Healing for All

“This is the rest tvherewith ye may cause the weary to rest, and this is the refreshing” —

“?^e JjcaIcK tfjrm all.” — Matt. xii. 15.

P? calms for SlI.

The last words which fell upon the ears

of Israel before coming to Elim, and while they were yet encamped at Marah, were these — “Jehovah Rophi,” “I am the Lord which healeth thee.”

Christ is this Great Physician — the Universal Healer — the Curer of every species and every case of spiritual paralysis. The appeal of the weeping prophet is silenced in the presence of the Divine Restorer: — “Is there no balm in Gilead, is there no physician there?” (Jer. viii. 22). Amid endless diversities of country, climate, language, manners, civilisation; — in the polished age, the uncivilised age, the philosophic age, the war age, the utilitarian age, the human heart is found the same: and the One Physician, the one medicine, “Christ crucified,” is able to heal all diseases. “He is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.” To every one! We may follow the sun in his fiery course as he circles the globe, and in vain shall we search for the spot on which he shines, where this Gospel may not be freely proclaimed.

Let none stand in doubt, owing to any peculiarity of circumstance, as to their warrant to appropriate the purchased blessings of Redemption. There is but one condition which, using another figure, the Divine Healer Himself employs, as He invites His Pilgrim people to the true ‘Wells of Elim,’ — “If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink.” No other condition is there, in partaking of the living fountains. The quality of water is not affected by the nature of the vessel which contains it; the water is the same, whether it be taken in a golden goblet or an earthen jar; — by the king holding it in his jewelled cup, or the beggar that has no cup but the palm of his hands. So is it with the water in the wells of Salvation. Around these, the rich and poor, naturally and spiritually, meet together; and whether it be with vessels of great, or vessels of small quantity, — “vessels of cuys” or “vessels of flagons,” — the invitation is the same, “^^losoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” “Him that comelh unto Me” (irrespective of all sins, shortcomings, moral disabilities) “I will in no wise cast out.” Look at that scene in the early Church, Peter and John healing the impotent man at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple. It was an acted parable of the healing influence of the Gospel and the Gospel’s Author. That helpless cripple, at the all-powerful name of “Jesus OF Nazareth,” cast aside his crutches, rose from his couch of abject helplessness, with strength in his powerless limbs, and praise on his long-sealed lips. And next day, when the two apostles vrere summoned before the high priest, with the rulers, and elders, and scribes, and interrogated thus, “By what power, or by what name, have ye done this?” Peter nobly replied (and it is a reply applicable to every diseased, helpless, sin-stricken sinner, who has risen from his couch of misery and entered the Temple of grace, walking, and leaping, and praising God), “If we be this day examined of the good deed done to the impotent man, by what means he is made whole; be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name oi Jesus Christ of Nazareth., whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by Him doth this man stand here before you whole” (Acts iv. 9, i o).

That all-powerful name and that all-powerful theme has lost none of its efficacy. May its music gladden us through life! As we move from encampment to encampment in the pilgrim journey, may “peace through the blood of His cross” be the gracious words which fall on our ears as we strike the tent and prepare to prosecute the unknown way. ]Iay they be the last to cheer us when our footsteps are on the brink of Jordan!

Let us listen, in closing, to words from one of the “Hymns of the Fatherland “: —

*’ Weep not, Jesus heareth thee,
Hears thy meanings broken,
Hears when thou right wearily
All thy grief hast spoken.

Raise thy cry,
He is nigh,
Everything on earth be shaken,
Thou wilt never be forsaken.

“Weep not, Jesus healeth thee;
He shall come and surely save;
And each sorrow thou shalt see
Lie buried in thy grave.

Sin shall die,
Grief shall fly.
Thou hast wept thy latest tears
When the Lord of life appears.”

“come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy
laden, and i will give you rest.”