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who made some pretentions to a knowledge of what was good for him : "Ye are all forgers of lies; ye are all physicians of no value" (Job xiii. 4). He was wounded and wanted the true physician, he wanted some one who understood the nature of his case. He wanted the right kind of medicine. Hence he says to his friends :— "Ye have advised me many times, but ye are forgers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value." "You are quacks. You give quack prescriptions, and deal in quack medicines, and indeed your whole system is a system of quackery which will not do for me." There are many religious quack doctors at the present day. Job wanted a physician of real value. Now turn to the 15th chapter of the Book of Exodus, and you will read of one in the 26th verse :-"I am the Lord that healeth thee." The Lord is the best healer. He is the only physician of souls which have been wounded unto death. He alone can administer medicine to heal their sickness. They who are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. Those who are full of wounds and bruises and putrifying sores, do not wish to be trifled with. If there be a good physician, he must be consulted, and if He can give medicine to heal their sickness, then most gladly will they take it.

Let us now look into this subject, and see if we have a Physician properly called and qualified. I think you will find that the Lord Jesus Christ is properly called and qualified. In the 5th chapter of Hebrews it is said of Aaron, with respect to the office of the high priest-“ That no man taketh this honour unto himself but he that is called of God, as was Aaron. So also Christ glorified not himself to be made a high priest, but He that said unto Him-Thou art My Son, to-day have I begotten Thee." Well then, you see that Christ is properly called to the office of Priest, so also is He to that of Physician. He is properly qualified also, so that He can prescribe proper medicines for the proper cases. I turn to the 4th chapter of St. Luke's Gospel, and the 18th verse, and I read :-"The Spirit of the Lord is upon ME, because He hath anointed ME to preach the Gospel to the poor: He hath sent ME to heal the broken-hearted." He comes forth from His Father with authority, and is no quack. His qualifications are of the highest order. "He hath sent ME to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised. To preach the acceptable year of the Lord." Jesus Christ has received His diploma. Our Physician is Jesus, the great Physician of souls. He knows the wounds of those who are sick of sin. He has all knowledge and all wisdom. His prescriptions and His medicines cannot fail. But what are the medicines which He prescribes for the sick and wounded? His wounds, His stripes, and his sufferings are the healing balm. There is a fountain opened in Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness. He has torn, and He heals; He has smitten, and He binds up. When this has taken place, then it is that the inhabitant says "I am not sick.” God sometimes wounds His children with the wound of an enemy, because of their sins and their iniquities. But then, He says, "I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds" (Jer. xxx.) "I will bring health unto thee, and I will

cure thee, and thou shalt have an abundance of peace and truth.” He then explains how He will accomplish this :-"I will cleanse them from all their iniquity whereby they have sinned against Me; and I will pardon all their iniquities whereby they have sinned, and whereby they have transgressed against Me" (Jer. xxxiii). Now, we shall understand the words of the prophet Isaiah (xxx. 26):-" Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of His people, and healeth the stroke of their wound." Jesus did meritoriously on Calvary bind up the breach, and heal the stroke of His people. Experimentally, He does it, when the blood is applied to the conscience by the power of the Holy Ghost. If we have thus tasted that the Lord is gracious, our hearts will fill and overflow with gratitude and thankfulness. We shall understand the feelings of the Psalmist in the 103rd Psalm :"Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless His Holy Name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits." And what are these benefits? "Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; Who healeth all thy diseases," or sicknesses. "Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; Who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's." This is a sinner, healed and saved, ascribing unto his God blessing, and thanksgiving, and praise.

Here, my brethren, I might enlarge, but I forbear for I wish to place this subject before you in another aspect. It is said in my text that "He binds up their wounds.' He binds them up. Well now, how do you take this expression? Think for a moment. There is a word in the 30th chapter of Ezekiel, and the 21st verse, and I think the word is only used once in the Bible, it is roller :- "There was no roller to bind up the wounded, the broken arms of Pharaoh, king of Egypt." This is a surgical term. I mean that this word roller is taken from the practice of surgeons in binding up the wounds and broken limbs of their patients. It means a bandage. The word roller has the same meaning as bandage, and is for the same use. Well then, what are the rollers, or the bandages, with which the Great Physician binds up the wounds and broken bones of His children? I will mention a few of them. The first is this. The bandage of God's love. "I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee" (Jer. xxxi. 3). Now, this bandage neither injures nor hurts the patient. "I have loved thee." This bandage is most healing. "I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely" (Hosea xiv. 4). This bandage never needs changing, and it will never wear out. It is the Lord's bandage, with which He binds up the wounds of His people.

A second bandage is this :-A bandage of very fine linen, a roller of linen. Now, what is this bandage of very fine linen? I can tell you that you only know of one bandage of very fine linen which will do for broken bones, and that is Christ's righteousness, which is also the righteousness of the saints, in which they are bound up and are righteous, and in which God sees neither spot, nor wrinkle, nor any such

thing. This is the bandage, this is the roller of fine linen. Christ's righteousness, with which the Good Physician binds up the broken limbs of His people.

Another bandage is this:-The bandage of sympathy and compassion. You have what I mean in the Book of the prophet Hosea, the 11th chapter, and the 4th verse-"I have drawn them with cords of a man, with bands of love." With the sympathy and compassion of a man. Now what man is this that sympathises so much with those who are broken in heart? You can turn and read about this man in the 17th chapter of the Book of Proverbs, and the 17th verse. "A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born from adversity." A brother born for the day of trouble, for the day of wounds, for the day of broken limbs. The Brother is Christ Jesus. He is the "Friend that loveth at all times, and the Brother that is born for adversity." He is then our loving elder Brother. He is the Friend that sticketh closer than a brother. He sticks to His own at all times. They cannot be tempted and tried with any temptation with which He Himself has not been tempted and tried. Hence " we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin" (Hebrews iv. 15). He binds up the broken in heart with the bandage of sympathy and compassion, saying, I am your Brother; you are mine. I know your wounds and your sorrows and your pains, but I will pour into them the oil of gladness, and the wine of refreshment, and I will give you bread to strengthen your heart. Your Elder Brother sympathises with you and will be kind unto you, and will heal you. You shall always have my bandage of sympathy and compassion.

Another bandage is the bandage of comfort and consolation; comfort and consolation in Christ. Look how this bandage is described in the 40th

chapter of Isaiah :- "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished; tell her that her iniquity is pardoned." Yes: "Tell her that the Lord has pardoned all her iniquities." What comfort and consolation is this! It comes as good news to the broken in heart to hear the Lord saying "Look here, poor sinner; I have borne thy griefs, I have carried thy sorrows, I was wounded for thy transgressions, I was bruised for thy iniquities, the chastisement of thy peace was upon Me, by My stripes thou art healed" (Isaiah liii). Thus the Lord comforts and consoles His children. His ministers are ministers of comfort and consolation. "Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God" (II Cor. i. 3, 4.) The comforting and consoling promises which run through the whole of God's word are very precious to believers in all their sorrows, their conflicts, and their woes.

There is another bandage. The bandage of hope and encouragement. God has opened in the valley of Achor a door of hope (Hosea ii. 15). This door is Christ, you may rely upon it. He is the only door of hope,

opened for the broken in heart. He is the foundation of their hope, the object of their hope, the grace of their hope, and their only hope of entrance into heaven. What a glorious hope this is for the child of God. He shall not die, but live for ever. What a bandage this is! And you cannot slip out of it, and you cannot break it. With the bandage of hope goes the bandage of encouragement. He encourages His children. Whilst He shows them the door of hope in the days of their trouble, affliction, and sorrow, He encourages them in their journey. The way may appear rough and long, but the Lord has power to keep them, wisdom to guide them, and grace in abundance to strengthen them. "Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews iv. 16). God grant that this may be our lot. These bandages of hope and encouragement are accompanied with gracious promises. They shall go from strength to strength until everyone of them appeareth in Sion before God (Psalm lxxxiv. 7). There shall no child of God be left behind; no broken-hearted sinner shall be left in the wilderness to perish. They shall all pass safely over the river into the heavenly Canaan.

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Another bandage which I shall mention, is the bandage of assurance. This bandage of assurance has respect both to the past and to the future. As regards the past, turn to the 10th chapter of St. Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews, and read these sweet words which are words of assurance. "This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord: I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people and they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord': for all shall know me from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their, unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more (Hebrews viii. 10–12). What a bandage is this. The Lord says, "I assure thee that I will remember thy sins and thy iniquities no more. I will blot them all out. I will cast them into the depths of the sea. "As far as the east is from the west, so far have I removed thy transgressions from thee" (Psalm ciii. 12). Now this is the bandage of assurance as regards the past. Let us look at the bandage of assurance as regards the future. Read the 1st chapter of St. Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians. Speaking of believers, he says, "In whom also ye trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise." That is, in other words, they were made to feel sure of their salvation. The sealing assurance of the Holy Spirit is "the earnest of the inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory." Here then you have the bandage of assurance as to the future. O God, Thou dost bind up the wounds of thy people with the bandages of love and the fine linen of thy Christ; with the bandages of sympathy and compassion; with the bandages of comfort and consolation; with the bandages of hope and encourgement, and with the bandage of Thy Holy Spirit's assurance! These bandages are applied by the All Wise Physician, so gently, and so lovingly, that they neither

hurt nor injure the patient. Gracious God, "Make Thy children to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which Thou hast broken may rejoice." O fill our hearts with the spirit of praise and thanksgiving, and then there shall be a Hallelujah chorus to Jehovah! Hallelujah to the Father! Hallelujah to the Son! Hallelujah to the Holy Ghost! Praise ye the Lord!!

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