612
THE K I N G ’S BUS I NES S
evitable consequence oi these same ex pedients, is equally beyond question. In fa n t m o rtality is certainly being de creased. Childhood statistics show a constantly dim inishing num ber of fatali ties. Youth sows its wild oats w ith a freer hand, because, th an k s to avail able “rem edies,” it can do so w ith in creasing impunity. Each succeeding generation of m ankind can tru th fu lly boast a larg er num ber of God’s laws broken w ithou t a proportionate increase of physical punishm ent. But in the meanwhile, w h at is it th a t is actually tak ing place? Children whose continued existence is a menace to th e race are enabled, as a resu lt of medical tre a t ment, to grow up and to reproduce th eir kind. F rom th is source proceeds an ever-accumulating burden and menace to hum anity as a whole. Their issue, like themselves, is defective. Never theless, as a resu lt of increased medi cal efficiency, th is second generation is, in its tu rn , enabled to reproduce its still more defective kind. This process goes on un til finally hum an beings are b rough t into existence whose life it is impossible to prolong to th e age of re production. Thus eventually, an au to m atic check is p u t on S atan ’s work of corruption in th is p articu lar direction. But the same process is going on among adults. Though weakened by iniquities they are yet enabled, by means of medi cal aid, to continue th e ir existence and to propagate th e ir kind, although th e average length of life is no t being in creased. Now, so long as medical sci ence can keep pace approxim ately w ith th e consequences of m ankind’s iniquity, well and good. T h at is, things will appear to be going smoothly, and hu m anity will apparen tly be th e gainer. But the inevitable resu lt' of th is in te r ference w ith n a tu re ’s method of keep ing th e hum an race in a sta te of ap proximate good health, is the steady, though stealthy, development of a w idespread concealed, o r p artly con cealed, invalidism . The tim e is coming,
during th e Period of T ribulation, when an ex tra physical strain will be pu t sud denly upon th e survivors of th e race afte r The R apture. B u t medical sci ence will then be unable to respond to the increased demand upon it, for it is about a t th e end of its te th e r a t the present time. W ith th e physical and m ental distress of th e coming troublous times, th e fam ine, pestilence, and re su lting poverty (see Matt. 24:7, 8; Rev. 6 :1 -8 ), w h at of m an’s physical consti tu tion , vitiated, debilitated and cor rup ted by an evil inheritance of many generations? The condition of th e hu man race, when sin shall have finally outstripped medical science, will be something aw ful to contemplate. Sci ence points forw ard to a most sham eful and tragic physical collapse of th e hu man race when God’s appointed tim e of Judgm ent arrives. The events of the anti-C hristian era will be determ ined not only by th e positive action of a righteous God, b u t also by th e sudden and complete failu re of potency of every so rt in a sinful and abandoned human race. And yet it is a favourite fancy of some apostles of an ill-grounded “ op tim ism ” to hope for a medical discovery of some sort, whereby th e ills of man kind may be done away w ith forever. They look for some new drugs of a t present undream ed of potency, some serum , or universal germicide, which shall overcome disease in every form. But an analysis of th e different p ath ological conditions trea ted in our g reat hospitals will show to th e fair-m inded investigator how fu tile are any such hopes. F o r a large num ber of the class ified diseases of the hum an body, medi cal science holds ou t absolutely no hope of cure. Modern pathology, and the microscope, have simply rendered more hopeless th e outlook in many of the diseases, which form erly physicians a t tem pted to cure. Degenerative processes o f th e h eart, kidneys, blood-vessels, and nervous system , are examples of th is
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker