Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then has not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?
All Commentaries on Jeremiah 8:22 Go To Jeremiah 8
Clement Of Alexandria
AD 215
Let no one, then, run down the law, as if, on account of the penalty, it were not beautiful and good. Shouldn’t he who drives away bodily disease appear as a benefactor? Shouldn’t he who attempts to deliver the soul from iniquity even more appear as a friend since the soul is a more precious thing than the body? Besides, for the sake of bodily health we submit to incisions, cauterization and medicinal draughts. He who administers them is called savior and healer. He is called this even though he amputates parts, but he works not from a grudge or ill will toward the patient. He instead acts according to the principles that the art prescribes so that the sound parts may not perish along with them. No one accuses the physician’s art of wickedness. In the same way, shouldn’t we submit, for the soul’s sake, to either banishment, or punishment or bonds, as long as from unrighteousness we shall obtain righteousness?
