The Newtown bee., 1900-02-02

pesls to a reasonable being. We readily !
admit that some sickness does come as
the result of sin; much that we suffer
doubtless does come because Of the trans- |
gression of ply steal or moral law. The
young lady, who, in the winter season,
goes to the party insufficiently clad, pays
the penalty of her thoughtlessness with
q hard cold; the family that live, year
after year, with sink-hole of impurity
exhaling it's Impurities at the back door
Of their dwelling, pay the penalty for
their disregard of hygiene with one child
after another being stricken with disease.
What is 1t we see going on in the island
of Cuba today We see q transforms
like Puerto Principe being cleaned up
and cleaned out. We see q thorough
sewerage system DEVISED, the accumula.
tions of the filth of centuries taken from
under the nostrils of the people, and the
laws of sanitation, universally recogniz
ed in civilized countries, carried out
there. AS consequence Of all this we
see the death rate in Cuba rapidly dimin-
ishing. Now this does not mean that
God ia RENTING His anger toward Cuba,
that He is now bestowing His grace upon
the island which formerly knew only His
cursing; it does not mean that there is
any less sin in Cuba to-day than there eyer
was before, and hence less sickness as g
result of sin. When we are in health it
is our duty to keep in health Just so far
as we can by obedience to the we'll
known laws of hygiene. We may break
those laws ignorantly or inadvertently
and still sufter the penalty for the break
log of the law; but it is our business by
study, by the following of the dictates of
experience, to know what the law is and
TO obey it.
THE DOCTRINES OF DIVINE HEALING
seem to me unreasonable and at the same
time Inconsistent. They 60 too far; they
prove too much. We admit that Christ
is the same yesterday, to-day
and foraver;' but that does not
appear to us to carry with it, as q seoul
tur, the unavoidable conclusion that He
must do now upon the earth what He did
when He was dwelling among men. II
he cures one form of sickness in answer
to prayer, why does He not cure all
forms of sickness? Where shall we draw
the line? Where shall we stop? If Christ
will cure typhoid fever in answer to
prayer, why does He not also raise from
the dead? Why is sickness unto death
made an exception? Why is not
death abolished from the earth? Why
do we not become immortal? Why can
not an arm that has been severed be re-
stored? Why do the advocates of this
doctrine sit in dentists chair?-a they
do. IL Christ, in answer to prayer, will
prevent a whole tooth from decaying,
why should He not also restore it when
it has become decayed? Why do
those who plead the doing away with
medicines and doctors ever employ sim
pie home remedies, which amount to
medicinal agencies, as they do?
Divine Healing ia unreas enable because
iE asks too much Of God. The teaching
Of the Bible and of life at every point is
that God never does for a man what a
man can do for himself. There Is divine
side to redemption, the father going out
to meet the prodigal on his return from
the far country and seeing him when he
is yet great way off represents that
side; and there Ia also human side to
redemption, the prodigal coming to him.
self and saying, 81 will arise and go to
my father, and swill say unto him, Fa-
Their, have sinned against Heaven and
before thee and am no more worthy
to be called thy son." that is the human
side. Christ taught us to pray,"Give US
this day our daily bread - but He did
not teach us to sit down with folded
hands and wait for our daily bread to be
miraculously supplied. Every farmer
knows that there is law of seed-time and
harvest, and that he must conform TO
this law il he is to expect any profitable
return for his labor. The farmer does
not go about whining and saying: sssee
what slave / am, that L am forced to
SOW my seed at certain season, and do
lust so much cultivating and reap at
certain season, or expecE no results
that are any worthy compensation for
my toll" We have minds. These minds
OF ours can no more be left idle and un-
cultivated than the soil can be, il we are
to look for we1l-trained intellect. We
do not fret about it and say ssOhl poor
slave that am, to have to place myself
at school and 20 through many courses
Of study and spend years OF my short
life simply chat may have In the end a
well-disciplined mind that can think for