Practical Religion - Ryle - XV - Chapter 14

Required reading
Practical Religion by JC Ryle (available from Amazon or free on the internet, here for example) - Read Chapter 14 (Sickness).

My summary
Now Ryle looks at the subject of sickness.

Firstly he establishes that sickness is universally present: 'Sickness is among all classes. Grace does not lift a believer above the reach of it. Riches will not buy exemption from it. Rank cannot prevent its assaults. Kings and their subjects, masters and servants, rich men and poor, learned and unlearned, teachers and scholars, doctors and patients, ministers and hearers, all alike go down before this great foe. "The rich man's wealth is his strong city." (Prov. 18:11.) The Englishman's house is called his castle; but there are no doors and bars which can keep out disease and death.'

Secondly Ryle speaks of the general benefits of sickness for man, it:
(i) reminds men of death;
(ii) makes men think seriously of God;
(iii) softens men's hearts;
(iv) levels and humbles men;
(v) tries men's religion.

Thirdly Ryle considers the special duties which sickness entails:
(i) to live habitually prepared to meet God;
(ii) to live habitually ready to bear it patiently;
(iii) to live habitually ready to feel with and help your fellow-men.

What grabbed me
Ryle gave us an excellent concluding paragraph in the section describing the benefits of sickness: 'We have no right to murmur at sickness, and repine at its presence in the world. We ought rather to thank God for it. It is God's witness. It is the soul's adviser. It is an awakener to the conscience. It is a purifier to the heart. Surely I have a right to tell you that sickness is a blessing and not a curse,-a help and not an injury,-a gain and not a loss,-a friend and not a foe to mankind. So long as we have a world wherein there is sin, it is a mercy that it is a world wherein there is sickness.'

A very different view from what Satan would have us believe.

Next week's reading
Read Chapter 15 (The family of God).

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.