Soul-health

The gospel made a marvelous change in John. Once he could call fire from Heaven on opposers; now, having received the Holy Spirit, he is full of love and kind desires.

The gospel makes the morose, cheerful; the mirthful, serious; the revengeful, loving. Coming to such an one as John, it made him the mirror of love.

A man’s private letters often let you into the secrets of his heart.

Instance Rutherford, Kirke White, Cowper, and John Newton.

In this letter, John gratefully wishes Gaius every blessing, and above all things better health.

Health is an invaluable mercy; it is never properly valued until lost.

But John puts soul-prosperity side by side with it.

Man has two parts; the one corporeal and earthy, the other immaterial and spiritual. How foolish is the man who thinks of his body, and forgets his soul; neglects the tenant, and repairs the house; prizes the earthen vessel, and despises the treasure!

I. WE WILL EXAMINE THE WORDS OF THE TEXT.

1. “I wish”; more correctly, as in the margin, “I pray.” Prayer is a wish sanctified. Turn your wishes into prayers.

2. “That you may prosper.” We may ask for prosperity for our friends; especially if, like Gaius, they serve God and his cause with their substance.

3. “And be in health.” This is necessary to the enjoyment of prosperity. What would all else be without it?

4. “Even as your soul prospers.” We are startled at this wish: the spiritual health of Gaius is made the standard of his outward prosperity! Dare we pray thus for many of our friends?

   • Dare we pray thus for ourselves? What would be the result if such a prayer were answered? Picture our bodies made like our souls.
   • Some would have fever, others paralysis, others ague, etc.

Let us bless God that the body is not the invariable index of the soul.

Few would care to have their spiritual condition expressed in their external condition.

II. WE WILL MENTION THE SYMPTOMS OF ILL-HEALTH.

1. A low temperature.

   • Lukewarmness is an ill sign. In business, such a man will make but little way; in religion, none at all.
   • This is terrible in the case of a minister.
   • This is dangerous in the case of a hearer.

2. A contracted heart.

   • While some are latitudinarian, others are intolerant, and cut off all who do not utter their Shibboleth.
   • If we do not love the brethren, there is something wrong with us.

3. A failing appetite as to spiritual food.

4. A difficulty in breathing.

   • When prayer is an irksome duty, everything is wrong with us.

5. A general lethargy: unwillingness for holy service, want of heart, etc.

6. An ungovernable craving for unhealthy things. Some poor creatures will eat dirt, ashes, etc. Some professors are ill in a like way, for they seek groveling amusements and pursuits.

III. WE WILL SUGGEST MEANS OF RECOVERY.

We will not here dwell upon the means God uses, though he is the great Physician; but we will think of the regimen we must use for ourselves.

1. Seek good food. Hear a gospel preacher. Study the Word.

2. Breathe freely. Do not restrain prayer.

3. Exercise yourself unto godliness. Labor for God.

4. Return to your native air: breathe the atmosphere of Calvary.

5. Live by the sea. Dwell near to God’s all-sufficiency.

6. If these things fail, here is an old prescription: “Carnis et Sanguinis Christi.” This taken several times a day, in a draught of the tears of repentance, is a sure cure.

   • God help you to practice the rules of the heavenly Physician!

IV. WE WILL CONCLUDE WITH AN EXHORTATION.

Brother Christian, is it a small matter to be weak and feeble? You need all your vigor. Go to Calvary, and recruit yourself.

Sinner, you are dead, but life and health are in Christ!

Nota Medica

An ancient Roman wished that he had a window in his breast that all might see his heart, but a sage suggested that in such a case he would have urgent need of shutters, and would keep them closed. We could not afford to wear the signs of our spiritual condition where all could see. We should then need all our blood for blushing.—C.H.S.

Sin is called in Scripture by the names of diseases. It is called the plague of the heart: 1 Kings 8:38. There are as many diseases of the soul as there are of the body. Drunkenness is a spiritual dropsy; security is a spiritual lethargy; envy is a spiritual canker; lust is a spiritual fever: Hosea 7:4. Apostasy or backsliding is the spiritual falling sickness; hardness of heart is the spiritual stone; searedness of conscience is a spiritual apoplexy; unsettledness of judgment is a spiritual palsy; pride a spiritual tumor; vainglory a spiritual itch. There is not any sickness of the body but there is some distemper of the soul that might be paralleled with it, and bear the name of it.—Ralph Robinson.

The fact of the Scriptures furnishing nutriment and upbuilding to the soul is the most real experience of which we have knowledge. None of us, “by taking thought, can add one cubit unto his stature.” But how many, by taking in God’s great thoughts, feeding on them, and inwardly digesting them, have added vastly to their spiritual stature!

A. J. Gordon, D.D.

If a portrait were taken of a person in strong, vigorous health, and another was taken of the same man after a severe illness, or when he had been almost starved to death, or weakened by confinement, we should scarcely recognize them as the likeness of the same man, the dear old friend we loved! Still greater would be the change could we draw the spiritual portrait of many a once hearty, vigorous saint of God, whose soul has been starved for want of the proper spiritual nourishment, or by feeding upon “ashes” instead of bread.—G. S. Bowes.

Oh, that our friends were well in soul! We are not sufficiently concerned about this best of health! When they are well in soul we are grieved to see them ailing in body; and yet this is often the case. The soul is healed, and the body is still suffering! Well, it is by far the smaller evil of the two! If I must be sick, Lord, let the mischief light on my coarser nature, and not on my higher and diviner part!—C.H.S.