Nine Lesson Concerning Sickness – Bishop J.C. Ryle (1889)
1. Sickness is meant to make us think-to remind us that we have a soul as
well as a body-an immortal soul-a soul that will live forever in happiness
or in misery-and that if this soul is not saved we had better never have
been born
2. Sickness is meant to teach us that there is a world beyond the grave-and
that the world we now live in is only a training-place for another dwelling,
where there will be no decay, no sorrow, no tears, no misery, and no sin
3. Sickness is meant to make us look at our past lives honestly, fairly, and
conscientiously. Am I ready for my great change if I should not get better?
Do I repent truly of my sins? Are my sins forgiven and washed away in
Christ’s blood? Am I prepared to meet God?
4. Sickness is meant to make us see the emptiness of the world and its utter
inability to satisfy the highest and deepest needs of the soul
5. Sickness is meant to send us to our Bibles. That blessed Book, in the
days of health, is too often left on the shelf, becomes the safest place in
which to put a bank-note, and is never opened from January to December. But
sickness often brings it down from the shelf and throws new light on its
pages.
6. Sickness is meant to make us pray. Too many, I fear, never pray at all,
or they only rattle over a few hurried words morning and evening without
thinking what they do. But prayer often becomes a reality when the valley of
the shadow of death is in sight.
7. Sickness is meant to make us repent and break off our sins. If we will
not hear the voice of mercies, God sometimes makes us “hear the rod.”
8. Sickness is meant to draw us to Christ. Naturally we do not see the full
value of that blessed Savior. We secretly imagine that our prayers, good
deeds, and sacrament-receiving will save our souls. But when flesh begins to
fail, the absolute necessity of a Redeemer, a Mediator, and an Advocate with
the Father, stands out before men’s eyes like fire, and makes them
understand those words, “Simply to Your cross I cling,” as they never did
before. Sickness has done this for many-they have found Christ in the sick
room.
9. Last, but not least, sickness is meant to make us feeling and
sympathizing towards others. By nature we are all far below our blessed
Master’s example, who had not only a hand to help all, but a heart to feel
for all. None, I suspect, are so unable to sympathize as those who have
never had trouble themselves-and none are so able to feel as those who have
drunk most deeply the cup of pain and sorrow.
~~
Dr Bob Griffin
[email protected] www.grif.net
“Jesus Knows Me, This I Love!”