Begin by thanking Jesus Christ that sickness it not a punishment and
nothing else--not a certainty and foretaste of hell. His sacrifice
has taken away its sting; it bears the peaceable fruits of
righteousness to them that are exercised thereby. It withdraws us
from the world. We follow too hotly and incessantly the things of the
world. Some years ago a satire was written upon us called "The World
Without Souls," and the author, without exaggerating, nearly proved
that most of us live as if we thought this was really to be the case.
CONCLUSION.--So improve the sickness of earth as to make it the path
to the health of heaven. In health often look back to the time of
sickness; consider what were then your feelings, your fears, your
good resolutions. Have you kept your word? Have you done your part?
Is the Great Physician paid? He seeks not gold, but the coin of
gratitude, love, and obedience. Every sickness should urge us to
secure the country without pain; to win the new heavens and the new
earth in which Christ's redeemed people shall be crowned with
unfading youth and unbroken health.--_George Clark, M.A.: Sermons,_
pp. 59-68.