EJW
E. J. Waggoner
Everybody desires health, but not all desire it from the same motive. Most people regard health as the end, whereas it should be only a means whereby we may glorify God. To desire to recover from any illness, merely in order that we may be relieved from suffering and inconvenience and expense, is base, ignoble, and selfish. No permanent healing may be expected under such circumstances, for the healed person does not consciously and willingly connect with the only Source of life and health. MEDM November 1900, page 323.1
Most people are willing to suffer a good deal of temporary deprivation in order to regain lost health, to a degree at least. When convinced that wrong habits of living have brought them into their present diseased state, they will consent to give up the bad habit for a time, until health seems to be restored. But usually it is only for a time. How often one hears, “How long will it be before I can eat everything I wish to, just as I used to?” This proves that the person wishes a renewal of strength only in order to be able again to indulge in the gratification of appetite, which wrecked him before. Such ones are described in James 4:3: “Ye ask, and receive not, because you ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.” When one desires only the glory of God, he may ask what he will and it will be g iven him. MEDM November 1900, page 323.2
A holy man is a whole man, one who is whole physically, as well as mentally and spiritually. And, conversely, a perfectly whole man is a holy man; for no man is whole if he lacks anything that is necessary to the making of a perfect man, according to “the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” There have been many feeble saints, it is true; but sickliness and sallowness are no signs of saintliness. Therefore the apostle prays: “The very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” MEDM November 1900, page 323.3
A perfect man is an indescribably higher being than a perfect animal of any other species. Man alone was made in the image of God, to be an associate with the Godhead in the government of the rest of creation. This should be borne in mind by everyone who seeks healing from any infirmity. A horse that has no blemish in any limb or organ is a perfect horse; but a man may be as sound physically as the horse, and still be far from a perfect man. If all his members are not under Divine control,-if they are used in any way that does not honor God, that is, that would be a disgrace for God himself to do,-he is most imperfect. If a man listens only to vile talk and foolish gossip, it is useless for him to have a good hearing. So far as any good that his ears do him, he might as well be deaf. If a man’s feet are swift to do evil, he might better be lame, or even have no feet. If a man talks only evil, he is in a worse condition than if he could not talk. So no one should ask the Lord for restoration of any of these faculties, unless he expects to devote them wholly to the Lord’s service and control. Otherwise, even though physically healed, he is still maimed and diseased. He is not “every whit whole.” “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? ... Therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” MEDM November 1900, page 323.4
E. J. WAGGONER.