READ Mark 1:29-34. Here we find Jesus in the house of Simon and Andrew, after they came out of the synagogue at Capernaum. And here also we find another witness to the power of Jesus. This time it was not a man possessed with a devil, but a woman sick with a fever. The sick woman was the mother of Simon’s wife. When they told Jesus about her, He went to her, and “took her by the hand, and lifted her up; and immediately the fever left her, and she ministered to them.” Do you think any of the doctors could work a cure like this? No, but in Jesus there was the power of God, and He could heal the sick in a moment. This woman, as soon as she was healed, began to work in the house, and to minister to Jesus and to those who were in the house. Do you wonder that people were astonished, and that His fame spread abroad? In the evening the whole city was gathered together at the door, with all the sick, and those possessed with devils. They had heard of a man who could cast out devils, and heal the sick; and they came to see Him, and to find out if He would heal other sick people too. Do you think they were disappointed? No. He healed the sick people of their different diseases, and cast out many devils. Jesus felt for those poor distressed people, and gladly relieved them. And He always did this when He was here on earth.
Perhaps some of you may have seen men on the streets of the city, selling some medicine professing to do wonderful cures, and a great crowd of eager people listening, while they praised their wonderful, remedy. Why this eagerness? It is because so many people have bodily ailments, and would like to be cured, and feel well. So the people flocked to Jesus, when they thought He could cure them of their diseases. He did not have any medicine to sell, but He had the power to heal, and the suffering crowds come to get the healing.
But, dear children, there is something worse than these diseases of the body. There is sin, which destroys the soul as well as the body. And those who do not get deliverance from it must perish forever. Sickness of the body may cause a great deal of suffering in this world, and even death itself, but sin brings eternal misery in a place where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. Do you not think, if people believed this, they would be anxious about their souls, as well as their bodies? Ah! but the devil deceives people, and blinds them as to the real state of their souls, so that they are not troubled about their sins. The crowds came to Jesus to get their bodies healed, when, perhaps, very few of them were troubled about their souls; and perhaps many got their bodies healed, who afterwards perished in their sins.
And how is it going to be with you, my young reader? Have you ever been troubled about your sins? Jesus is not now here healing bodies, as He was then; but He has died on the cross for our sins, in order that our souls might be saved. If we believe on Him we get the salvation of our souls now. And when He comes again, He will save our bodies too, for He will change them, and make them like His own body in glory. We will then have a body of glory in which we will have no more sickness, and no more pain.
Is it not better, then, to come to Jesus now, not for healing of the body only, but for healing of the soul, so that we may spend a happy eternity with Jesus, where there will be no more sickness, nor pain, nor death?
A. H. R.
ML 09/16/1900