There is a well known terrible disease-not I very common, through the mercy of God- called "hydrophobia," which comes from the bite of a dog, directly or indirectly. The first sym-tom is merely slight indisposition. It often shows no symptoms for months after the bite. It may be prevented if promptly treated before the disease develops, but when once the acute symptoms appear cures are extremely rare. The characteristic symptom is the fear of water. While the whole system is suffering from thirst, every painful effort to drink fails; then the touch, sight or sound of it brings on convulsions which increase in violence and frequency until death, which is reached in a few days. The patient must be bound to prevent him from injuring himself; agonized friends are helpless to relieve, and few can endure the sight of the suffering.
Why has God allowed such a terrible disease among men, if not that in mercy He is in picture lifting the veil of the next world, showing the condition of those who have been bitten by a dog (imbibed the doctrines of a false teacher) and thereby contracted an aversion to the water of life, and pass into the unseen world where they can never taste it. What strange mental disease is this that men should have an aversion to the word of God! How very strange that they should hate and turn away from the Lord Jesus!-that poor, needy sinners should neglect and refuse such gracious offers as we find in Prov. i :20-23; Isa. 55:1-3; Matt. ii:28; Jno. 5:24, and Rev. 22:17! No doubt angels wonder at it. There can be but one explanation:they have listened to false teachers, the agents of Satan who "blind the minds of those that believe not, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ should shine unto them" 2 Cor. 4:3-4,-these are the early symptoms of the spiritual disease-of which the dreaded hydrophobia is but a shadow.
When one is bitten by a mad dog, no one takes chances or waits for symptoms, but goes at once to a physician. Thank God that for the spiritual disease there is a remedy. The Great Physician has never lost a case when applied to while it is called "today," (2 Cor. 6:2), and before the acute symptoms are developed on the other side of the veil. In Luke 16:24, the Lord lifts this veil for us. The rich man prayed for one drop of water to cool his tongue- some solace for his torment. But such as Isa. 55:i and Matt. 11:28 which here fill the thirsty soul with delight and refreshment are not for those in hell; so it was refused. Being a Jew, how often had he heard the precious offer in Prov. 1:23, that now he thirsted for ? But then he must certainly have heard, and now remembered, verses 24 to 33. He could not drink these in now ; on the contrary they must have thrown him into convulsions of agony, so that he prayed that his brethren might be warned not to come into that place of torment. This is the spiritual counterpart of hydrophobia, as his prayer for water is of thirst.
If the rich man, being a Jew and having known the law and the warnings of the Old Testament, suffered thus, what will be the torment of those who in this time of noonday light and privilege neglect the word of God ? Heb. 10:28-31.
There is a strange spiritual lack of thirst for the water of life at the present time, very common even among real Christians, and which is very difficult to distinguish from the symptoms of spiritual hydrophobia. True, it is not fatal with true Christians, but the man of the world is not slow in using it to deceive himself as to the seriousness of his own aversion for the word of God. The normal condition of one who has drunk (not merely tasted) of that Word, is a continuous delight in it. All blessing flows from it. Jno. 4:13-15.
The danger of hydrophobia from the bite of a wolf is even greater than from the bite of a dog. The wolf according to Matt. 7:15 is a type of a false prophet who, under cover of the name of sheep, steals in among them only to prey upon them. Examples of such are abundant all about us; and, as a result, spiritual hydrophobia is equally common.
The dog is a type of the false teacher who claims to have charge of the sheep. The Good Shepherd does not hire such. Satan is his master; and, as if to emphasize this point, God has made the dog the only animal who will be faithful to a bad master. It is a well known fact that the worse he is treated and beaten and ill fed, the more he cringes and faithfully serves such a master. Even if "Old Dog Tray's" master were a good one, the dog would have been still more subject to a bad one. The dog is thus a strikingly true picture of Satan's teachers:however poor the fare he gives them now in the empty wealth, honors, pleasures, and flatteries of this vain world (Jno. 12:42, 43)-with ruin at the end (Rev. 22:15) yet do they serve their hard master.
To the sheep they plead Matt. 7:1,-"You must not judge that we are dogs and wolves," forgetting the instructions to the sheep that follow in verses 15-20. Naturally they object to being recognized and disturbed. How solemn are the warnings against such in the following scriptures:Deut. 13:1-3; Jer. 23:16; Mark 13:22; Rom. 16:17, 18; Eph. 5:6; Col. 2:8; 2 Pet. 2:1-3; i Jno. 4:1-6; Acts 20:28-32; i Tim. 4:1-4; Phil. 3:2; Jer. 5:30, 31. Note this last quotation, " What will ye do in the end thereof."
As in Natural History the dog and the wolf belong to the same group, so the false teachers and the false prophets are spiritual kinsmen. Wherever they are tolerated, there we find the natural terrible effects -spiritual hydrophobia.
One remarkable feature of the disease is that the period of incubation varies from a few days to about a year, (which is more than in any other disease) while the victim suffers no pain or inconvenience until the fatal hopeless symptoms appear. Just so the spiritually poisonous germs of false teaching as to the word of God may remain dormant and cause no suffering or inconvenience possibly through a long life, until the case has become hopeless; but, thank God, that is not in this world. Here, the worst can be cured.
Another fact is that only the brain (the seat of the mind) is affected; especially that part called the medulla oblongata, with the nerves, which are but the telegraph lines to the parts of the body. Postmortem examinations show that all other parts of the body are normal. This is so strange that many authorities still deny there is any such disease as hydrophobia. They claim that it is only an illusion of the mind, in spite of the fact that children too young to have any such illusions die from it. Physicians always forbid all reference to the subject lest the fears of the victim should bring on this "imaginary " disease.
All this bears out the antitype, and is nature's advertisement of the fact that it is the mind which has been affected by the insidious germ of evil doctrine-a poison easily conveyed from one victim to another. It is the mind that is blinded by the god of this world. Marvelous blindness! Blind to the glory and the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ!
Such a strange and terrible spiritual disease can end only in unspeakable anguish, when they will be unable to appropriate "one drop "of the water of life which they so often despised and refused here. Instead of blaming our importunity (we who know the terror of the Lord) they will wonder that we ever spoke of anything else. Rejecters of Christ are compelled to own He was by far the best man that ever lived, and a worthy model for all; but if His praises were spoken at some social or political gathering, it would cause the greatest unpleasantness to host and guests. The praises of Queen Victoria, or President McKinley, or President Roosevelt, would be quite in order; but the servant of Christ who would venture to introduce the Lord Jesus as the Saviour of sinners at some social function, would hardly be forgiven. It must be a deadly germ that can cause such antipathy to the word of God.
All dogs and wolves are born blind and only get their eyes opened on the 9th day. Nine is 3 x 3, the number of resurrection intensified, the number of reality and realization. At the resurrection of the unjust before the great white throne, all false teachers and false prophets will at last, but too late, fully realize the true character and awful results of their blindness and teaching which ruins themselves and their dupes.
Other animals besides dogs are born blind, just as others besides false teachers are spiritually blind.
T. M.