Jeremiah 8:22 - Homilies By S. Conway

Christ and the Holy Ghost realities after all.

"Is there no balm in Gilead?" etc. One of the commonest taunts of ungodly men—and it has been so in all ages—against the believer in God and in his redeeming grace, has been their apparent utter absence amongst such vast multitudes of people for so many centuries, and this though the conditions were such as needed, and that in most distressing manner, both their presence and their power. And one of the subtlest and saddest temptations to which the human mind is subject is that of doubting the grace of God. "My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is now thy God?" The taunt of the psalmist's enemies had roused up the demon of doubt concerning God and his love, and no wonder, then, that the psalmist's tears flowed fast both day and night. Now, the text is one of those sad questionings to which the force of distressing facts will now and again give rise. It contains three questions, and we will note concerning them these three things—their meaning, their occasions, their answers.

I. THEIR MEANING . And take:

1. The literal meaning of the balm and the physician about which the prophet so mournfully inquires. Balm was a resinous gum which flowed from the side of a tree or shrub found on the sunny slopes of Mount Gilead, and counted very precious. When Jacob would counsel his sons how they might propitiate Joseph, who held their brother in captivity, he told them to take him a present of "a little balm" ( Genesis 43:11 ). It was an article of merchandise ( Genesis 37:25 ), regarded as of invaluable efficacy in medicine (cf. Jeremiah 46:11 ; Jeremiah 51:8 ). Its name was derived from a word which told of the manner in which it was procured from the tree that bore it. The side of the tree was pierced, and the precious balm then flowed forth. The physicians of the day constantly made use of it, and had studied the best means of applying it. But it is evident that the prophet is speaking under a figure. Note, then:

2. The metaphorical meaning . He speaks of the lost "health of the daughter of my people," and means by that the national ruin which was so fast coming on Judah and Jerusalem-ruin of all kinds, spiritual, moral, temporal. By the "balm" he means some method of recovery for his people, and by the "physician" some skilled, sagacious, powerful deliverer, who should be able to employ these methods and so save the land. The prophet was in despair about this; he saw no hope nor help anywhere, and hence the piteous cry, the mournful question of our text. To every one who professed to have found the balm and the physician the ruined land so needed, he addressed the unanswerable question, "Why then is not the health," etc.?

3. Their evangelic import . It has all along been seen that the terms used here were capable of such application. The "balm" is a beautiful symbol of Christ. The Mount Gilead, the tree, the pierced side, the stream thence issuing, and its mighty healing power,—these severally send our thoughts to Mount Calvary, the cross, the pierced side of the Savior, the precious blood, and the unquestionable spiritual healing might there is therein. And Scripture is ever speaking of sin as a disease; of man as one whose health needs recovery. The analogies are obvious. And the "physician," who is he but that Divine Spirit whose office it is to take of the things of Christ and show them unto men? He so shows to us the meaning and intent of our Savior's sacrificial death, that "by his stripes we are healed." Yes; whilst we all are the stricken with mortal disease, Christ is the Balm that surely heals, and the blessed Spirit is he who reveals Christ to the soul. "For no man can say that Jesus is Lord "—that is, in all the full meaning of those words, and with sincere intent—" but by the Holy Ghost."

II. THE OCCASIONS . What led to these questions being asked by the prophet? and what tends to their being asked still?

1. By the prophet . The ruin of his land and people. The awful calamities that were at that moment overhanging the doomed nation. But:

2. By men still . It is the contemplation of the threefold fact of sin, sorrow, and death.

"What scanty triumphs grace has won,

The broken vow, the frequent fall;"

and as he cries out at times almost in despair at seeing the strength of the chains by which his soul is bound, "O wretched man that I am I" etc.,—the words of our text fit in with his mournful mood. It seemed to him as if there were "no balm in Gilead, no," etc.

III. THE ANSWERS TO THESE QUESTIONS .

1. To those which inquire , " Is there no balm … physician there? " some answer "No." Sin, they say, is a mistake which education will rectify, and the operations of the great law of evolution will gradually eliminate. In fact, there is no such thing as "sin" in the sense religious people think. Therefore, whilst for the race there is hope, for the present and past generations there is none. Sorrow, also, they teach, is the result of ignorance of natural laws or of disregard of them. The progress of knowledge will gradually lessen it; that is all that can be said. And as to death, that, of course, is the inevitable, and ends all. The only immortality is in the influence which a man exerts in those who come after him. As to "the Resurrection and the life" —credat Judaeus . Such is the dismal gospel of this nineteenth century. But the Christian reply to these questions is unhesitatingly, "Yes; there is a Balm and a Physician for the sin-stricken soul, whether of the individual or of the whole human race. And for the heart riven with sorrow, broken with grief. And for all those, too, over whom Death has reigned with such cruel power. Because we believe in Christ and in the Holy Ghost, we believe in the 'Balm' and in the 'Physician 'humanity needs." But then comes:

2. The last and seemingly unanswerable question . "Why then is not," etc.? What are we to reply to this?

"White-robed saints in glory,

Cleansed from every stain."

With the eye of faith we behold them, and we believe in their existence as we believe in our own, and the yearning of our hearts is to be with them. And they are a great cloud of witnesses to the Balm and to the Physician both. But—as unbelievers will demand clamorously that we should do—we come down to this world and this life that now is. Well, then, we appeal to the fact that there are regenerated, renewed, saintly souls living here on earth today, walking in purity, integrity, and in the light and love of God. They are God's witnesses to what the unbeliever denies. Furthermore, there are a vast number in whom this process of healing is going on. Slowly, it may be, and with sad retrogressions at times, but really, notwithstanding. The tide is a long, long time coming in, but it does come in. Healing is always a gradual work. "Nemo repente fuit sanctissimus," any more than "turpissimus." A man cannot leap into heaven, as, thank God , he cannot leap into hell. But because healing is only gradual, do we deny its existence? But we know there are vast multitudes more to be accounted for than those we have as yet told of.