THEY THAT ARE SICK by Nelia Snow

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Mar 29, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 13.

THEY THAT ARE SICK.

By Nelia Snow

BY NELIA SNOW.

"THEY that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick," said Jesus; and because of this truth He devoted His life to the service of the sick, not alone to those ill in body, but to the sin-weakened souls about Him. Whether it was the proud Nicodemus, honored as teacher and ruler in Israel, or the weeping Mary, outcast of society, despised, forsaken, Jesus' interest, sympathy, and service were as freely given in one case as in the other.

Later, when about to commit His work on earth into the hands of His followers, He said, "As the Father hath sent Me, even so send I you." The mantle of the Great Physician fell upon those who should from henceforth enter His service and bear His name. They were to minister, as they had opportunity, to those sick in body, mind, or spirit.

The earthly physician who goes out to serve those stricken with bodily disease has many forbidding conditions to meet. He finds his patient with coated tongue, rapid pulse, and high fever. He is peevish, incoherent, delirious; these are only symptoms of a diseased body; they neither anger, excite, nor surprise the physician. On the contrary, the more distressing the symptoms, the more earnestly, carefully, and patiently he works. Because the case is a desperate one and the conditions discouraging, he does not, if true to his profession, relax his efforts and turn to easier cases. The greater the need the more decided the effort to bring relief.

Thus has God called those who profess to be Christians (physicians of the soul), to work for others, regardless of the unfavorable symptoms. Had Jesus turned aside from the apparently hopeless case of the maniac of Gadara there would have been, for us, no wonderful record of "him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting and clothed, and in his right mind."

"As we have therefore opportunity let us do good unto all men." "The Christian's opportunity determines the measure of his responsibility." He must recognize in every one a spiritual patient. The patient may be either a professed child of God, or an unbelieving neighbor in whom the symptoms of soul sickness are manifest. They both require the utmost skill, love, and wisdom with which Christ has equipped His followers.

This one may be unlikely to respond to the labor bestowed, yet has the opportunity to do him good presented itself? Then we may not turn aside from the one fallen among thieves, whether the thieves be ignorance, poverty, or sin. "Even so send I you," said Jesus; and the "even so" leads the disciple into the same service which claimed the Master's life. "Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you."

Blaine, Me.