with ailments which from ignorance of, or neglect of, or inability to use natural means are beyond the gifts of healing. There is nothing miraculous about the rest of faith. This was the normal condition of man. This resting in the Lord and committing our ways to Him, let me repeat, leads the way directly to a proper use of all the other essentials to life, which are included in sunlight, air, water, food, clothing, and exercise. Now, when one’s way is committed to the Lord, he has adopted the plan of having God’s way in everything. So such an one will soon be led to know how rightly to appreciate these blessings on which life depends. He will not be slow in learning to eat and drink and breathe right, how to clothe himself, how to use his physical powers and how to rest them. When one heeds the injunction, “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10: 31), he shows acquiescence with the will of God expressed both in moral and natural law, and the latter as well as the former is written in God’s word, at least in principle. Such an one, as shown in the former article, may learn to apply the natural law, so as to be free from all ordinarily curable maladies. But some of the saved ones, as well as others among the sons of men, have gone in the way of physical transgression until paralysis, or blindness, or some incurable malady has become fixed upon them, or perhaps some infection of poison has overtaken them, or the result of some hereditary trouble. Here now is the demand for miracles, and this is the time and place for men to call on the Lord to do special work, if it can honor His cause and name. In the ordinary maladies it is most proper for the servant of God to ask for wisdom in the use of natural means for the recovery of the sick, and to ask His blessing upon the use of the means which His Spirit has directed His people to use. In the incurable cases we may expect miracles to be wrought where the church and the individual are in harmony with the mind and Spirit of God. But let it be remembered that in the working of miracles the same law of rest, the true rest of faith and sweet submission, must still hold sway, as found in the Gethsemane prayer, “Nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt.” In regard to the use of means in curable diseases, we have the example of Isaiah ordering the fig poultice for Hezekiah’s boil. It was a good thing then, and it is a good thing to-day, and no miracle was required to effect a cure. In a few of the incurables, like Naaman’s leprosy, where the prophet ordered seven baths in Jordan, and the case of the blind man whose eyes Jesus anointed5 with the clay, tho we can see no curative quality in that particular use of the means, we may justly conclude that the use of means is sanctioned. The anointing with oil in James’ directions (James 5: 14, 15) is another evidence that the use of means is approved, tho we may not in this case see the relationship between disease and remedy any more than we see the power which works the cure. Now while we have tried to make plain the relationship that exists between the exercise of the gifts of healing and miracles, it may be proper and safe to say further that the Lord has not set the example of interposing miracles to take the place of proper remedies in the treatment of curable cases by natural means. The records would indicate that nearly every miracle was wrought on a hopeless case. We do not mean to say that we think that God would not interfere miraculously for any case where there was excusable ignorance of natural remedies or inability to use them.