Health and Disease not Matters of Chance
By William Samuel Sadler
THE MISSION OF PAIN AND THE LANGUAGE OF DISEASE. NO. 4.
Health and Disease not Matters of Chance.
‘Affliction cometh not forth of the dust,
Neither doth trouble spring out of the ground.’ HEALTH and disease are conditions regulated by the great universal law of cause and effect, sowing and reaping. Many have given so little thought to the question of sowing and reaping with reference to health and disease, that they are actually unable to recognize the ‘seeds of health,’ and are therefore unable intelligently to sow for good health. It would seem that many individuals expect to discover the blessed boon of health either accidentally or providentially; or in some mysterious way to possess themselves of physical strength without having faithfully and intelligently co-operated with God in these matters. But health is not a matter of chance. We must diligently sow the seed of conscientious obedience to physical and spiritual law, if we would reap the desirable harvest of spiritual and physical health; and unless we have received from our ancestors an enormous legacy of physical health and resistance to disease, it will soon become apparent that a state of physical well-being is secured only as a result of physical well-doing. The inestimable treasure of good health comes to us only as the result of good sowing, tho sometimes we are able to continue long in transgression before we begin to experience its evil effects, because our parents bequeathed to us such a generous legacy of physical health that it has required considerable time to squander it. The realization of health is no more a matter of chance or accident than is the farmer's harvest which he reaps in autumn. Sickness must not be regarded merely as the punishment of God, the visitation of divine Providence, an accident, or ill luck. These erroneous views of the cause of disease lead us into wrong methods of seeking to effect its cure,—methods which resemble picking the leaves off a tree in an effort to destroy it. In reality the tree is little harmed, for it will soon put forth other leaves; whereas if an ax had been laid at the root, the undesirable tree would have been disposed of once for all. The physician who is called upon to deal with the physically sick, and the minister who is called upon to deal with the heart-sick, should inquire into the cause of the afflictions of those who seek their help, and counsel them, and not only treat them for the results of transgression, but also seek to correct the practise or disposition which is in reality the root of the many distressing and annoying symptoms of spiritual or physical disease that appear on the surface. We must come to realize that the harvest of health can only be secured by the same painstaking and diligent cultivation that we see manifested on the part of the successful farmer in tilling the soil, and the prosperous business man in the building up of his commercial interests. We do not receive the blessing of health to be squandered in disobedience, or in the gratification of a perverted appetite; and when health is lost, it is ordinarily regained only by intelligent and conscientious effort. We do not regain physical health by accident or without sowing for it, any more than we receive spiritual forgiveness and moral healing without repentance and prayer.