HEALTH AND DISEASE

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 969, 12 May 1930, Page 14

HEALTH AND DISEASE

THEIR RELATION TO SIN ATTITUDE OF CHRIST Speaking at Mount Roskill Congregational Church last evening, Pastor Reuben E. Dowle spoke on “Christ and Bodily Health,” his text being, “Who healeth all thy diseases,” and “Bodily health profitetli little.” “This question of health and disease has all down the ages proved to be remarkably interesting,” said the speaker. Various theories, including “faith healing,” have given much food for thought, and, still gives it. “Health, one constantly hears people say, comes before everything. Let us see. The Jews looked upon illhealth as a sign of God’s displeasure. There seems to be three possible views in regard to ill-health and disease. First, disease is a form that should be strenuously fought against. Disease, a form of punishment for sin; and disease, permitted by God for the mortification of the human body. The first seems to be the most rational and scriptural. “Disease, ill-health and affliction seem to run parallel with the history of our race,” Mi-. Dowle continued. “Christ regarded sin and its consequent disease the work of malign powers. He thus saw fit to work miracles to prove His power over one disease. Christ regarded sin, the sickness of the soul, as His peculiar enemy. To the paralytic he said, when coming for healing, ‘Thy sins be forgiven thee.” His trouble -was with sin-sick souls. “In modern days, do we not all know that riotous living is, in the majority of cases, productive of disease, decrepitude and death? This slate of affairs is due to the violation of laws natural and divine. Christ heals the sin-sick soul. Thus God’s laws are all for our advantage.”