Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Faith cures. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
5/6 (page 277)
![FAITH- (The italics are hers.) Yet another person said to the writer, “ I am healed by faith.” When asked if the bodily senses bore wit- ness to the healing, the reply was: “ 1 am healed by faith, but not by my senses.” When asked why language was so strangely used, the reply came : “ I do not exactly like this way of speaking myself, but the leaders tell us we must say so.” Now im- agine any hospital physician giving such instructions to his patients, and then advertis- ing them as “ cured.” In further elucidation of the singular men- tal attitude of some of these faith-cure folk, the following is given as a fair specimen of many cases of “ cure ”: “ i have been troubled with headache since I was six years of age. My head would ache violently for three or four hours, then I would become sick at my stomach, and throw off everything I had eaten. I had tried every remedy I knew of, until I was discouraged, and concluded that, perhaps, this was my ‘ thorn in the flesh,’ and that it was not God’s will that I should be cured of it. Yet I could not rest in that thought; and I want to say, just here, that I believe this is one of the devil’s best arguments to keep souls from finding out God’s power and love to us poor mortals. But on the 21st of January, Satan had God’s own voice to set at nought, and he was, bless the Lord, unable to do it. “ In my attacks of headache I was totally unfitted for duties of any kind, and the day following I would be so weakened that 1 was almost useless. Well, this day I speak of, I felt my old complaint coming on, and I had a good many other ills pressing me besides. Then God spoke to me by his Word, saying, ‘ Cast your care on me; I care for you' I did so. I cast everything, unbelief, doubt, head- ache, ‘ perhaps it is not God’s will,’ and all, all, on the Lord. In less time than it takes me to write it my headache was gone. “ But the fight was not over yet. The next day I caught a severe cold, which, with me, is always followed by a raging headache. I awoke the next morning with a very severe one. I asked the Lord what that meant. I had my message the night before; it was this: ‘The Lord shall be seen over them.’ Zech. ix. 14.” [In this connection we may say that many of these faith-healers get their “ message ” by simply opening the Bible at random, and taking the first verse on which the eye rests. As in this case, they often strike passages which have no more application to them than the command to Peter to go and catch a fish has.] “ The Spirit showed me that the Lord would be seen over that headache; so I prayed God to cure me of it. After I had CURES. 277 prayed, this came to me: ‘ Do you believe it will be done?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ Then the sugges- tion came, ‘ If you believe the Lord will do it, you will go about your work just as though it was done.’ It had not stopped, but I got up and went to my work, my head aching violently all the time. Satan was as busy as a bee, asking why my head did not stop aching: I had asked and believed, and yet it had not stopped! But God’s Word rose above him, ‘ The Lord shall be seen over them' So I fought the devil with these words until near noon, when my faith began to stagger. The devil very cunningly suggested that God would not do it for me, and I began to think so; when these words came with powerful weight: ‘■It is impossible for God to lie.' I did not remember at the time to have seen these words anywhere, but I felt sure they were God’s words, because the devil fled in an instant. I went home and ate dinner, a thing I never before attempted to do when in such a condition, because I could not keep food on my stomach. But I sat down by faith ! and ate, and God rewarded me. But I had a hard fight all the afternoon, and when I came home to supper I felt as though I could not eat a mouthful, I was so sick; yet I believed God would cure me, and I sat down and ate, and then went out to my duties as usual. Finally, when I was all alone, and my faith nearly gone, and when I felt I could hold out no longer, these words came with strength to my soul: ‘ Thy word is settled hi heaven.' I thought, ‘ But not on earth,’ when a rebuke, kind and gentle, but oh how powerful, came to me : ‘ If we believe not, yet he abideth faith- ful.' It was enough. It settled me. I stopped doubting and trusted; yes, rested in the belief that God would cure me. It did not make any difference if it was not done till next year; anyway, I would believe, and God would give me the victory. And in a twink- ling of an eye the pain left me, and I am cured, bless the Lord. I have not had a headache since (i. e., from Jan. 23-Feb. 18, 1880), but only little trials” [does he mean “ symptoms ” ? ], “which have left me as soon as my soul returned to its rest. I am growing stronger every day. Your brother in the Lord, W. M. H.” 1 his sad case of self-deception is given in full (and it does not stand alone, by any means) chiefly because a physician in regular standing, who ought to know better, publishes it as a “faith-cure,” thereby indorsing it. Im- agine any such narrative 'of apostolic heal- ing, and realize how utterly incongruous and pitiful it would appear alongside of such stories as the restoration of ^neas, of Dorcas, or of the ten lepers !](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22468225_0007.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
