appreciate the abhorrence with which the whole of Scripture speaks of
disease and death: because we are in the habit of interpreting many
texts which speak of the disease and death of the body in this life
as if they referred to the punishment and death of the soul in the
world to come. We have a perfect right to do that; for Scripture
tells us that there is a mysterious analogy and likeness between the
life of the body and that of the soul, and therefore between the
death of the body and that of the soul: but we must not forget, in
the secondary and higher spiritual interpretation of such texts,
their primary and physical meaning, which is this--that disease and
death are uniformly throughout Scripture held up to the abhorrence of
man.

Moreover--and this is noteworthy--the Gospels, and indeed all
Scripture, very seldom palliate the misery of disease, by drawing
from it those moral lessons which we ourselves do. I say very
seldom. The Bible does so here and there, to tell us that we may do
so likewise. And we may thank God heartily that the Bible does so.
It would be a miserable world, if all that the clergyman or the
friend might say by the sick-bed were, 'This is an inevitable evil,
like hail and thunder. You must bear it if you can: and if not,
then not.' A miserable world, if he could not say with full belief;
'"My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when
thou art rebuked of Him. For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and
scourgeth every son whom He receiveth." Thou knowest not now why
thou art afflicted; perhaps thou wilt never know in this life. But a
day will come when thou wilt know: when thou wilt find that this
sickness came to thee at the exact right time, in the exact right
way; when thou wilt find that God has been keeping thee in the secret
place of His presence from the provoking of men, and hiding thee