LIFE is the mystery of the ages, the one phenomenon that has baffled physician, philosopher, and physicist. The researches of science, while they have shed much light upon the workings of Nature, have utterly failed to disclose the source and secret of life. We must turn away from Science to Inspiration, and there learn that the mysteries of life are folded in the mystery of Divinity. "With Thee is the fountain of life." Ps. 36:9. "Power belongeth unto God." Ps. 62:11.
"God be merciful unto us, and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us; that Thy way may be known upon earth, Thy saving health among all nations." Ps. 67:1, 2.
The light of God's countenance brings health to man; the shining of His face ministers healing to the nations. God alone is able to work the wonder of health.
"Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God; for I shall yet praise Him, who is the health of my countenance." Ps. 43:5.
Says the psalmist, "God . . . is the health of my countenance." Why should we so quickly surrender our moral courage and mental happiness to every passing influence of wind and weather, when God Himself is the very health of our countenance and the source of our life? Does it well become the Christian to make himself the victim of every change of weather and whim of feeling? Are not many of our mental harassments, moral doubts, and physical difficulties, due to the fact that we forget the great truth that God is our Helper, Christ our Healer, and that both Father and Son are faithful keepers and sustainers of all the faculties of mind, soul, and body?
"For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the Lord." Jer. 30:17.
If health is lost through transgression, is it reasonable to expect God will restore it before we experience a change of heart and habit with reference to our physical and spiritual practises? Must not a change of sowing invariably precede a change in the reaping? When God grants the harvest of health which He has previously withheld, is it not because He discerns the spirit of repentance and sorrow for sin?
Not infrequently the question of co-operating with God in the cultivation of the health is lightly regarded by many who, like Naaman the leper, seem to think that sooner or later, God will, without any effort on their part, even in the face of their continued transgressions, miraculously and instantaneously heal them of their distress or disease.
"And He sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick." Luke 9:2.
The commission to preach the Gospel has connected with it the command to heal the sick. Christ inaugurated a twofold Gospel in the world. He commanded His disciples to preach the Gospel of the spiritual kingdom, and to minister healing for the physical man. Christ was the world's greatest medical missionary; and His followers, to be consistent, must minister to the bodies of their fellows as well as to their souls.
Divine power only can heal the sick. Neither the minister's prayers, the doctor's wisdom, the nurse's treatment, nor any other human influence, can heal the body, any more than these agencies can save the soul. God in heaven is the source of life. The Lord is the Healer.
Harmony with God is the secret of spiritual and physical health. The great river of life proceeds from the throne of God, and every created being is absolutely dependent upon the Creator for life. All life and health and healing emanate from this one divine source.
Within every grain of corn and wheat the Creator has placed the vegetable life which, under proper conditions, will spring into activity and bear fruit. Likewise, every man has been given a lease of human life; and still beyond is the gift of the spiritual life; for it is said of Christ that He is the "Light of life," and "the true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." John 1:9.