RZ 400 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS K *i7i' J »• ^^- V/ .V8K &'. "^m V ^ A o° ^^Sb&A W 4? •* - » ■-^, >\. v^*> ..V ^ ',-.*; V •: ^ % \ o Y HEALING BY FAITH. TWO ESSAYS BY REV. SAMUEL L. GRACEY H AND REV. DANIEL STEELE. D. D. Delivered before the Boston Methodist Preachers' Meeting March 27th and April 3d, 1882. WILLARD TRACT REPOSITORY. Beacon Hill Place, Boston. 239 Fourth Avenue, New. York. 921 Arch St., Philadelphia. 31 Paternoster Square, London. -ftM 00 Copyright, 1882, By Charles Cullis. ■it.\.vw \ ^\v^ ?wtm\%. \s\ vav*. vw^ %fcv^w. PKEFACE. These essays were read before the Methodist Preachers' Meeting of Boston, and are published at my request. CHARLES CULLIS. HEALING BY FAITH. BY REV. SAMUEL L. GRACEY, Pastor Saratoga Street M. E. Church, Boston, Mass. Read before the Boston Methodist Preachers' Meeting, j March 27, 1882. My Brethren of the Boston Preachers' Meeting : — It is with no spirit of contro- versy or of the disputant who has a side to carry in debate that I approach the j consideration of the theme you have assigned to us. I feel as one who treads on holy ground, and I would take off my shoes and walk reverently and softly as we pursue our inquiries. I would gladly sit at your feet and receive any help you may be able to give that would bring me to right and true conclusions. Yet I have deep convictions that ought to be expressed to the glory of that God who has given me an experience of His heal- ing power in my own family. I think I see in the church of Christ to-day decided tendencies towards rationalism. There is such an indignant outcry on the part of skeptics against the miracles of the Bible, and such a manifest disposition to doubt any interference with the operations of natural and physical laws on the part of God in modern times, that we are really in great danger of having driven from us entirely, all faith in the supernatural. The cry of fanat- icism has been so raised against every one who has dared very positively to assert the fact of a supernatural life brought about by supernatural means that many Christians have been sneered out of the profession of their faith in a supernatural book, a supernatural being, and a super- natural life. When some simple-hearted, trusting soul arises in our conference meetings and proclaims in a specific manner some remarkable answer to prayer, tells of the direct power of God in awakening the soul or healing the body of some sick person, or some remarkable and manifest deliverance by the hand of God, how slow of heart to believe are many pro- fessed Christians, with what credulity such statements are received, and how many ways are found of explaining the matter by natural causes ! We must confess that the church of to- day is stripped of her greatest and mighti- est power through the fear of man, un- belief, and misunderstanding of the super- natural. She is too willing to depend upon secondary causes rather than upon the living God. It is so much easier to live after the flesh than after the Spirit. We fear to admit that there are direct spiritual interventions and miraculous interpositions of the Deity lest we be re- garded as fanatical. Why is it that so many in the church to-day still believe in the ability of God "to make bare his saving arm " in the matter of spiritual healing, which is the greater miracle in- somuch as the spiritual is above the physical, and yet are afraid to admit that God will commonly make bare his arm in a miracle of physical healing which is a much lighter work. Why should it be thought a thing in- credible that God should by direct inter- position of His power raise to health men and women diseased in body whom all natural remedies have failed to help. Has God laid aside any prerogatives of his power ? Does He still rule in this world of ours ? Has He built the world and established its laws in such fixed con- ditions that even He cannot or will not alter or annul them ? Then, indeed, has the created outgrown the creator; the engine has run away with the engineer. Dr. Jellet has said in his " Efficacy of Prayer," " You ask God to perform as real a miracle when you ask Him to cure a soul of sin as you do when you ask Him to cure a body of fever." When Luther and Wesley, each in his day, dug out from the rubbish of super- stition and formalism the truth of the wonder-working power of God over the spirit of man in the act of personal re- generation, it was regarded as no less strange than the direct display of God's power in physical healing is regarded to- day by many religious people. Neander calls tlie conversion of the soul "the standing miracle of the age/' but men who would expel all ideas of the super- natural from our religion insist that con- version is simply a development of man's better self, carried on by one's own effort until the better man rises up from the germ of goodness found in every heart. Such men treat all miracles with con- tempt ; the history of God's dealings in deliverance of his people by miracle at the Red Sea and from the plagues of Egypt, or the furnace fire, or the lion's den, or Jonah's wonderful history as the fervid imagery of early Oriental minds. They brush these all aside as beyond the range of reason, and hence as improbable, and even impossible and unworthy the credence of men of advanced thought and culture. This is no time for the unsolderjfig of our strongest and simplest faith in the Bible and its claim of miracle-working power in the spiritual and physical realms, Let us see to it that our souls be not gathered with the unbelieving, and we lose the faith and power once committed to the saints. Let us be careful lest by our God-dishonoring doubts we compel the entry to be made in the great doomsday book, concerning our time and country, 11 He could not do many mighty works among them because of their unbelief." Why should it be thought a thing in- credible to-day that God should perform those supernatural works of healing which have marked the course of His dealing with men through all former ages of which we have any record ? From the days of Moses, God has re- vealed himself as the Healer, distinctively and specifically. Let us look into the record of God's dealing with the race in this matter. In the law given through Moses He established sanitary regulations for the preservation of health, and also gave special promises of preservation from disease. Read Exodus xv : 26: " I make for you this day a statute and an ordinance. If thou wilt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, and will do that which is right in His sight, and will give ear to His commandments, and keep His statutes, I will put none of the dis- eases upon thee which I brought upon the Egyptians, for I am Jehovah Rophi" or Healer. He has been Jehovah Rophi ever since that day to such as fulfil these conditions. In Numbers xi. there is a very positive statement of the application of the above law, written by Moses. When the peo- ple murmured against God he sent a destroying fire into the camp, which, when the people saw, they repented, and Moses plead for them, and the fire was stayed. The mixed multitude that had accompa nied Israel from Egypt still lusted for Egypt's vile dainties and infected the 13 people with their vain desires, when God gave them over to the gratification of their fleshly desires, and they were sur- ' felted with fatness until they brought upon themselves great plagues, and many fell before their lusts, until the name of that place was v called Kibroth-hcttaavah, that is, the graves of lust. Miriam's envy and jealousy was pun- ished with leprosy, and she was only recovered through the prayer of Moses. Numbers xii. Again, when the people of Israel re- belled against God, and fiery serpents were sent among them in judgment, as the whip of scorpions of the Almighty, how were they recovered from their malady ? Simply by prayer and faith through an apparently utterly-inadequate medium that God might be glorified, — the serpent of brass and the look of faith. There was a great faith-cure 14 institution opened in the camp of Israel that day. In the days of King David the Lord's hand was acknowledged in miracles of healing. In Psalms ciii : 2, 5, " Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits ; who forgiveth all thine iniquities and healeth all thy diseases ; who re- deemeth thy life from destruction, * # # so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's." Psalms xxx : 2. "O Lord, my God, I cried unto Thee, and Thou hast healed me. O Lord, Thou hast brought up my soul from the grave, Thou hast kept me alive that I should not go down into the pit." The story of faith cure, wrought by the power of God, flames before the church in the history of Naaman, the Syrian gen- eral. A little captive maid calls his at- tention to Jehovah Rophi and he resorts to Him and is cured. i5 But time fails us to tell of Hezekiah to whom the Lord added fifteen years of life in answer to the prayer of faith. Of Asa, Isaiah, David, Solomon, Job, and a great cloud of witnesses in the Old and New Testament Scriptures. Solomon prayed at the consecration of the temple in Jerusalem, the place where men should specially appear before God in worship and prayer, that it may be a place of healing also. " Whatsoever sore or whatsoever sickness there be : then what prayer or supplication soever shall be made of any man, or of all thy people Israel, then hear Thou from heaven Thy dwelling place, and forgive." 2 Chron. vi : 28, 30. To which Jehovah answers, " I have heard thy prayer and thy supplica- tion that thou hast made before me, I have hallowed this house to put my name there forever. If I shut up heaven, or if I send pestilence among my people, i6 if my people humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways then I will hear from heaven,, and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." 2 Chron. vii : In New Testament times the work of healing formed a very important part of the daily work of the Lord Jesus, and de- parting He gave commission to his disci- ples for all time and to the uttermost parts of the earth, saying, " Greater works than these shall ye do because I go unto my Father," but " Lo, I am with you alway" and "All power is given unto me in heaven and on earth." The gift of healing is mentioned in 1 Corinth, xii : 9, 28, as separate and dis- tinct from miracles, the latter term being commonly used to indicate other signs or wonders which were given in confirma- tion of inspiration, the gift of healing J 7 being a much more ordinary and perma- nent gift in the church. In Acts xxviii, there is given the ac- count of the healing of the father of Pub- lius who lay sick of a fever and a bloody flux, to whom Paul entered in, and prayed and laid his hands on him, and healed him. " So when this was done others also which had diseases in the island came and were healed." The healing of the lame man who lay at the gate of the temple called Beautiful, " Who seeing Peter and John about to gc into the temple asked of them alms. Peter said, ' Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I thee ; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk,' and he took him -by the right hand, and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength, and he, leaping up, stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walk- i8 ing, and leaping, and praising God." Acts, iii: 6-9. See accounts of other healings by Peter in Acts ix : 33, 34- "And Peter said to Eneas who had kept his bed eight years, ' Eneas, Jesus Christ maketh thee whole : arise ! ' and he arose immediately." Read also Acts v : 14, 16, and heal- ing by Philip in Samaria, Acts viii : 5, 8, and Ananias restoring sight to the blind, Acts ix: 17, 18, and how Paul healed the sick, Acts xiv: 8-10, and cast out devils, Acts xvi : 16-18. Is not all this in accord with the prom- ise of the Lord Jesus, in Mark xvi : 17 ? " And these signs shall follow them that believe : in my name shall they cast out devils, they shall speak with new tongues, they shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing it shali not hurt them ; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." J 9 Mark the connection in which this passage occurs; that familiar command preceaes it, "Go ye into all the world and preach this gospel to every creature . he that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned." There we stop, but why ? Is there no comfort in the promise that follows those words that we can in any measure apply to our needs ? the prom- ise following is supposed to be limited to the apostolic age to confirm their author- ity and revelation, but where have we any indication that the power should ever cease in the church until this gospel is preached to every creature ? Others assume that the age of miracles is past, the cannon of Scripture being closed miracles are no longer needed to confirm it. But is that the only cause for the performance of such supernatural works as healing the sick and other mi- raculous demonstrations ? When did these powers cease in the church ? Not in the days of the Apos- tles, neither in that of their immediate successors. Very specific directions were given by James to the church in regard to the treatment of disease, James v : 14, 15, k 'Is any man sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord, and the pray- er of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up ; and if he have commit- ted sins they shall be forgiven him." Among the Fathers, this law was com- monly observed. Justin Martyr says in his day, " Numberless demoniacs through- out the whole world and in your city, many of our Christian men exorcising them in the name of Jesus Christ, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, have healed, and do heal, though they could not be cured by those who used incantations and drugs." Irenceus says: "Wherefore also those who are in truth the disciples, receiving grace from Him, do in His name perform miracles so as to promote the welfare of others, according to the gift which each has received from Him. . . . Others still heal the sick by laying their hands upon them and they are made whole." Tertullian says : " Many men of rank, to say nothing of the common people, have been delivered from devils and healed of diseases." Origen says by the simple means of prayer, and in the name of the Lord Jesus, "We have seen many persons freed from grievous calamities, and from dis- tractions of mind, and madness, and countless other ills, which could be cured neither by men or devils." Clement, in giving directions for visiting the sick, says : " Let them therefore with fasting and prayer make their inter- cession, * * * as men who have received the gift of healing confidently to the glory of God. Mosheim says it had not ceased in the 14th century. Dr. Marshall, the trans- lator of Cyprian, says : " There are suc- cessive evidences of their continuance down to the age of Constantine." Then religion became fosilized in dead forms, and vital godliness like to have died out of the earth. This power, with nearly all other supernatural movements, suffered a deep eclipse. The Waldensian Christians revived faith in God and a spiritual religion in- stead of lifeless forms, and they soon dug out of the rubbish of years this gem of faith, and announced : " We hold it as an article of faith, and profess sincerely from the heart, that sick persons, when they ask it, may be anointed with oil by one who joins with them in prayer, that it 23 may be efficacious to the healing of the body according to the design, end, and effect mentioned by the Apostles, and we profess that such an anointing performed according to the apostolic design will be healing and profitable." Zinzendorf, among the Moravians, says : " To believe against hope is the root of the gift of miracles, and I give this testimony to our beloved church, that apostolic powers are there manifested. We have undeniable proofs, # # # in the healing of maladies in themselves in- curable, such as cancers and consumption, when the patient was in the agonies of death, *. * # all by means of prayer or of a single word." Of 1730 he says: "At this juncture various supernatural gifts were manifest- ed in the church, and miraculous cures were wrought," etc. Rev. A. Bost, in his history of the 24 Moravians, gives a very remarkable case of instantaneous cure of a lady who was supposed to be dying, and whose life was prolonged thirty-five years in answer to prayer offered by Jean de Watterville. Numberless cases are certified to by the Scotch Covenanters, under Kirk, Knox, Wishart, Livingston, Robert Bruce, and others, all holy men of God, and giants in their day in the Church of God. Of Robert Bruce, who was eminent for holiness and prevailing prayer, it is re- corded : " Persons distracted, and those who were past recovery from sickness, were brought to him, and were, after prayer by him on their behalf, restored from their malady." The case of Luther praying for and re- ceiving the prolonging of the life of Philip Melancthon is so familiar that it needs only to be mentioned. Myconius was in the last stage of con- 25 sumption, and was raised up through pre- vailing prayer, and wrote of himself : " Raised up in the year 15 41, by the man- dates' prayers and letters of the reverend Father Luther, from death." Richard Baxter bears positive tes- timony concerning the same power as in the church in his day. " How many times have I known the prayer of faith to save the sick when all physicians have given them up as dead. It has been my case more than once or twice, or ten times, when means have failed and the highest art of reason has sentenced me hopeless, yet have I been relieved by the prevalency of fervent prayer." Bengel says : " The gift of healing seems to have been given by God that it might always remain in the church as a specimen of the other gifts. O happy simplicity, interrupted or lost only through unbelief." 26 Dr. Bushnell thinks a denial of present day miracles would imperil all his argu- ments for the supernatural, and in his book, "Nature and the Supernatural," gives many remarkable cases of cure in direct and immediate answer to prayer. Our own Methodist biography is rich with displays of faith and power of God in this particular. See Dr. Benson's journal concerning the wonderful cure of Ann Mather, who had not been able to walk for many years, and was instantly cured while prayer was being made in her behalf. Rev. James McDonald, the biographer of Benson, and who followed him in prayer on the occasion referred to, says : " All present believed that the power to walk, which she received in an instant, was communicated by an immediate act of omnipotence." The account may be found in the London Methodist Magazi7ie. 2 7 I can only refer to the scores of per- sons, even hundreds, who have been cured by God in answer to the prayers of Dorothea Trudel. Get the record of her life work, as published by Dr. Cullis. Pastor Rein, of Switzerland, presents in his life and work, a true picture of an apostolic character and apostolic power, specially in the work of healing. He re- nounced all human means in illness, yet never blamed others for resorting to drugs. The case of Miss Faircourt of London, daughter of an English clergyman, whose case is reported in Mrs. Oliphant's " Life of Edward Irving/' is a most striking case. Dr. Boardman, in his book, " The Great Physician," p. 15, gives an account of the cure of a broken arm in answer to prayer. A friend of Dr. Boardman, a Dr. R — , of Philadelphia, in response to his re- 28 quest, gave him this account of the cure of his little son : — He said : I do not speak of it to people generally — they are so unbeliev- ing — but I can tell you. My little son fell and broke both bones of the arm below the elbow. My brother, who is a professor of surgery in the college at Chicago, was here on a visit, set and dressed the arm. The next day the dear boy came to me, saying, " Dear papa, please take off these things," meaning the splints and bandages. " Oh, no, my son, you will have these things five or six weeks before it will be well." " Why, papa, it is well." "Oh, no, my child, that is impossible." " Why, papa, you believe in prayer, don't you ? " " You know I do, my son." " Well, last night, when I went to bed, it hurt me very bad, and I asked Jesus to make it well, and He did make it well, and it is well." I did 2 9 not like to say a word to chill his faith. A happy thought came to me, and I said, " My dear child, your uncle put the things on, and if they are taken off he must do it." Away he went to his uncle, who told him he would have to go as he was for six or seven weeks, and he must be very patient, and when the little fellow told him that Jesus had made him well, he said, " Pooh ! pooh ! nonsense ! " and sent him away. The next morning the poor boy came to me again and plead with so much sincerity and con- fidence that I more than half believed he was really healed, and went to my brother and said, " Had you not better undo his arm and let him see for himself ? then he will be satisfied." My brother yielded, took off the bandages and the splints, and exclaimed, " It is well ; absolutely well! " and hastened to the door for air to keep from fainting. Dr. Boardman gives 3o many other cases of cure that came under his own notice, and many in answer to his own prayers. Two volumes are already published by Dr. Charles Cullis, M.D., of Boston, con- taining accounts and testimonials of cures performed through faith in the pro- visions laid down in James v. He has honored God in all things, and these un- disputed witnesses have put on record their story of the healing power of God. Scores, probably hundreds, of other cases unreported are none the less true, and should be given to the world that the people may know that there is a God in Israel who hears and answers prayer and yet binds Himself to man by His ancient covenant promise. In most cases, the cures have ' been instantaneous, in many gradual, but in all, without resort to any medicine. The case of Miss Jennie Smith I can 3 1 only mention in outline. It is such a re- markable and clearly miraculous cure that I recommend everybody interested in this subject to read the full account of her utterly helpless condition for about sixteen years, and the cure wrought so wonderfully, as published by her in the book, " From Baca to Beulah." It can be obtained at the Willard Tract Society, Beacon Hill. Many brethren before me know of the remarkable deliverance from disease of a very subtle and aggravated character in my own family. Mrs. Gracey was for four years in poor health, — much of the time only able to be about the house a few hours of each day; most of the time confined to her bed or couch, suffering acute pain and constant discomfort. She applied to sev- eral physicians in the eastern and western part of the State, but was not helped. 32 For a year she was at one of the best sanitariums in New York State, returning home at intervals for a brief time. On coming to our present charge in Boston, it seemed almost impossible for her to be absent from home, and for many months she grew worse, until we were almost in despair of her ever being much better. A friend, visiting us from Washington, D.C., requested Mrs. Gracey to accompany her in a visit to Dr. Cullis, that he might pray with her for her re- covery from an affection of the throat which unfitted her for public speaking. Mrs. G. consented, but on the day ap- pointed was much worse than usual ; and though scarcely able to move from her bed, felt anxious to comply with the great desire of her friend and visitor. . I obtained a carriage, and accompanied them to the office of Dr. Cullis, and left them there. 33 While our friend was in the private office of the Doctor, she referred to Mrs. G.'s case, and said she would like to have him pray for her. This he con- sented to do ; and on their return to the parlor asked Mrs. G. if she desired to see him in regard to her case- She re- plied : " Well, I hardly know, Doctor. I came here with my friend, and had not expressed any desire in regard to myself however ; yet I should like to talk to you about my case." On passing to the inner office, he asked Mrs. G., " Do you desire me to prescribe for you ? " (The Doctor is a regular physician, with a large prac- tice.) "Oh, no, Doctor, I don't want any more medicine. I've taken enough medicine to cure or* kill almost any woman." " Then would you like to have me pray with you for your healing ? n "Well, I don't know, Doctor, whether I do or not. The fact is, I have rather 34 prided myself on being a plain, matter-of- fact sort of a woman, not given to any fanatical notions ; and I don't know that I believe in this way of healing ; and I don't know that I would be willing to be healed in this way. I think I don't be- lieve in what are called ' Faith cures.' ' ? "You believe the Bible, however, don't you, Mrs. Gracey ? " " Yes, I believe the Bible, and I believe in the days of His flesh Jesus performed many miracles of heal- ing; but I have been taught to believe that the days of miracles were confined to the Apostles, and were special powers given for a special purpose." So they talked over all the difficulties that she presented ; such as, it being the will of the Lord that she> should be an invalid all her life that she might glorify Him in patient submission to His will ; and many other things. He continued, however, to hold her to the direct promise of God, 35 made through James to the Church, until every objection was met and swept away; and she came up to the ground of a will- ingness to be healed in this way, if it was the Lord's will ; then to a readiness to ask and expect God to heal her now. They then knelt in prayer, — the Doctor leading in a very quiet, simple, child-like prayer or talk with God all about this case. He laid each difficulty of the case out before God ; also of l>er work in the Church, and how desirable that she should have health to perform it. And whilst they prayed together he said : "And now, O Lord, according to Thy command by Thy servant James, I anoint her in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. Amen." Immediately she felt the work was done ; arose from her knees and said very quietly, yet very positively: "Doc- tor, I'm healed." He responded : t5 ' Traise God, from whom all blessings flow.' 3& " Now, remember, Mrs. Gracey, no more medicines ; throw away all mechanical helps ; use no more medicines ; trust all the time in God." She was enabled to walk to Tremont Street, where the ladies took the cars for home ; and from that day to this has been entirely free from all trouble from that virulent and terrible disease, which was so rapidly destroying her health and usefulness. * It was the Lord's doing, and was mar- vellous in our eyes. I cannot enter into the particulars of her trouble, but have no more doubt than I have of my exis- tence that her cure was by the direct in- tervention of the Jehovah Rophi. Over eighteen months have passed since that glad day, and not a single symptom of her former trouble has re- turned to her, and her health in that time has been equal to that of any other period 37 of her life. She is to-day a well woman, giving God all the glory of her cure. But I have already detained you too long. I can only say in the few minutes remaining to me, that I believe we tie up the Almighty by our unbelief. Why con- fine Him to one way of operating to heal the bodies of men in these modern times ? Where in the Bible are we commanded to go to the physicians for healing ? Yet in many places we are directed to pray and be healed. Why are we so persistent in our haste to depend upon second causes rather than go to God ? How little faith for im- mediate help of the Mighty to save, and how great dependence upon the means ! When God gives us His plan for the treat- ment of the body, why not go in His might in this event as well as in our spiritual needs. Read again James's di - rection: "Is any among you sick," etc. 3« "Oh, that's foolish presumption," say- many. Presumption ! What makes it presumption, but the long reign of God- dishonoring doubt in the Church ? What but custom and unbelief ? God will honor this faith without any secondary means, that He may be glorified, just as He hon- ored the faith of Gideon, or of Joshua before Jericho, and hundreds of others before the rationalists of their day. The miserable rationalism of to-day would have utterly spoiled that victory of Jeri- cho, or the triumph of Gideon, and the deliverance from Egypt under Moses. The question is asked, why are not all cured that go to God in this way ? I can- not, in the time allowed us for this dis- cussion, answer this and many other questions that arise as I would like to. I can only give briefly these three rea- sons : — First. Unbelief, — sometimes culpa- 39 ble; often not. The discussion of the question of faith in this matter as a spe- cial gift of God will be presented by Dr. Steele, who is to follow me in this discus- sion. Second. Many are not cured, because God has some better thing for them than mere bodily healing. Chastisement, en- durance of suffering, that the power of grace to sustain in affliction may be shown to the glory of God ; or that the utter hopelessness of recovery by ordi- nary means may be demonstrated, that all may know the power of healing to be eventually with God. To some God says, " I have chosen thee in the fur- nace of affliction," until the sufferer may be able to reply with triumph in the flames : " Even so, Father, for so it seem- eth good in Thy sight." Third. " It is appointed unto man once to die." When God sees fit to call 4o us from labor to reward, we will not, and our friends will not, have the power to exercise faith for our recovery. Why anoint with oil ? I know of no reason other than that given by Dr. Gor- don in his beautiful treatment of this subject in his book, "The Ministry of Healing," wherein he expresses the be- lief that it is a simple test of obedience. HEALING BY FAITH. BY DANIEL STEELE, D. D. I have been invited to speak on the faith cure and I shall speak on the ex- traordinary gifts of the Spirit, or charis- mata, described in the twelfth chapter of first Corinthians. I will read : " To an- other faith by the same spirit ; to another the gift of healing." The "faith cure" covers the two gifts lying side by side in this description of the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit. Christianity is the only religion on earth based upon miracles. Many other religions have pretended miracles which they produce, but they do not rest upon them as their foundation. Modern English writers, beginning with Cole- ridge, have slighted miracles, laying great 42 stress upon internal evidence and ignor- ing the external. This depreciation of external miracles came from Germany, a country which has become too learned to believe in Jesus Christ in the simple trust of the believing soul. Thus it has come to pass that very good men regard the supernatural in Christianity as a burden to be carried rather than wings by which it may be carried through the world. It is a very important question, How long were miracles designed to accompany the gospel ? It is the common opinion that the supernatural was needed only in the beginning of Christianity to give it a good start and that its subsequent prog- ress would be on the plane of nature. That is to say, Christianity was wound up like an eight-day clock and its author is standing by with his arms folded to see the thing run. But reasoning a priori. 43 we would say that a scheme originating miraculously would continue to be super- natural to the end. When we look in the New Testament we see no hint of withdrawal of the supernatural, but rather a prediction of its perpetual presence in the church. " He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also ; and greater works than these shall he do ; because I go unto my father." John xiv : 14. It is a common idea that God can- not work miracles through the faith of believers as in former times ; but Christ has said, "Lo, I am with you alvvay even unto the end of the world,' 7 He had just said, " All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." Hence the natural inference is that He is still present as an omnipotent power putting forth supernatural energies in every fu- ture exigency of the church or of the indi- vidual believer. 44 If it is said that the manifested pres- ence of Jesus is to be expected only in religious experience in the invisible realm of the spirit, regenerating and sanctify- ing the soul, but not in supernatural inter- positions in the course of external nature, we immediately ask your authority for denying the external and admitting the internal evidences of the power of Christ. When I relate to a Roman Catholic my Christian experience, that, without a priest to absolve, I have, through the spirit of adoption, the joyful assurance abiding in my consciousness that I am a child of God, he stares at what he calls fanaticism in me and says the conscious contact of the Holy Spirit with my spirit is impossible in these latter days, and that it was shut up in the age of the Apos- tles, that the supernatural in the internal realm of experience, as well as the exter- nal world, ceased 1800 years ago. Has 45 not the Papist as good ground for say- ing this as the Protestant has for saying that the supernatural was limited to the apostolic age ? " But " says the Protest- ant, " I believe in regeneration and in a conscious indwelling of the Holy Spirit ; but when it comes to healing power and these external evidences, I cannot believe them." Ought not the same world that that is exhorted to believe the testimony to Christ's saving grace, also to believe the same persons when they attest his ability to heal ? Let us be as willing to , accept one side as the other. We cannot surrender one-half of the supernatural and retain the other half. The notion that miracles ceased wtih the Apostles is attended by many serious difficulties. The testimony of the early Christian writers, such as Tertullian, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Origen, and others is regarded as an invincible proof of the existence of 4 6 the books of the New Testament in the second and third centuries as the uni- versally accepted standards of Christian truth. But the same witnesses as author- itatively testify to the existence of mira- cles in their times. What is to be done with these testimonies ? Shall we call them true when we wish to prove the truth of the New Testament, and brand them as false when we wish to rid our- selves of the post-apostolic miracles ! And if we admit that they are true, if they outlived the apostolic age and oc- curred two hundred years after the close of the New Testament canon, can we say they have ceased to exist up to the present time ? Then if you admit that they were wrought at that time for other purposes than the authentication of a revelation of Divine truth, how can we retain these as true miracles and reject those which have been performed all down through 47 the course of the Church's later history? How can I accept the miracle of the heal- ing of the woman who touched the hem of Christ's garment in Capernaum and re- ject the indubitable testimony relating to the healing of Jennie Smith in Philadel- phia, a few years ago, or of Miss Fan- . court in London ? The latter was a cripple, bed-ridden, with a curved spine, a painful disorder of almost all the joints of her body, who for two years had been lying on a couch, padded and curved to suit her distorted form. Mr. Graves calls to discuss the subject of faith healing with her, her father, a member of the church of England, dissents and leaves the room, Mr. Graves rises and is apparently about to go out also, but instead of that he turns to the helpless cripple and says " I command you to rise up and walk ! " It is probable that the command was in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. She im- 48 mediately arose and walked, having every appearance of perfect health, and so con- tinued. But notwithstanding all the well authenticated instances of healing, we are told by even evangelical Christians that, " we must believe anything rather than a miracle." It is the teaching of Hume that " it is contrary to general experience that mira- cles should exist ; it is not contrary to general experience that testimony should be false." We defy any one to deny the instances of healing which have occurred within the past ten years in Europe and America, without assuming Hume's infi- del position against miracles. It is astonishing how the belief that the super- natural was manifested only at the be- ginning of the Gospel has influenced the definition of the term miracle until it is almost universally defined to be super- natural power exercised to authenticate a 49' revelation. Thus many theologians have begged the question of the continuance of miracles by their definition. Dr. Pope, the Wesleyan theologian, constructs a better definition ; " A miracle is the in- terposition of the Supreme power in the established order of nature." Miracles may be helpful in every age. God has not put an impassable gulf between the natural and the supernatural, as many earnest Christians imagine, but rather the supernatural lies close above the natural, and often dips down into it for the pur- pose of securing some moral or spiritual end. Says Dr. Bushnell, "there are probably some religious teachers who would even think it a disorder in God's realm itself if now, in these modern times, these days of Science and well graduated uniformity of things were to be disturbed by an irruption of miraculous demonstra- tions." It would upset many whole chap- ters of theory ! 5° On the other hand, Archbishop Tillot- son believed that miracles would be man- ifested in case of an attempt to evange- lize pagan nations. We know that men are weak and prone to abuse any good gift and run it into the ground by extrav- agances, excesses and fanaticisms. For even the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit were even in St. Paul's day mixed up with various extravagances. Hence the history of the church has been a continual os- cillation between dead ritualism on the one hand and wild Corinthian ism on the other. Here is the picture of a church on which was bestowed in extraordinary measure the miraculous gifts of the Spirit. " Wrangling over Paul and Apollos and Cephas, running after false teachers, full of envying strife, and division, harboring an incestuous person, without discipline, degrading the Lord's Supper into a feast of appetite, giving to Paul constant sor- row and anxiety, the Corinthians needed miracles to give them a respectable name ; and they so abused miraculous gifts by jealousy and contention that they turned their Sabbath assemblies into cabals of men and women shouting, singing, pray- ing, prophesying, pell mell, without order or decency." Such a church is not de- sirable, but I choose it rather than one at the opposite extreme of rationalism, floating on the dead sea of formalism. From church history we learn that there have been gifts of healing in all ages breaking out at intervals. The past decade has been marked by such manifestations. There have been within the past few years miracles of healing corresponding in all points with the gifts and wonders of the apostolic age. Going back two or three centuries in the history of Scotland, we encounter the wonders detailed in the book entitled "The Scotch Worthies." And the men that figure in these gifts, powers, prophecies, healings, and visible judgments, are great names of repute in their own country, such as Knox, Guth- rie, Welch, Erskine, Craig, Cameron, Davidson, and Simpson. Similar wonders are well attested among the Huguenots, after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. George Fox, the founder of the Society of the Friends, wrought astonishing works of healing. The lame were made whole, the diseased were restored, even those given up by physicians. Nor has Meth- odism been without instances of super- natural healing. Some of us have heard from the lips of our sainted father, A. D. Merrill, whose marble is smiling upon us from the walls of this hall, instances of instantaneous cures which occurred in his ministry, in answer to prayer. 53 We do not say that the healing of the sick is the result of ordinary faith in God, but rather of an extraordinary faith in- wrought by the Holy Spirit for this spe- cific purpose. We believe that the in- stances of the gift of faith would be mul- tiplied if all Christians were lifted to a higher plane. Even then there would be fluctuations, the Spirit sometimes bestow- ing and sometimes withholding. For aught that we know, there may be a great display of spiritual gifts and wonders when Christianity comes into deadly struggle with Judaism, Mohammedanism and other antagonists to Jesus Christ. Then will He openly triumph over them. This matter of faith-cure embraces two charisms, or extraordinary gifts of the Spirit, found side by side in St. Paul's enumeration in i Cor. xii. This gift of faith must be discriminated from the grace of faith. 54 The following are some points of dif- ference between these two kinds of faith. This faith is something very different from the grace of faith. We note the following points : — i. The grace of faith is morally oblig- atory upon every soul having a knowl- edge of Christ, and the absence of such faith is the ground of condemnation. 2. The gift of faith is not required of any one, but is sovereignly bestowed by the Holy Spirit, " severally as He will." This is called by the theologian s fides mi- raculosa (Matt, xvii : 20), or miracle-work- ing faith, in distinction from saving faith. Meyer styles it " a heroism of faith." 3. There is no more culpability for the absence of the gift of faith than there is for that of the gift of tongues or of mira cles. 4. The grace of faith is grounded on the Bible, while the gift of faith does not 55 rest on the written Word of God, but upon the revelation of the Holy Spirit made immediately to the human spirit. 5. This testimony may relate to future events, when it is called prophecy : " Let us prophesy according to the measure of faith ; " or it may be an inwrought con- viction that in answer to prayer a certain sick person will be healed. "Faith" and " the gifts of healing " are in juxta- position in St. Paul's catalogue of char- isms. "The prayer of (charismatic) faith shall save the sick," says St. James. 6. The grace of faith, when exercised in prayer, is always accompanied by the condition " If it be Thy will." The gift of faith is the assurance beforehand that it is God's will to bestow the thing de- sired. Hence those who have experience in the charism of faith for healing — the speaker has no such experience — say that there is no if in this kind of prayer. 56 It is an unconditional grasping, not of the written promise, but of God himself. 7. The grace of faith is a permanent habit, as indispensable to spiritual as breathing is to natural life. Faith as a charism is occasional, and not permanent. St. Paul sometimes had it, and could heal (Acts xxviii : 8), and sometimes he had it not and could not heal, as we infer from 2 Tim. iv : 20. The charism of faith is not requisite to the highest spirit- ual life, nor to even the lowest stage, any more than speaking with tongues or miracles. 8. The grace of faith is saving ; the charism is not saving. The former works by love and purifies the heart. The latter may exist without effecting any moral transfiguration of character. In support of this startling assertion we quote 1 Cor. xiii : 2 to the Greek scholar, calling his special attention to the v "act 57 that the form of this conditional sentence (ean with the subjunctive) assumes the condition (charismatic faith without love) as possible, with some present expectation that it may be realized. (See the Greek grammars.) Jesus Christ strongly hints at the same possibility in Matt, vii : 22, 23. Balaam and Saul may be quoted as instances of unregenerate men receiving the divine afflatus of prophecy without moral transformation. When Paul was on the island called Melita and the serpent fastened itself upon his hand no harm came to him. u And in the same quarters were posses- sions of the chief man of the island, whose name was Publius," who received them and lodged them three days. And the father of Publius was sick of a fever. Paul entered in and prayed and laid his hands upon him and healed him. " So when this was done, others also, which 58 had diseases in the island, came and were healed." So Paul healed the sick. That sometimes he could not heal those who were sick we infer from another passage in the epistles, which reads as follows : " Erastus abode at Corinth : but Trophimus have I left at Miletum sick." Why did'nt he heal him and bring him along ? (Laughter.) Because the gift of faith for his healing was not then bestowed. St. Paul had not any "supernumerary preachers." He need- ed every one in the ever-widening har- vest field of the Gospel and he certainly would have healed this disabled laborer if he had been able. The gift of faith may sometimes be bestowed without any corresponding growth in grace or without affecting any moral renovation of character. Jesus Christ strongly suggests the same possi- 59 bility in the sermon on the mount, Matt, vii: 22, 23, "Many will say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not proph- esied in Thy name ? and in Thy name have cast out devils ? and in Thy name done many wonderful works ? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you : depart from me ye that work iniq- uity." Balaam and Saul may be quoted as instances illustrating the fact that men may receive the gift of prophecy without moral transformation. The preaching of bad men has been the instrument in the regeneration of men, because God puts honor upon His own truth. So cures were wrought by Judas, not on the ground of his moral worthiness, but because of the name of Jesus Christ, the omnipotent Son of God. See Matt, x : 1,4. In the year 1875 or '76, I was present at a camp-meeting at Sea Cliff. While 6o upon the platform during prayer-meeting, a man broke out in prayer and he seemed to get hold of God with a mighty grip. I lifted my head to look down and see who it was, for he was almost directly beneath the place where I was kneeling. I saw a man standing and holding on to the ' back of the seat. I thought it very singular that a Methodist minister should be praying on his feet, and I turned to a Quaker preacher at my side, and I said "Who is that man praying a Methodist prayer in a Presbyterian posture ? " " The Rev. Mr. Piatt. He stands because he cannot kneel ; he is a lame man." He was walking about there with two canes on Monday morning when I left the camp-meeting. At the same time there was a woman on the ground who was sick, lying in a tent (I got this from the woman herself), who was appealed to by a young lady 6i who said, " I wish you would remember the case of Mr. Piatt and pray for his healing." " Who is Mr. Piatt ? " inquired the sick lady, " I have never heard of him." " He is a Methodist clergyman who is here on the ground and is very lame. I think it may possibly be the Lord's will that he should be healed." This woman says that she turned her heart to the Lord in prayer, and had an answer immediately that the Lord had something for her to do in the case. As her tent was run upon largely by callers Dr. W said, " I will give you a room in my cottage where you can keep all callers off and get some rest." She went to his cottage and slept sev- eral hours. While sitting at the tea-table all of a sudden she said, " I came near forgetting Mr. Piatt. I told the Lord I would attend to his case." 62 She arose from the table and requested some one to go with her to Mr. Piatt, whom she did not know. She went, ac- companied by some of her friends, to him. On the way she says she thought it might be a simple test of faith and was not at all sure that anything extraordinary would be done in his behalf. They went to Mr. Piatt's cottage. He came to the door leaning on his cane. She asked him if he did'nt think the Lord would cure his lameness by faith. He said that he had made it a subject of prayer, had been to Boston and seen Dr. Cullis who had anointed him and prayed for his healing. He was better for a day or two, and walked without crutches, but he had obtained no permanent relief, and he had about concluded that it was the Lord's will that he should limp along to his grave. This lady began to quote some passages of Scripture, asked him €■3 if he would hold his mind so far as pos- sible from the attitude of resistance, and requested that he would be willing at least that she should kneel down before him and pray. "Well," said he, "you may pray for my left leg that was hurt quite recently, but my right leg has been lame for twenty-five years and I don't think it will do any good to pray for it. (Laughter.) That was his manner of looking upon the subject when the woman knelt before him. Before kneeling, she requested the privilege of slightly touching the tips of her fingers to his knee. She says, "When I knelt before the man, before I had uttered a word, God gave the whole case into my hands, and I knew absolutely that he was to be healed." She prayed but a few words, just touched her fingers to his knees, and arose. I 6 4 have brother Piatt's statement here, en- titled " Twenty-fifth Year of Jubilee." As far as I remember his statement of the matter, soon after her prayer he felt a thrill pass through his knees, was able to rise and walk about. He has kept walking with- out his canes ever since, and avers that he was instantaneously healed. In this instance we have the gift of faith exercised, and the woman knowing absolutely before she uttered a word, what would be done. I have conversed with Mr. Piatt: I saw him at Round Lake camp-meeting a year or two after his cure, and I have conversed with his wife, and they verify this statement made by this woman. Some time after this, the lady, the instru- ment of his healing, who was keeping up a correspondence with Mr. Piatt, began to suspect that he was yielding his belief that it was a supernatural cure, or as she ex- 65 presses it, he was "getting under the influence of popular opinion around him and ascribing it to other causes." She thought to herself, if this man loses his faith in God his lameness will return. She says, " I went to God and I told him that this cure had been published broad- cast throughout the world, and if it now becomes a failure the honor of His cause would be brought into reproach. I said, " O God, whatever else happens to this man, save his legs." She heard soon after that he had temporarily ceased preaching, — had stopped on account of weakness of the lungs. I think about the same year, on a tour of camp-meetings, I visited a camp-meet- ing in Mansfield, Ohio, and I saw there a woman who had been for some fifteen years sick with a diseased spine, a ner- vously-shattered leg, and a complication of diseases peculiar to her sex. She was 66 on a cot on wheels. I was invited into her tent to pray for her healing. I had no special gift of faith, but I pray for anybody as I am requested to, and pray- ed, " O Lord, if it be Thy will, heal this woman," exercising what grace of faith I had. She was not healed, and a company of injudicious women got around her and began to upbraid her and taunt her with unbelief. I quote from her book here : " I have had some peculiar experiences, but with all that was said I could not take hold with them. One brother severely censured me for what he called my un- belief. Said there was no need of my suffering any longer if I had faith to be healed." I presume this state of things went on for some time after this. I was called to preach afterwards and took special pains to speak upon the gift and the grace of faith, and that woman, 6 7 Jennie Smith, was lying within six feet of me looking up patiently, and was much comforted by my vindication, in which I asserted that her continued prostration and suffering were not because of un- belief on her part. The Lord was then using her as a kind of evangelist. She had been preaching from her cot, in evangelistic services and holding meet- ings for the benefit of the railroad men in whom she was much interested, as she was obliged to travel in the baggage car. I said that when the Lord had fully demonstrated what he could do with a sick girl, evangelizing, saving souls, and establishing Christian reading rooms for the railroad men, it might please Him in His own good time to give her the gift of faith for complete healing after He had magnified His strength in her weak- ness. The year after that this woman 68 was instantaneously healed through faith in Christ, the Jehovah Rophi of the Old Testament. She thinks she was kept from being healed in early life because the Lord wanted that she should go through all the schools of medicine on earth and show the inability of any one of them to heal her. So she went through the water cures and through the fire cures, having her spine cauterized with hot irons, through electricity, through allopathy and hydropathy and at last was taken to a homeopathic hospital in Philadel- phia. She stayed out her time there but did not get relief. I want to give you an idea of the con- dition of her body. One of her limbs had to be put into a box and a stone tied to the box, as she had no control over the limb ; in the spasms of pain which she suffered, having no possible control over it, a piece of marble of fifty 6 9 pounds weight was put upon it, while the box was fastened with hooks to her couch but the first paroxysm tore away the hooks. At last a surgical operation was performed severing (as" I infer from the account) the motor nerve of the leg over which she had no control, so that the spasms ceased and it became like a dead limb lying on her couch. Her vo litions could no more move it than they could the solid earth. This was her condition when the med- ical authorities came to the conclusion that her case was incurable. Looking around for some place to go, and having stayed out her term there, having heard through some friends the particulars of Mr. Piatt's healing, it first dawned upon her mind that she might be healed. She says, " While the same woman that had been instrumental in his cure was leading in prayer, I found the first 7 o glimmer of hope and thought that God might restore me." This faith constantly increased until she finally sent out writ- ten invitations to her friends appointing an hour when the matter was to be tested. Her physician, Dr. Morgan, a man with whom I am acquainted, who has visited at my house, was present. He said he would pray with her all night. The prayers began about eight o'clock and they continued to wait before the Lord. Occasionally some one would quote a text of Scripture or engage in prayer. She still lay suffering, but most of the time in such communion with God that she was hardly conscious of the pain. About eleven o'clock she broke forth in audible prayer, saying, " I give my body to thee anew ; my eyes to see, my lips to talk, my ears to hear, and, if it be Thy will, these feet to walk. All of me, all, all of this body, dear Father, only let Thy precious will be done." 7 1 Weaker than usual, after a brief silence there suddenly flashed upon her a most vivid vision of the healing of the withered arm ; at the same instant there came to her faith to receive a greater blessing. It seemed as though heaven was opened and she was conscious of a baptism of strength, as conscious as if an electric shock had come into her system. She felt strength come into her back, she raised herself to a sitting posture, arose, and stood. Her sister almost fainted, having never seen her before upon her feet. And she walks to-day and has spoken from this platform. As a confirmation of this account of a faith cure, we quote the following col- loquy between Jennie Smith and an infidel, old-school physician who had vainly tried his skill upon her. Infidel doctor. " Jennie, I hear that the homeopaths are claiming your cure." 72 Jennie. " I was in a homeopathic hos- pital, but I was healed by God in answer to the prayer of faith." Infidel doctor. "Yes, yes, it was God, it was God ; homeopathy had nothing to do with it." It is much easier to believe that God revealed His mighty arm in these cures than to be so credulous as to ascribe them to natural causes, the magnetism of a hand, or the power of the will, or the ■ influence of imagination. None are so credulous as those who are determined to crowd God out of the universe. At' the same camp-meeting where I found Jennie Smith, my attention was called to a woman who was walking about there, Mrs. Burrezz. I was asked to go and have some conversation with her. I went and learned these facts: she was a resident of Mansfield, Ohio. She had been for seven years a hopeless 73 invalid. One of her lungs was unsound ; the other very much diseased. She had been for years confined to her couch and was considered an incurable con- sumptive. After reading instances of faith heal- ing, she thought that she might be cured. A man came and prayed with her with no special result After a while, on thinking the matter over, she said the Lord Jesus seemed to stand before her and bid her touch the hem of His garment. She reached out her hand as if a person stood there, and in the act of reaching out her hand she was healed. These are instances which have come under my personal observation. I have bought few books on faith healing and faith cures. Some twenty years ago I read Dr. BushnelPs " Nature and the Supernatural," and came to the conclusion that God had not withdrawn the gifts of 74 His Spirit, and that supernatural powers would be manifested until the Lord Jesus came again. The cures wrought by God through the prayers and anointing of Dr. Cullis are all about us. I have conversed with several of the persons cured, and have found them to be genuine and well-attest- ed cases of instantaneous healing. One is that of a curved and diseased spine ; another, a lady in Holliston, Mrs. Bemis, of the M. E. Church, was relieved of a complication of diseases ; and still an- other, the wife of a Methodist preacher of the New England Conference, now in California, was healed of a painful uterine weakness and displacement which had tortured her from childhood. That all who come to Dr. C. are not healed is ad- mitted. St. Paul did not heal every sick person, as we have seen in the case of Trophinus. St. Paul speaks of " gifts of 75 healing," "the plural pointing," says Meyer, "to the different kinds of sick- ness, for the healing of which different gifts were needful." As there are men endowed by nature with the ability to treat special diseases successfully, so there may be specialties in supernatural healing. In conclusion let me say that the need of a special gift of faith for healing is evident when we consider two facts : i . That every exercise of faith must be under the primal curse, pronounced out- side the gates of a lost Eden, (i Dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return." Hence there must be a special revelation that the sickness is not unto death, and that it is the will of God to heal before there can be unwavering faith in behalf of any given case. 2. Every exercise of faith for healing is for a person in probation, in whom it 7 6 may be the Divine purpose to bring forth for the beautifying of the moral character the grace of submission to the Divine Will. No one but God knows how hot or how long the furnace is to be heated. None but He knows the hour of deliver- ance. When the sufferer, or any other person, has a divinely-inspired intimation that that hour has come he can exercise unwavering faith for his cure. HEALING BY FAITH. TWO ESSAYS MUEL L. GRACEY IEL STEELE, D.D. Delivered before the Boston Methodist Preachers' Meeting March 27th and April 3d, 1882. - -4£>*G*^!*=Sr^£--- : > WILLARD TRACT REPOSITORY. Beacon Hill Place, Boston. 239 Fourth Avenue, New York. 921 Arch St., Philadelphia. 31 Paternoster Square, London. RD 17* °« % ^ *" SA *«^ -.JHK." -^V -WW? , MDBS BROS. I«C „* V ST. AUGUSTINE "...."V" * -> A