Spurgeon: August PM
* 08/17/PM
"This sickness is not unto death."
--John 11:4
From our Lord's words we learn that there is a limit to
sickness. Here is an "unto" within which its ultimate end is
restrained, and beyond which it cannot go. Lazarus might pass
through death, but death was not to be the ultimatum of his
sickness. In all sickness, the Lord saith to the waves of pain,
"Hitherto shall ye go, but no further." His fixed purpose is not
the destruction, but the instruction of His people. Wisdom hangs
up the thermometer at the furnace mouth, and regulates the heat.
1. The limit is encouragingly comprehensive . The God of
providence has limited the time, manner, intensity, repetition,
and effects of all our sicknesses; each throb is decreed, each
sleepless hour predestinated, each relapse ordained, each
depression of spirit foreknown, and each sanctifying result
eternally purposed. Nothing great or small escapes the ordaining
hand of Him who numbers the hairs of our head.
2. This limit is wisely adjusted to our strength, to the
end designed, and to the grace apportioned. Affliction comes not
at haphazard--the weight of every stroke of the rod is
accurately measured. He who made no mistakes in balancing the
clouds and meting out the heavens, commits no errors in
measuring out the ingredients which compose the medicine of
souls. We cannot suffer too much nor be relieved too late.
3. The limit is tenderly appointed . The knife of the
heavenly Surgeon never cuts deeper than is absolutely necessary.
"He doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men."
A mother's heart cries, "Spare my child"; but no mother is more
compassionate than our gracious God. When we consider how
hard-mouthed we are, it is a wonder that we are not driven with
a sharper bit. The thought is full of consolation, that He who
has fixed the bounds of our habitation, has also fixed the
bounds of our tribulation.