So far these Divinely-revealed health principles speak loudly that a large majority of Christians who ever pray for health but never do a thing to correct their erroneous habits, are only wasting their breath. Now, though, has come the opportune moment, the blessed moment, for each to realize that it is an irony to try to convince the Lord that the sinners’ bodies should be made whole, but His laws of health ignored or put aside!
All Christians should now awake to the realization that praying for health is not their only duty; that their doing nothing more than praying, and nothing more than listening to a preacher, is not only making their bodies sick, but also keeping their minds inactive and their souls in darkness of advancing Truth. Anyone placing on the doctor’s shoulders the whole burden of his health, and on the minister’s shoulders the whole burden of his spiritual well-being, gains neither health nor truth. Each must bear his own yoke in order to be fair to himself.
As to the next means by which church members as a body may regain both their physical and spiritual health, the Lord asks the question and then answers it Himself:
“Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked that thou cover him, and that thou hide not thyself from shine own flesh? Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and shine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward. Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and He shall say, Here I am.
“If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger and speaking vanity, and if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noon day: and the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.” Isa. 58:9-11.
This greatly needed project of caring for the poor and sick, called forth by the One Who is interested in us all, can, we believe, now be managed as it was in the days of the prophets: by a faithful second tithe paid by a people who realize that it is better to give than to receive, — better, indeed, to help others than to have others help them; that he who gives is happier than he who receives. Figuratively speaking, each Christian should determine to be a water pipe, a pipe which ever gives and yet never goes empty, instead of a sewer pipe which ever receives and never gets filled.
Sickness and death among God’s faithful people will not, however, entirely disappear before time and knowledge of Truth bring the fulfillment of Isaiah chapters 33 and 35:
“Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities: shine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken.
“But there the glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams, wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby. For the Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our Lawgiver, the Lord is our King; He will save us. Thy tacklings are loosed; they could not well strengthen their mast, they could not spread the sail: then is the prey of a great spoil divided; the lame take the prey.
“And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity.”…”Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hen, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.
“And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes. And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.”
“No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there: and the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” Isa. 33:20-24; 35:5-10.