Sickness a Strengthener
D. Gregg, D. D. Ezekiel 34:16 I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken… I. SICKNESS MAKES US CONTENTED TO PERFORM ALL THE GOD-ASSIGNED TASKS OF LIFE, SEVERE AS THESE TASKS MAY BE. When I hear people complaining of the burdens of life, and expressing a longing to die, I say to myself: They are only talking, and their words are empty words. A visitation of sickness would change their tone. A square look at death would make them satisfied to live, and to live right in the midst of the toils against which they speak. The ancients were fond of relating this tale which falls into the line of my thought. A discontented man heavily burdened was called to the task of carrying his burden to a town on the other side of a steep hill. Murmuringly he began the toil of ascent. The burden was heavy before, but it grew still heavier as he climbed. At last his discontent knew no bounds, and, disgusted and dissatisfied with his lot, he threw the burden from him and cast himself upon the ground, crying, "O death, come and deliver me! O death, come and deliver me!" Death heard the cry of the man and responded, and came to take him at his word. In the dim distance the discontented man saw the awful form coming into sight. There was a great gaunt figure, a skeleton form, sweeping toward him with tremendous gigantic strides. Instantly he leaped to his feet and laid hold of his burden and endeavoured to shoulder it. With a sepulchral voice Death greeted him: "I believe you called me; now here I am. What do you want of me?" With the look of the sweetest innocence the man replied: "It was my voice that you heard, no doubt. My burden fell off my shoulder, and I was only calling for someone to come help me restore it to its place again." The sight and voice were enough. They were an inspiration to the man. Of his own strength he lifted his old burden, and with a positive pleasure carried it to the town over the hill. That story, whether it be fact or fiction, is true to life. We leave the sickroom, where we have looked death in the face, willing to take up the toils of life, and we find the heaviest task within the compass of our abilities a delight. Willing workers, satisfied workers, enthusiastic workers, bright-faced workers, mastering and performing the duties of life, and carrying forward the great enterprises of the age — these are the product of the sickroom. These are what the world needs. They carry in them a spirit that is contagious, and that generates faithfulness to duty in all whom they touch. II. SICKNESS GIVES US A NEW APPRECIATION OF THE DIVINE THINGS IN OUR LIVES. I knew a man who for years spent his Sabbaths in the machine shop, repairing engines, without a single desire toward the house of God. I begged him many a time to give up his irreligious life and worship with his family on the Sabbath; but to no purpose. The time came when he was imprisoned in the sickroom, and then his lament was that he had neglected the sanctuary. That man spent the first returning strength of convalescence in travelling three miles to my house, and for what purpose? That I might kneel with him at the Throne of Grace and offer prayer of thanksgiving for him. Not only is the Throne of Grace made appreciable by sickness; the Book of God also is made appreciable. The Bible of the invalid is a well-used book. It is thumb-marked — at the writings of Job; at the 23rd Psalm; at the 14th chapter of John; at the 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians; at the 21st and 22nd chapters of Revelation. These closing chapters of the Divine volume are studied until the geography of the heavenly land is as well known as that of the land in which we live. III. SICKNESS TEACHES US THE VALUE OF HEALTH AND THE DUTY OF LOOKING AFTER THE CONDITION OF THE BODY. IV. SICKNESS CUTS UP BY THE ROOTS OUR CONCEIT AND PRIDE AND SELFISHNESS AND DEVELOPS IN THE PLACES OF THESE HUMILITY AND SYMPATHY. If this be true, then physical pains bring spiritual gains. Humility and sympathy help in the making of grand men. Humanity should be willing to pay a great price for the eradication of such evils as pride and selfishness, for they are social curses and social disorganisers. Humanity should count nothing too dear to pay as a purchase of humility and sympathy. Humility and sympathy were two of the virtues that made the Christ of history the Man who inaugurated the highest civilisation of the world. That which has the power of making men Christ-men is a most desirable factor in this world. It is easily seen why man is unsympathetic. The sense of power generates independence; the sense of independence closes the avenues of sympathy. Where there is no sympathy, where there is no recognition of the mutual dependence of man upon his brother man, man becomes selfish and proud and hard. The sense of dependence is the basis of sympathy. Sickness brings the sense of dependence. A man who has to be lifted and turned by his nurse, a man who has to be fed by a spoon in the hand of another, cannot look down and despise his fellow men. There, in the hour of weakness, he learns his indebtedness to man, and his duty to make a return for benefits received by willingly giving service and kindness and interest and care and his very life. These things he is constantly receiving from others, and these things make him what he is. These things it is his duty to pass on. At a railroad station a benevolent man found a schoolboy crying because he had not quite enough to pay his fare home. He remembered suddenly how years before he had been in the same plight, and had been helped by an unknown friend who enjoined upon him that some day he should pass that kindness on. Now he saw that the opportunity spoken of had come. He took the weeping boy aside, heard his story, and paid his fare, and asked him in turn to pass the kindness on. As the train moved off from the station the lad waved his hand to his benefactor and cried cheerily, "I will pass it on, sir." That act of thoughtful love is being passed on through our globe, nor will it stay until its ripples have belted the globe and met again. To every man who has received kindness and sympathy in the hour of his sickness and trial God is saying, "Pass these on. Remember there are hearts to be bound like thine; there are tears to be dried like thine; there are lives to be illumined like thine. Light up the lives of others." (D. Gregg, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick: but I will destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with judgment. WEB: I will seek that which was lost, and will bring back that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick: but the fat and the strong I will destroy; I will feed them in justice.