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I. THE PROPHET'S CRY. Sin is the sickness of the soul. It has seized upon all its powers. Not one single faculty has escaped; all are polluted, all diseased. Its very vitals are affected by sin. The understanding is darkness (1 Corinthians 2:14). The will is stubborn; the conscience is impure (Titus 1:15). The very memory is impure. But the chief seat and residence of sin is the heart (Jeremiah 4:18). Oh, how little do we know its deep defilement (1 Kings 8:38). The leprosy of the law was a type of it. It is poison (Psalm 140:3). It is the "mire" in which the sow wallows, the "vomit" of dog (2 Peter 2:22). One sin has in it all enmity, rebellion, distance from God, all deceitfulness, hardness; and yet, how slight are our deepest views; how poor and feeble our most heartfelt repentance; how unfeeling our most touching sorrow. Sin is by all human skill and human power incurable (Jeremiah 2:22).

II. IS THIS SO? THEN NO ONE BUT JESUS THE LORD CAN HEAL OUR SPIRITUAL DISEASES.

1. It requires omniscience to know them. There is in all sin, in every one sin, a depth which human wisdom can never fathom — a depth of baseness, ingratitude, contempt (Psalm 19:12).

2. It requires omnipotence to subdue them. It requires the same putting forth of Divine omnipotence to bring light into the darkened soul as to bring light into this darkened world (2 Corinthians 4:6).

3. It requires infinite patience to bear with these soul-diseases.

4. It requires an infinite sympathy, and a boundless love.

III. HIS HEALING.

1. The means whereby He heals are various. Indeed, there is not a single circumstance which He does not employ for this very end. By things pleasant, things painful; comforts and crosses; by what He gives, by what He takes away; by friends, by foes; by saints, by sinners; by the Church, by the world; by sickness, by health; by life and by death; He heals the sin-sick soul.

2. The character of His healing.

(1) Most wise healing. How infinite that wisdom which suits His skill to every individual case. Some are confident, He checks them; others depressed, He cheers them. Some love nothing but high cordials, He brings them down to that hunger that makes every bitter thing sweet.

(2) Most tender healing. His is the tenderness of Him who in all our afflictions is afflicted, a friend, a brother, a nurse. Is the medicine bitter? He administered it with His own hand.

(3) Most mysterious healing. He makes us wise by discoveries of our own folly, strong by unfolding our own weakness.

(4) Most efficacious healing. He blesses His own remedies.

(5) Most holy healing. All this healing is to conform to the Divine image.Conclusion —

1. Our wisdom is to be willing to have our spiritual maladies discovered, yea, thoroughly searched.

2. Our wisdom is to be willing to have them thoroughly cured, honestly to wish this, cost what it may, "Heal me."

3. To expect no cure but what is promised.

4. To put ourselves fairly into His hands.

5. Above all, to trust not only in Him, but in the blessed confidence of a simple faith that He is able to heal, and will heal, to come to Him with the prophet's cry, "Heal Thou me."

(J. H. Evans, M. A.)

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KJV: Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise.

WEB: Heal me, O Yahweh, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for you are my praise.