of "any sick" during the Church Age (James 5: 14). Rev. W. C. Stevens on this point remarks, "All preachers, teachers, writers and others who hand out the Word of Life to the people, should keep this direction (James 5:14) as continuously before the people as sickness itself constantly confronts them."

Even during His earthly ministry, our Adorable Lord would make any sacrifice, and suffer even the curse, itself, in order to open the way for His compassion to reach the most unworthy and the most provoking of His enemies. Both the bloody sweat of Gethsemane and the horrible tortures of Calvary were but the manifestations of His infinite compassion. He went to Calvary with "His face set like flint;" for, after He had been betrayed by the kiss of Judas into the hands of His crucifiers and Peter had cut off the ear of the servant of the High Priest, Jesus heals the ear of His enemy, and tells Peter to put up his sword; and He sheathed, as it were, His own sword, by holding in check the most natural impulse of His holy soul in refusing to pray when, by praying, He could have had, instantly, more than twelve legions of angels to enable Him to escape the agony of the cross. But, then, there would have been only a judgment seat, and no mercy seat, for fallen man with all his needs of body, soul and spirit. In His substitutionary work for us He anticipated every possible need of Adam's race, and opened the way for mercy to

reach every phase of human need. He was then, and is now, moved with compassion toward all who need His Presence as "Provider," "Peace," "Victory," "Shepherd," "Righteousness" and "Physician," which are the seven blessings secured by the tragedy of His Cross, and revealed to us by His Redemptive names. His Covenants, including the Covenant of Healing, are given because of His mercy, and "He keepeth covenant and mercy with all who love him to a thousand generations." (Deut. 7:9).

HOW NOT TO GRIEVE THE HEART OF JESUS

Doubting or ignoring His love and compassion grieves the heart of Jesus. It made Him weep over Jerusalem. So many times have ministers said, in these days, that we do not need miracles now, thinking of miracles only as signs to prove the Lord's deity, etc. I have said to them, "If you had a cancer eating your head off, you would need a miracle, would you not?" Most people to-day are so in the dark on this subject that it never occurs to them that there is mercy also for the sick. They never think of the gifts of healing and miracles as being the manifestation of Christ's compassion; and that, hour after hour, and day after day, for three years, He healed all who came to Him because of His compassion. Are not the needs of sufferers to-day the same as they were in that day? And do they not need as much compassion as ever in the past?

When we think of the countless numbers in despair, suffering with such intense agony that death would be a mercy, and to whom the physicians, after doing their best, have been obliged to say, "I can do no more for you," how precious it is to know that Christ's compassion, every moment, is still precisely as when it was manifested during the three years of His earthly ministry of love-a fact upon which we may absolutely rely.

We have shown that bodily healing is a mercy which Christ, Who was the expression of the Father's will, everywhere bestowed upon all who sought it; and we have the plain declarations, the "Lord is plenteous in mercy unto all (including the sick) that call upon Him," because His mercy "endureth forever;" and is "from everlasting to everlasting;" He is "full of mercy" "over all His works." Do not these Scriptures settle the matter? Instead of saying that the age of miracles is past, say, "It is written!" "It is written!"

HOW TO APPROPRIATE

The Redemptive and Covenant Blessing of Bodily Healing

(NOTE-In this sermon we are repeating a few of the statements made in previous pages, in order that this one sermon shall contain enough to lay a complete foundation for faith. This is done for the benefit of some who may need the prayer of faith for their healing before they have time to read the entire book.)

THE FIRST STEP

The first step toward being healed is the same as the first step toward salvation, or any other blessing that God promises; that is, for the sick person to know what the Bible clearly teaches, that it is God's will to heal until one has lived out the allotted span of life. Each individual sufferer must be convinced by the Word of God that his or her healing is the will of God; for it is impossible to have real faith for healing as long as there is the slightest doubt as to its being God's will.

It is impossible to boldly claim by faith a blessing which we are not certain that God offers, because the power of God can be claimed only where the will of God is known. For instance, it would be next to impossible to get a sinner to "believe unto righteousness" before you had fully con

vinced him that it was God's Will to save him. Faith begins where the will of God is known. Faith must rest on the will of God alone, not on our desires or wishes. Appropriating faith is not believing that God can but that He will. Those who claim to believe in healing, but say one word in favor of it and ten words against it, cannot produce faith for healing.

FAITH IS EXPECTING GOD TO DO

When God commands us to pray for the sick, He means us to pray with faith, which we could not do if we did not know His will in the matter. Until a person knows God's Will, they have no basis for faith, because faith is expecting God to do what we know it is His will to do. It is not hard, when we have faith, to get God to do His will.

When we know it is His will, it is not difficult for us to believe that He will do what we are sure He wants to do. It is in this way that every saved person has experienced the still greater miracle of the new birth. There can be no appropriation by faith until we are made to know by the Gospel what God has provided for us.

There is no doctrine more emphatically taught throughout the Word of God than that, through the Atonement of Christ, both salvation and bodily healing were provided, and that it is God's will to take away the sickness of His own, and to fulfil the number of their days according to His