Article March 12, 1904 Issue

Meddling with the Ark

W. C.

When Uzzah put forth his hand to steady the ark there can be little doubt that his intentions were good, for the oxen had stumbled and the ark seemed to be in great danger, and David's disturbance over Uzzah's death is easily explained. In like manner we believe that a great many, if not the majority of, well—meaning people are acting in good faith as they put forth their hands to keep the human body from disaster when alarming symptoms appear. It is not always easy, when we seem to see health failing, to realize that we are in God's care and that the responsibility for our safety rests with Him. The punishment comes no less surely, however, to all those who try to do what infinite Mind alone can accomplish. From the days of Adam and Eve, whenever humanity has sought to nourish itself by the use of forbidden fruit, the result has inevitably been death, and there are countless numbers, even in this enlightened age, who in their anxiety to prop up God's creation, suffer constant torture through fear which is greatly increased by the belief that danger can be averted only by their own effort.

This explains the fact that physicians are frequently the unwitting cause of much unnecessary suffering. In an honest endeavor to avert serious results, the doctor often feels impelled to suggest the possibility of a greater danger than he really anticipates. We doubt if one half the suffering thus occasioned can ever be imagined by those who have not experienced it.

The history of one who began to put forth his hand to steady the ark, but who foresaw the consequences in season to save himself, is illustrative of this, and we give it just as it occurred, although the narrator is so ashamed of his folly that he prefers to withhold his name and simply give the incidents as a warning to others.

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