By John MacDuff
"This is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose"--
"He healed all their sick." Matthew 12:15
The last words which fell upon the ears of Israel before coming to Elim, and while they were yet encamped at Marah, were these--"JEHOVAH ROPHI," "I am the Lord which heals you." Christ is this Great Physician--the Universal Healer--the Curer of every species and every case of spiritual paralysis. The appeal of the weeping prophet--"Is there no balm in Gilead, is there no physician there?"--is silenced in the presence of the Divine Restorer. Amid endless diversities of country, climate, language, manners, civilization--in the polished age, the uncivilized age, the philosophic age, the war age, the utilitarian age, the human heart is found the same--and the One Physician, the one medicine, "Christ crucified," is able to heal all diseases. "He is the power of God unto salvation to every one who believes." To every one! We may follow the sun in his fiery course as he circles the globe, and in vain shall we search for the spot on which he shines, where this Gospel may not be freely proclaimed.
Let none stand in doubt, owing to any peculiarity of circumstance, as to their warrant to appropriate the purchased blessings of Redemption. There is but one condition which, using another figure, the Divine Healer Himself employs, as He invites His Pilgrim people to the true 'Wells of Elim'--"If any man thirst, let him come to Me and drink." No other condition is there, in partaking of the living springs. The quality of water is not affected by the nature of the vessel which contains it; the water is the same, whether it be taken in a golden goblet or an earthen jar--by the king holding it in his jeweled cup, or the beggar that has no cup but the palm of his hands.
So is it with the water in the wells of Salvation. Around these, the rich and poor, naturally and spiritually, meet together; and whether it be with vessels of great, or vessels of small quantity--"vessels of cups" or "vessels of flagons"--the invitation is the same, "Whoever will, let him take the water of life freely." "Whoever comes to Me" (irrespective of all sins, shortcomings, moral disabilities) "I will never drive away."
Look at that scene in the early Church; Peter and John healing the impotent man at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple. It was an acted parable of the healing influence of the Gospel and the Gospel's Author. That helpless cripple, at the all-powerful name of "JESUS OF NAZARETH," cast aside his crutches, rose from his couch of miserable helplessness, with strength in his powerless limbs, and praise on his long-sealed lips. And next day, when the two apostles were summoned before the high priest, with the rulers, and elders, and scribes, and asked, "By what power, or by what name, have you done this?" Peter nobly replied (and it is a reply applicable to every diseased, helpless, sin-stricken sinner, who has risen from his couch of misery and entered the Temple of grace, walking, and leaping, and praising God), "If we are being asked to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, by whom God raised from the dead, that his man stands before you healed" (Acts 4:9, 10).
That all-powerful name and that all-powerful theme has lost none of its efficacy. May its music gladden us through life! As we move from encampment to encampment in the pilgrim journey, may "peace through the blood of His cross" be the gracious words which fall on our ears as we strike the tent and prepare to follow the unknown way. May they be the last to cheer us when our footsteps are on the brink of Jordan! Let us listen, in closing, to words from one of the "Hymns of the Fatherland"--
"Weep not, Jesus hears thee,
Hears your moanings broken,
Hears when you right wearily
All your grief have spoken.
Raise your cry,
He is nigh,
Everything on earth be shaken,
You will never be forsaken.
"Weep not, Jesus hears thee;
He shall come and surely save;
And each sorrow you shall see
Lie buried in your grave.
Sin shall die,
Grief shall fly.
You have wept your latest tears
When the Lord of life appears."
"Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest."
