By George Kulp
"My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments: For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee." (Prov. 3:1-2) The Word of God for it. I will give you another. "Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." (Ex. 20:12) Long life, length of days, length of years, conditioned upon obedience. Not what some doctor says, not what some Doctor of Divinity says, not what some creed says, but what God says.
Listen again! The Word of God: "With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation." (Ps. 91:16) "Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in in his season." (Job 5:26)
Disease in our own bodies may generally be traced to some violation of the law of God. I will prove it to you. "Epaphroditus, my brother, and companion in labor, and fellow-soldier... was sick nigh unto death." Why was he sick? Because of his self-sacrificing efforts for me, Paul. He had overworked. His affection led him to extra efforts in behalf of Paul, therefore was he sick. "But God had mercy on him," and healed him. (Phil. 2:25-30)
Now, disease is not necessary to death. Disease is not necessary to death. Someone says, "What do you mean by that?" Why some folks say if we never get sick, we will never die. I remember sitting in a Conference, saw a preacher there, an old man. He had lived for God for years, his head was covered with a crown of glory. He knew he was drawing near to the end. Listen to what he says: "I am just about ripe, and I am waiting for the Father to put forth His hand and pluck the fruit." Do you get the thought? You do not necessarily have to be sick in order to die. Watch a clock when it is running down. Note the pendulum, slower, slower. slower, STOP! That is all.
I was walking the streets one day. The best old man -- I was his pastor, I remember him yet -- met me on the street and he said: "'Brother Kulp, I never expect to see death." Well, he didn't. Where is he today? In Heaven. Didn't he see death? No. Well, how did he get there? Went to sleep, just went to sleep, and woke up in Heaven. Before he went to Heaven I went to see him.
"Brother A____, how are you?" "All right. Peaceful as a babe." His hair was white, his face was white, it had some of the shine of glory on it already. Went to see him again. "Brother A____, how are you?" "All right." After awhile some others went to had gone, never saw death, just fell asleep. His wife, Who survived him some years, said to me, "I want to go as papa went," and she did; took to her bed, no pain, no suffering, nurse employed -- she went to look at her one hour and found her gone -- just fell see him. "Brother A____, how are you?" He wasn't there. He asleep, and was with God.
You do not have to be sick in order to die. Just when your work is done and the fruit is ripe. Say, here is an apple, and it falls from the tree two months before it ought to. What is the matter? There is a worm in the core. That is a diseased apple. But here is one. There it swings in the wind, the sun paints it, the rain waters it all summer. Now it is ripe, and it is full grown, and it is full of juice, and it just falls. It is ripe. Well, you keep minding God, and by and by when Jesus comes He will see you are ripe and put out His hand and take you Up to the garner.
Obedience to God is a Preventative of Ill Health. Now, I suppose the devil will whip some of you. I can't help it. I am going to give you what is God's truth. If our heavenly Father is more willing to give good gifts unto us than we are willing to give them to our children, when we belong to Him, and you and I are His children, don't you suppose He is mindful of us? Don't you suppose He is careful of us? Don't you suppose He Will cheek us by the Holy Spirit? Listen to what was said: "O thou man of God, there is death in the pot." (2 Kings 4:40) God checks us. The Holy Spirit will check us. We get cheeks on what we ought not to eat, and we do not mind God. We go ahead, we want to please our palate, and we suffer. We get checks on the length of time we ought to eat, and the average American eats -- well, about ten minutes, some about five. Instead of sitting down and masticating your food, chewing it -- that is what your teeth are for -- instead of taking time to mix the food with saliva, taking about thirty minutes to eat, we eat in about five or ten minutes. The average American swallows his meals down in about five minutes or ten, and then wonders why he does not feel good. We ought to take thirty minutes for our meals -- and you students can do it. Ample time is given, and when food is properly masticated, digest on, is aided, and the body benefited accordingly.
You say Bible salvation does not refer to the body. The prayer of the apostles was that God would "preserve you, soul and body." Now God is mindful of my body. I am a temple of the Holy Ghost, and I have a right to be careful of my body. God is careful of it. When God has made provision in the Atonement for our bodies, we have no right to ignore that provision. Lord, help us! Mind the checks of the Holy Spirit.
Another thought! God's will does not lay upon an obedient and surrendered child needless pain and sickness. I will repeat it, I want you to get it. God's will does not lay upon an obedient and surrendered child needless pain and sickness. God has made provision in the Atonement for every one of His children, and as by faith we may have forgiveness of sins, we are taught in the Word of God we may have healing from sickness. "According to thy faith be it done unto thee." "As thou hast believed, so be it done." "Believest thou that I am able to do this?" Jesus talking to the paralytics and invalids of His day. What is the matter today? We do not believe God. He says in His Word to us, "Believest thou that I am able to do this?" "These signs shall follow them that believe." The Apostles proved it. They proved it in their ministry. We may prove it today. I said to you yesterday that the Acts of the Apostles did not close. They are not closed yet.
I know a lady of undoubted piety, Mrs. Wesley C____, who said to my wife: "My sister died with a cancer in her breast, and the other morning while we were lying in bed I threw my hands over this way (illustrating), and found a cancer in my breast the size of a walnut. I want you and Brother Kulp to come to my house and pray and anoint me. I do not want to be anointed in the presence of people who do not believe God." On Tuesday we were there, read the Word, what God said in reference to healing, then prayed and anointed her. She said, "What must I do now?" "Just go on believing God." She did, never felt her symptoms, never "just wondered if He would," and one day she found the cancer gone. God honored her faith. The next Sunday she testified in the church and God blessed the saints as she told the power of Jesus to heal today.
There is a measure of responsibility resting on preachers because they do not preach healing in the Atonement. Over in Frankfort, Ind., last summer, at a camp-meeting, a little girl played the organ. She took sick. That girl was in extreme pain, now lying on a cot, then rising up again. Some one said to me: "Brother Kulp, this sister is very sick; she will have to be anointed." Brother Pratt, another brother and I anointed her and prayed for her. She rose up from the cot, came over on the platform and played the organ, and testified that God had healed her. Bishop Haven said: "Preach a whole Gospel, a whole Savior, a whole Heaven, a whole Hell."
I'll tell you another instance: I know a family, the children will get sick, the mother will say: "Shall we send for a doctor?" "No, send for the pastor." I go, lay my hands on that child and it gets up healed. Some morning one of those children will come up to the front of the altar and say: "I want to be anointed." God bless you, they have been taught! The only folks I feel like censuring are the preachers because they do not preach the whole Gospel.
I said, God's will does not lay upon an obedient and surrendered child needless pain and sickness. Somebody says: "O Brother Kulp, all sickness is in the will of God." Then why don't you suffer in the will of God? Then why do yon send for a doctor and fight the will of God? If all sickness is in the will of God, then you fight the will of God when you send for a doctor, or send for anybody to pray for you. Sickness is a sequence of violated law. That is it, cause and effect, whether it is violation intentionally or ignorantly, whether on your part or the part of your antecedents. Now, God's will is expressed in the Atonement. "With His stripes we are healed." Now don't go any further than the Word, but try and keep step with God as He teaches us in His Word. Trust in God is a preservative of health. Trust prevents worry. When you worry you do not trust, and when you trust you quit worrying. Worry kills people. You cannot study when you are worrying. Trust is a preservative of health. It is worry that kills. Worry is fatal to the proper acting of the organs of the body. Will you please get that? Worrying is fatal to the proper acting of the organs of the body. Trust is a preservative of health, and when you trust God you will cease all your worrying. You are in the hands of God. When Bulstrode Whitlock was on his way to Sweden as representative of the Commonwealth, he put up at an inn, and could not sleep, His servant said, "Master, what is the matter?" He replied, "l am burdened for England." Then came the question, "Master, did God care for this world before you came into it?" "Yes." "Will He take care of it when you are gone?" "Yes." "Can't you trust Him to take care of it while you are in it?" Whitlock went to sleep.
If you are a child of God, doing your duty, you do not have to worry abut anything. My wife says I am a born optimist, but the Holy Ghost made me an optimist. I often quote Riley:
"The inner side of every cloud is bright and shining;
I therefore turn my clouds about,
And always wear them inside out,
To show the lining."
Trust prevents hurry. "He that believeth shall not make haste." What do you do when you make haste? You are in a hurry. Whenever you get in a hurry, look for brimstone. The devil is about somewhere and wants to kill you. "Oh, I would like to get out in the work; I am just sitting here at school and I am just fretting and chafing." Remember Moses was forty and God sent him to school forty years more. Moses knew that he was called to deliver Israel when he was forty years old. He goes out one day and sees an Egyptian smite an Israelite, knocks him down and kills him. I suppose he thought, "I am deliverer of Israel, and I must begin." But God says: "Moses, your blood is too hot; I can not trust you. You go off to the backside of the desert in Arabia." God could not use him yet.
Some of you boys have been here about three months, and you want to get out into the work. If you trust God, He will get you out when He wants you there. Paul knew of about fifteen hundred years of experience of the past. sat at the feet of Gamaliel, was instructed in all the learning of the Hebrews, was struck down on the way to Damascus and had a wonderful conversion, received the Holy Ghost in Damascus. and yet God said to him: "Now go off to Arabia."
How long hate you been at the Bible School? Three months? You are in too great a hurry. When people have an incubator, and they put eggs into it, and expect to have chickens, and they turn on too much heat to hurry the thing up, they kill the whole brood. Do you get the thought? When God wants you out, He will get you out, and nobody can keep you from the place where God wants you. Jesus Christ took thirty years' preparation for three years' ministry. I do believe in preparation. When you are trusting God you will not get in such a hurry. "Thou didst keep Moses forty years, and if Thou dost want me forty years, Amen! And if Thou dost want me here three years, as Thou didst Paul in Arabia, I will stay." "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength."
I have told you about Bishop Phillips Brooks. He was coming up the street one day, saw a little fellow trying to pull a doorbell and couldn't. Bishop Brooks (I can see him now) sympathized with the little fellow, walked up the steps, reached up and pulled the doorbell. Then the little boy said, "Now let's run." Well, that is the way some people do when they pray. Pull the prayer bell, and then run. "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength." Oh, Hallelujah! I know what that means! Glory to God! I have gone upstairs to my room, and gotten down on my knees, and the devil brought up everything that ought to be done, letters to write, calls to make, and I couldn't get my mind concentrated, and i said: "Devil, I will stay here until I hear from Heaven." I was on my knees a half hour before I could get in the spirit of prayer. But how God did quiet my soul, and bless me! I wouldn't get over it for days. William Bramwell said that whenever he had to drive himself to prayer, he always had the juiciest times before he got through.
A man who trusts in God will keep his eyes on God. We have a business man in Kalamazoo who says every man ought to carry with him constantly the Book of Proverbs. I believe the child of God ought to have the whole Bible, because it manifests the will of God for us under all possible circumstances, it is true, what John Wesley says: "A man is immortal until his work is done" -- if, if he minds God. A man is immortal until his work is done if he minds God.
Summerfield died at twenty-seven. I do not know anything about the circumstances. I do not know whether God wanted him in Heaven or not just at that time. I do know Wesley traveled thousands of miles, preached thousands of sermons, and departed at a good age. "With long life will I satisfy him."
"Brother Kulp, what have you been doing?" Listen! I did what I promised God I would not do any more. I have been in camp-meetings and preached three times a day, and twenty-one times during one meeting, and in addition I have given talks to preachers, and if God had not been wonderfully preserving and caring for me, I would not be here any more. I promised God I would not do that any more, and I will not. I am going to mind God in my body. "They that are after the things of the Spirit do mind the things of the Spirit."
Good common sense saves from fanaticism. God will not save you from the sequences of willful violation of the law. Foolishness is sin. "Can you prove that?" The Bible says "the thought of foolishness is sin." Now, if the thought of foolishness is sin, then foolishness is sin. Now, it is a foolish thing for a man to try to do two days' work in one, or for one man to try to do the work of two men. Now, without any instruction from the Word of God, good common sense tells us that. I know the world is dying all around us. I know the need of the Gospel. But I know that we can accomplish more for God when we obey the Word of God than when we disobey it. "Neither be thou foolish: why shouldest thou die before thy time?" (Eccl. 7:17.) God wants you to live, and foolishness will shorten your life, and you do it when you run against the checks of the Holy Ghost.
H. M. Stanley, the man sent out by the "New York Herald" to find Livingstone, says that one-half to two-thirds of the lives of the missionaries in Africa are sacrificed because the missionaries violate the laws of health. It was an intelligent man, a man who kept his eyes open, who came back with that testimony. Carelessly violate the laws of health, and you will suffer, though you are a child of God. You may take your life in your hands, and go to Africa, and disregard the laws of health, and though you are a child of God, you will suffer for it. God will let a missionary die if he continually violates the laws of God. Dr. Arthur Pierson endorsed that statement. He knew. He lost a daughter in India. She went to India and died and went to Heaven. Now, what is the thought? Obey God and live. Question of obedience. What was it back there in the garden? Obey God. What was once truth is always truth. What was it way back there in the wilderness? "If you will hearken, if you will obey, I will put none of these diseases upon you." What was it away back there? "I will take sickness away from the midst of you." What was it when Jesus came? "Believest thou that I am able to do this? According to your faith be it unto you." What was it after Pentecost? "Silver and gold have I none: but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk."
God bless you. the Acts of the Apostles are not closed! God wants us to honor Him by our faith. The devil hates healing meetings. God blesses healing meetings. I have seen people arise from the altar with restored bodies and shout the victory over it before the oil ever touched them. God saw their faith and obedience.
Get your eyes on God. Some people get their eyes on the preacher. You are making a great mistake. Preachers are only instruments in God's hands. Get your eyes on God. Is there anything too hard for God? When God has made provision in the Atonement for our bodies, should we not be strong in God?
I crave for every one of you what the Apostles prayed. "I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."
