The soul that is truly brought to the gates of death has a nearness to the gate of everlasting life if it will but look to Him who is the Resurrection and the Life. I am not sent to you to declare a certain physical healing, for that is a secret thing belonging to the Lord alone; He may raise you up, or He may take you to Himself, but I am sent to point you to a healing far deeper and more enduring than the mending of a mortal frame. There is a sickness unto death which every son and daughter of Adam must face, yet there is a Great Physician whose leaves are for the healing of the nations, and whose blood speaks pardon and peace to the sin-sick soul. Before you clamour for the body’s cure, ask whether your sins are forgiven you. That is the first and great question. The palsied man was let down through the roof, and our Lord saw their faith and said first, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.” The body’s healing followed, but the soul’s pardon came foremost. Have you, dear woman, heard that word in your inmost spirit? To die by faith is to enter into life, and the brightest martyr has no surer ground than you may have if you rest wholly upon Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
Do not fix your hope upon the laying on of hands through a window of glass and wire, nor upon the commanding of spirits, but upon the Word of God applied by the Holy Ghost. It is the Word that heals sin-sick souls, and faith comes by hearing that Word. The very Son of God became obedient to death, even the death of the Cross, that you might be delivered from the fear of death. He bore the wrath, He swallowed up the grave in victory, and now the departed saint does not die, but departs out of this world unto the Father. If you are driven out of yourself, wounded and helpless, crying for another to carry you to the hospital of mercy, then be of good cheer: there is a great deliverance for you. Look to Calvary, where the healing balm flows from Immanuel’s veins. The utmost length of human sickness can be reached by this great Physician; there are no incurables with Him. Only come just as you are, with the maimed hand of a trembling faith, and cast yourself upon His promise. He will not cast you out.
Yet I must warn you tenderly: there are those who cry, “Peace, peace,” when there is no peace, and who bid the sick rise up when the Lord has appointed a different cup. If He chooses to heal your body, He will do it in His own time and way, and to Him shall be all the praise. But if He instead calls you home, as He did many of His dearest saints, that is not a sentence of death but an invitation to glory. The one remedy for all our maladies is the Word made flesh, Christ Jesus, who is able to save to the uttermost. Do not seek first a sign or a sudden sensation, but seek the forgiveness of your sins. When that is sealed upon your heart by simple faith, then whether you walk out of that hospital or are carried to the grave, you shall praise the Lord for His goodness and wonderful works. Let your prayer be, “Lord, heal my soul; Lord, speak pardon to me; Lord, give me Thyself.” Then you shall find that the Sun of Righteousness has risen upon you with healing in His wings, and you shall be made whole in the truest sense. The very leaves of the tree are for your healing; take them freely. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved.