The benefits of sickness (part 2)

(J.C. Ryle, Sickness)

"Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey Your word!" Psalm 119:67

"It was good for me to be afflicted, so that I might learn Your decrees." Psalm 119:71

"I know, O LORD, that your laws are righteous, and in faithfulness You have afflicted me!" Psalm 119:75

   1. Sickness helps to remind men of death.

   2.  Sickness helps to make men think seriously of God, and their souls, and the world to come.

   3.  Sickness helps to soften men's hearts, and teach them wisdom. 

Yesterday we posted the first three benefits of sickness above. Below are the last two benefits:

   4.  Sickness helps to humble us. We are all naturally proud and high-minded. Few, even of the poorest, are free from pride's infection. Few are to be found who do not look down on somebody else, and secretly flatter themselves that they are "not as bad as other men." A sick bed is a mighty tamer of such proud thoughts as these. It forces on us the mighty truth that we are all poor worms, that we "dwell in houses of clay," and are "crushed more readily than a moth" (Job 4:19), and that kings and subjects, masters and servants, rich and poor—are all dying creatures, and will soon stand side by side at the judgment bar of God! In the sight of the coffin and the grave, it is not easy to be proud. Surely anything that teaches that lesson, is good.
 
   5. Finally, sickness helps to try men's religion—whether it is saving or not. There are not many on earth who have no religion at all. Yet only a few have a religion that will bear Scripture inspection. Most are content with traditions received from their parents, and can render no valid reason for their hope of Heaven.

Now disease is sometimes most useful to a man in exposing the utter worthlessness of his soul's foundation. It often shows him that he has nothing solid under his feet, and nothing firm under his hand. It makes him find out that, although he may have a form of religion—all his life he has been worshiping "an unknown god." Many a profession looks well on the smooth waters of health, which turns out utterly unsound and useless on the rough waves of the sick bed!

The storms of winter often bring out the defects in a man's dwelling. In the same way, sickness often exposes the gracelessness of a man's soul. Surely anything that makes us find out the real character of our faith, is a good.

I do not say that sickness confers these benefits on all to whom it comes. Alas, I say nothing of the kind! Myriads are yearly laid low by illness, and then are restored to health—who evidently learn no lesson from their sick beds, and return again to the world! Myriads are yearly passing through sickness to the grave—and yet are receiving no more spiritual impressions from it than the beasts that perish! In short, they live like beasts, and they die like beasts.

These are awful things to say. But they are true. The degree of deadness to which man's heart and conscience may attain, is a depth which I cannot pretend to fathom!