“Christ gave all rest, and had no resting place;
He healed each pain, yet lived in sore distress;
Deserved all good, yet lived in great disgrace;
Gave all hearts joy, himself in heaviness;
Suffered them live, by whom himself was slain;
Lord who can live to see such love again?”
Every blessing that comes to us is made sacred by its cost. To us it may be given freely; but, before it could be given, a price was paid for it. One cannot be truly helpful to another save through a consuming of self. Thus the healings wrought by Jesus drew upon his own life. Once, when a poor sick woman had touched the hem of Christ’s garment, he said, “Somebody hath touched me; for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me.” Life went out from him to become healing in the woman. The same was true in all Christ’s other healings. It cost him something to heal the sick.
When we think of it, this is the laws of all helpfulness. Anything that is of any real value to us has cost somewhere, in toil or sacrifice or suffering, according to its worth. The blessings of our Christian civilization have come to us through long generations of hardship, endurance, and patient fidelity. Every good thing we enjoy has had somewhere its baptism in blood.
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