the Fourth Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Our Daily Homily - Volume 3
Jeremiah 8:22—Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?
How many of God’s children are discouraged! They have mourned, confessed, and resolved; but they do not expect to see any great alteration in themselves. They have lost hope. Now, it is evident that as long as this spirit prevails, there is very little prospect of improvement. Discouragement can only bring defeat. One of the first objects of a physician is always to awaken hope, for otherwise he knows that his medicines can profit but little. Now, bethink you, what is the cause of your failure? Is it in God? Is there not balm in Gilead? Is there not a physician there? Why, then, is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?
O wounded, sorrowful soul, there is balm in Gilead, there is a Good Physician. No hurt He cannot heal, no bleeding He cannot staunch, no sickness He cannot cure! Why keep lamenting so bitterly, "My bad heart, my bad heart"? Why speak as though that temper, that predisposition to sin, that habit, were to be lost only in death? Why be uncomforted? Jesus can heal all sicknesses, all diseases, among the people. One touch of the King can heal the soul of whatsoever disease it has.
Why are you not in health? It is because you resort to quacks, and not to the Divine Physician; or because you do not bare your pain to its roots before Him; or because you refuse to abandon yourself wholly to his prescriptions and treatment. Dare to search out and know the cause of ill-health; for be sure it is on your side, not Christ’s. Then let Him treat you as He will. He will prescribe diet, exercise, fresh air, change of scene. He may use the knife. but He will do his work as dexterously and painlessly as possible. "Who healeth all thy diseases."
