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The Ministry of Healing
The body is to be brought into subjection. The higher powers of
the being are to rule. The passions are to be controlled by the will,
which is itself to be under the control of God. The kingly power of
reason, sanctified by divine grace, is to bear sway in our lives.
The requirements of God must be brought home to the con-
science. Men and women must be awakened to the duty of self-
mastery, the need of purity, freedom from every depraving appetite
and defiling habit. They need to be impressed with the fact that all
their powers of mind and body are the gift of God, and are to be
preserved in the best possible condition for His service.
In that ancient ritual which was the gospel in symbol, no blem-
ished offering could be brought to God’s altar. The sacrifice that was
to represent Christ must be spotless. The word of God points to this
as an illustration of what His children are to be—“a living sacrifice,”
“holy and without blemish,” “well-pleasing to God.”
Romans 12:1
,
R.V., margin;
Ephesians 5:27
.
Apart from divine power, no genuine reform can be effected.
Human barriers against natural and cultivated tendencies are but as
the sandbank against the torrent. Not until the life of Christ becomes
a vitalizing power in our lives can we resist the temptations that
assail us from within and from without.
Christ came to this world and lived the law of God, that man
might have perfect mastery over the natural inclinations which cor-
rupt the soul. The Physician of soul and body, He gives victory over
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warring lusts. He has provided every facility, that man may possess
completeness of character.
When one surrenders to Christ, the mind is brought under the
control of the law; but it is the royal law, which proclaims liberty to
every captive. By becoming one with Christ, man is made free. Sub-
jection to the will of Christ means restoration to perfect manhood.
Obedience to God is liberty from the thralldom of sin, deliver-
ance from human passion and impulse. Man may stand conqueror
of himself, conqueror of his own inclinations, conqueror of princi-
palities and powers, and of “the rulers of the darkness of this world,”
and of “spiritual wickedness in high places.”
Ephesians 6:12
.
In no place is such instruction as this more needed, and nowhere
will it be productive of greater good, than in the home. Parents have
to do with the very foundation of habit and character. The refor-