The Hand of God in Disease
By William S. Sadler
THE MISSION OF PAIN AND THE LANGUAGE OF DISEASE. NO. 9.
The Hand of God in Disease.
"For the arrows of the Almighty are within me, The poison whereof my spirit drinketh up; The terrors of God do set themselves in array against me." —Job 6:4. WHEN we come carefully to study, and more thoroughly to understand, the real nature and purpose of disease, we are compelled to look upon it as nothing more nor less than a struggle for life under adverse circumstances and unfavorable conditions. That God is dealing with the sick man as best He can under existing conditions, and in the sickness itself endeavoring to discipline, instruct, and lead to repentance, becomes more and more apparent to the one who will take pains to study these matters. "And if they be bound in fetters, and be holden in cords of affliction; then He sheweth them their work, and their transgressions that they have exceeded. He openeth also their ear to discipline, and commandeth that they return from iniquity. If they obey, and serve Him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures." Job 36:8-11. This scripture is so plain it needs but little comment. Disease is the correcting hand of God laid upon us that we may return from our iniquity to obey and serve Him, and thus be able to spend our "days in prosperity" and our "years in pleasures." The loss of appetite which invariably accompanies fever is an instance of how intelligently and lovingly God works to save the disease-stricken soul from inflicting further injury upon himself. Ordinarily, fever is the result of accumulations of large quantities of poison in the system; that is, we take in poison, or produce it in the body, faster than we can eliminate it; so fever is an effort on the part of nature to burn up and otherwise rid itself of these poisons. Hence in case of fever, nature very kindly takes away the appetite for food, because the digestive apparatus is in no condition whatever to handle food, and so its presence would prove to be a source of poison instead of nourishment. The temperature of the blood is also raised, thus greatly increasing its poison-destroying power. And the patient has a general feeling of weakness which causes him to keep to his bed,—a very necessary thing in view of the fact that he is taking little or no nourishment, and hence is not prepared to maintain the normal bodily activity. So in all these matters those who will take pains to examine carefully into the real working of disease, can not fail to recognize the hand of God. Likewise in case of wounds. The white blood-corpuscles are immediately assembled at the place where the injury was inflicted, and there continue their fight for the individual's life, often sacrificing themselves in large numbers; and this gives rise to the existence of pus, which is so often present. A thorough study of this one point alone would be enough to convince the most skeptical that the wisdom of God is back of the working of every one of the little corpuscles in its work of life-saving and germ-destroying. The presence of pus is in itself an indication that a terrible struggle has been in progress between these microscopic defenders of the individual's life and the disease-germs, and other poisons which have sought to find their way into the circulation. So investigation discloses the fact that many of these conditions which are ordinarily regarded as disease, are in themselves protective efforts on the part of nature, curative processes, and healing endeavors. So in the case of a broken bone. The pain experienced by the sufferer causes him to lie comparatively still, thus permitting the ends of the bones to remain in contact, undisturbed, and so allowing the healing process of cementing them together to progress uninterruptedly. Also in the case of the blister that appears when the hand is burned. It is a germ-proof dressing, a water-bath, as it were, arranged by nature to protect the injured tissues; and it must be clear to all that it is God who raises the blister, not Satan; that these efforts on the part of nature to repair the injuries due to accident or transgression, and which we ordinarily call disease, are in reality extraordinary efforts on the part of nature and the God of nature to repair our injuries, and thus to heal the results of intentional, accidental, or ignorant abuse. W. S. SADLER.