CHRIST THE LIVING CHANNEL OF HEALTH AND HEALING.
By W. S. Sadler, M. D.
"I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." John 10: 10. THE plan of salvation is a life-giving, healing plan. The whole purpose of Christ's work in behalf of humanity was "that they might have life, and have it more abundantly." God's Word is life and spirit to those who receive it. John 6: 63. Christ is the Fountain of spiritual life for our fallen world; and the reason we have so little of His life is that we doubt its reality and refuse to co-operate with the Life-giver. Says the Master, "Ye will not come to Me that ye might have life." John 5: 40. There is life in light, death in darkness. The light that shines forth from the word of revelation, in nature, or through the laws of health, contains life for all who receive it. Jesus said, "I am the Light of the world. He that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." John 8: 12. "Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of Me." John 5: 39. Through Christ a flood of light is shed abroad in our dark world, light concerning the physical life, the mental life, and that greater and deeper light concerning the spiritual life—life everlasting. The light of these truths, brought to us by the revelation of God, contains life and health and healing in their respective spheres. The living principles of truth are, as it were, leaves from the tree of life, which are for "the healing of the nations," in that they enable us to turn our practises from wrong channels into those of obedience and co-operation with the Life-giver. In Contrast with the False.
"She said, If I may but touch His clothes, I shall be whole. And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague. And Jesus, immediately knowing in Himself that virtue had gone out of Him, turned about in the press, and said, Who touched My clothes?" Mark 5: 28-30. When this poor sufferer had been made whole, Jesus knew that virtue—healing power—had gone out of Him. What the suffering woman had received, the Master had given. And it is the same with each and every sufferer to-day. Whatever is received in the sick room in the way of health and healing, comes to us through the channel of our blessed Redeemer. Christ Jesus is the only source of life and health for fallen humanity. Those who seek for spiritual and physical healing at the hands of false and bogus "healers" are sure to meet with bitter disappointment. Is it not the duty of every soul who has found the genuine fountain of healing to give the trumpet of truth a certain sound, that honest souls be not swept from their anchorage by the flood of deceptive teachings, false divine healers, "Christian Science," "Theosophy," "Spiritualism," "New Thought," etc., many of which are spreading throughout the country with prairie-fire rapidity. The day has arrived when we should unfurl our banners to the breeze with the truths of health and healing written thereon so plainly that the honest in heart may read and be saved from the many deceptions springing up on every side. The Word of Life and Light.
"And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." John 1: 14. The Word of God, the channel of healing to the world, was "made flesh and dwelt among us." And there, in the person of Jesus, was a fountain of life and health. Everywhere He went He was found healing diseases and forgiving sin. "Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the Light of the world; he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." John 8: 12. There is life in the light that shines from the cross of Calvary. Every ray of divine light is laden with divine life. While God, in His love, because He is no respecter of persons, gives a certain amount of His healing ministry to both saint and sinner, yet the believer in Christ, the one who obeys the Healer's laws, is in personal communication with the unbounded resources of health and the infinite powers of healing that are bound up in Jesus—God's great gift to man. The divine way is the path of health and holiness. It is not enough to hold truth as a mere theory of the mind; it must reach the heart, transform the character, and find actual expression in the life. "Sanctify them through Thy truth; Thy word is truth." John 17: 17. We must become acquainted with God's way in our bodies. There is purifying power and sanctifying possibility in God's truth. The laws of health are God's ways in the physical man; and by diligent study and conscientious obedience we may so relate ourselves to God's ways that we shall experience for ourselves "His saving health," and through us it will be shown forth to the nations. It is by the aid of the light of truth that we come to know God, whom to know aright "is life eternal." John 17: 3. There is health in His way,—the right way, the way of obedience,—while there is disease of the body and anguish of the soul, in the enemy's way, the wrong way,—"the way of sinners." So the conscience ever admonishes the sin-sick soul, saying, "This is the way, walk ye in it." Isa. 30: 21. Likewise, physical pain all the while seeks to direct the transgressor back to the paths of obedience, saying, "You are in the wrong way; turn back to the path you have strayed from; cease your transgression." The trampling underfoot of truth, and the rejection of light is the crucifixion of life. "Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them, and will reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth." Jer. 33: 6. The abundant revelation of God's peace and truth should precede and accompany the ministry of healing. We must first cooperate, to the full extent of our knowledge, with the healing power that God has placed within us, before we can consistently make requests for the manifestation of additional and miraculous healing in our behalf. In accepting the light of truth, we lay hold of the most powerful transforming agent in the whole universe. "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are." 1 Cor. 3: 16, 17.