02.08. The Testimony of Experience

The Ministry of Healing Or, Miracles of Cure in All Ages by A. J. Gordon 8. The Testimony of Experience

"Prove me now herewith" is the challenge which the Lord has given in his word; and there are many in the present generation who have accepted and tested his challenge on the promises of bodily recovery.

We wish in this chapter to consider the experiences and testimony of certain, who within our own times have exercised a ministry of healing. Let us not be misunderstood. We do not attribute to any man the power of curing sickness, though we think many are called to be instruments to that end. A physician is a mediator between nature and our suffering humanity. And his skill depends solely upon his ability to interpret and apply the laws of health to the sick, and to bring the sufferer into contact with the recuperative forces of the natural world. In like manner if the primitive "gifts of healing" are still bestowed in the Church, as we believe, those endowed with them have power only through the mediation of their faith and prayers. We are told that Paul entered into the house of Publius, and, finding his father sick, "prayed and laid his hands on him and healed him." But we do not understand from this that the apostle had any inherent personal power to heal disease; else why did he pray? Prayer is touching the hem of Christ’s garment by the human intercessor, while in the laying on of hands he at the same moment touches the body of the sufferer. It is simply, in a word, the repetition of what was done again and again during the earthly ministry of our Lord, the bringing of the sick to Jesus for healing and cleansing. "Why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk?" asks Peter of those who were wondering at the miracle at the Beautiful Gate. If it were a question of human power or holiness we might be quite ready to relegate the gifts of healing to the apostolic age, confessing our utter lack of these qualifications. But since it is a question of the power and holiness of "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever," it is quite another matter. "If thou canst believe" is the question now. "A year famous for believing," is the language in which Romaine designated a certain unusual twelve-month of his ministry. If such a year should be graciously injected into the calendar of any Christian life it would be a year of success. For believing is knowing God and finding the depths of power and privilege that are hidden for us in him: and "the people that do know their God shall be strong and do exploits" says the scripture (Daniel 11:32).

Now, there have been some in our day who have had faith to take the Lord at his word in connection with the promises of healing. And having, as they believed, proved him, and found him faithful, their testimony will be deeply instructive to our readers. Dorothea Trudel is a name especially honored in this relation. The story of her life and labors in connection with the home for invalids in the Swiss village of Mannedorf on Lake Zurich has been very widely read, and has caused great searchings of heart in many who have pondered it. (Dorothea Trudel, or The Prayer of Faith. London: Morgan and Scott.) The Lord provides deep roots when there are to be wide-spreading branches. And this life whose boughs so ran over the wall, and stretched beyond the bounds of ordinary service, was unusually rooted and established. The mother from whom she received her birth and early training was so remarkable for her faith and consecration that, though living in the utmost obscurity and poverty, her biography has been placed among those of the illustrious Christian women of the ages. (Consecrated Women. London: Hodder and Stoughton.) The wife of a brutal and godless husband, and so cut off from human sympathy that there was none but God to whom she could appeal in her need, she was schooled by this bitter tuition into a life of faith and absolute dependence on God. She looked to Him for food for her family when they must otherwise have starved; for deliverance when they must otherwise have perished; for healing when they must otherwise have died. Dorothea grew up with perpetual exhibitions before her eye of the Lord’s restoring of the sick for a poor household which could employ no other physician. The faith which it is so difficult for us to recover was her native inheritance. Hence what we doubt so painfully whether we may do, she bitterly condemned herself for not doing when she had subsequently neglected it.

After her parents had died we find her engaged in labors of love among the working people; teaching them the gospel, and seeking to lead them to the Saviour. How her personal use of the prayer of faith begun in connection with these labors she tells in the following words: "Four of them fell ill, and, as each could do as he pleased, all four summoned a doctor. It was remarked, however, that they got worse after taking the medicine, until, at last, the necessity became so pressing that I went as a worm to the Lord, and laid our distress before him. I told him how willingly I would send for an elder, as is commanded in James 5:1-20, but, as there was not one, I must go to my sick ones in the faith of the Canaanitish woman, and, without trusting to any virtue in my hand, I would lay it upon them. I did so, and, by the Lord s blessing, all four recovered. Most powerfully then did the sin of disobeying God’s word strike me, and most vividly did the simple life of faith, the carrying out just what God orders, stand before me."

Soon after she gave herself wholly to the Master’s work; and as the effects of her evangelistic efforts, and the answers to her earnest prayers were noticed, she was importuned to receive patients into her house. Consenting reluctantly the life-work thus began, from which was to flow such a blessing to the souls and bodies of men. Her methods were very simple: the Bible and prayer were her medicines. She dealt with the soul first, using every effort to bring it to faith and obedience to the Gospel; she prayed for the body, laying hands on the sick and anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. In all this she recognized the necessity of the most absolute consecration on her part and that of her helpers, and of the most surrendering faith on the part of the sick. Very beautifully does she thus speak of the believer’s privilege:-- "In the New Testament we are called kings, and priests. Power accompanied the anointing of the kings, and if we really belong to the kingly priesthood shall not strength to heal the sick by prayer come on us also through the anointing of the Spirit? If we only wear our Levite dress, and are consecrated in soul and body -- if we are only prepared to be vessels of his grace -- it is his part to bless. Oh, that we were willing not to do more than God would have us do, then would this day be one of great reviving to us!"

Thus her work was inaugurated, and thus was she inducted by unseen hands into her remarkable ministry. Rarely have we traced the story of a life whose consecration was so even and unreserved. Among the sayings which she left on record is this: "The heart ought not to be an inn where the Lord sometimes comes, but a home where he always abides." It was her calling for many years to keep an inn where the sick could lodge, a hospice into which the suffering and distracted wanderer could turn for solace. These came and went with the recurring months, but so constantly was the Lord abiding with her, that it might be said according to Luther’s beautiful simile that the way-farer coming and knocking at her heart and asking "Who lives here?" would hear the instant answer from within, "Jesus Christ." Not that she ever claimed as much; for none was ever more humble and self depreciatory; but her life declared it. It comes out in her biography that her prayers were sometimes prolonged into midnight: that her soul so wrought with intense desire that often the sweat would stand in beads upon her forehead. Once in busy labors among the sick she passed the whole day without food, utterly forgetting the claims of nature in her absorbing devotion to her work; and then finding it impossible to get food on account of the lateness of the hour she falls at Jesus’ feet, and begs for that meat that the world knows not of, and is so refreshed and filled that she goes all night in the strength of it.

Such rare and Christ-like consecration has always proved an apt soil for the manifestation of the miraculous; especially when chastened and fertilized by bitter persecutions. And this token which the Scripture promises to "all who will live godly in Christ Jesus" was not wanting to her, as the spirit to endure it with unresenting meekness was not wanting. "I have had enemies," she writes "both known and unknown in crowds; and thickly scattered falsehoods and slanders were no pleasant portion. I write this with the feeling that whoever cannot bear, without emotion, even the blackest falsehoods and slanders has yet to experience something of the peace of God which is like an ocean without bounds." Medical men and others conceived great hostility to her, and sought to convict her of malpractice in the courts; though it was shown in testimony that most of her patients were such as had spent all their living upon physicians only to be made worse; and that the only medicine she employed was prayer. Speaking of this adversity she says: --

"But a storm was now to burst over the work; for in 1856 when the second house was filled with invalids, and the Lord was working mightily we were fined sixty francs, and were ordered to send away all the patients by a certain time. Though it was the most gregrievousy of my life I obeyed the command; but the houses so hastily emptied, filled as fast as ever with the blind, the lame, and the deaf, for whom the Lord did great things. Evil spirits were cast out of some of the invalids by prayer, and the sufferer became instantly free. Many were delivered from the power of darkness which had been exercised over their minds, though less visibly and outwardly and received what we consider the highest and best blessing, that of being changed from wolves into lambs." In 1861 a second persecution was raised against this most saintly and inoffensive woman. At the instigation of a physician, the magistrates imposed a heavy fine upon her, and ordered her patients to be sent away. Then, through appeal to a higher tribunal, her case was brought into court, and the world was made acquainted through the testimony of scores of living witnesses, with the wonderful work which God had wrought through her prayers.

Mr. Spondlin an eminent advocate of Zurich volunteered to conduct her case; Prelate Von Kopff, Prof. Tholuck and many others were witnesses on her behalf, and the result was that she was fully acquitted and left undisturbed in her gracious work. Henceforth her house which had too often through the malice of enemies been a Bethaven "house of affliction," became only a Bethesda "house of mercy." If her own simple record, confirmed by the word of scores who bore testimony at her trial, could prove that miracles of healing were wrought in her house, the fact must be considered as established. With a deep conviction that sin is often the hidden root of sickness, she dealt most earnestly with the souls of her patients. "Confess your faults one to another and pray one for another that ye may be healed," was an injunction that had a deeply practical meaning to her, and often conviction and conversion were the first symptoms of physical convalescence.

"On one occasion a young artisan arrived, in whom cancer had made such progress as to render any approach to him almost unbearable. At the Bible lessons this once frivolous man, now an earnest inquirer, learned where the improvement must begin; and from the day that he confessed his sins against God and man, the disease abated. Some time afterwards he acknowledged one sin he had hitherto concealed, and then he speedily recovered his bodily health and returned to his home cured in spirit also." In some instances her prayers and her eager seeking for the will of God were long continued before any sign of recovery was manifested: in some she gained the strongest impression that it was not the Lord’s will to restore them, and then she labored with unceasing diligence to bring them into peace with God before they should die; in others healing was vouchsafed at once.

"A lady in S. had so injured her knee by a fall, that for weeks she lay in the greatest agony. The doctor declared that dropsy would supervene, but the heavenly physician fulfilled those promises which will abide until the end of the world, and by prayer and the laying on of Dorothea’s hands, the knee was cured in twenty-four hours, and the swelling vanished."

One giving an account of her arraignment says: -- "During the course of the trial, authenticated cures were brought forward, it is said, to the number of some hundreds. There was one of a stiff knee, that had been treated in vain by the best physicians in France, Germany, and Switzerland; and one of an elderly man who could not walk, and had also been given up by his physicians, but who soon dispensed with his crutches; a man came with a burned foot, and the surgeons said it was a case for "either amputation or death," and he also was cured; one of the leading physicians of Wurtemburg testified to the cure of a hopeless patient of his own; another remained six weeks, and says he saw all kinds of sicknesses healed. Cancer and fever have been treated with success; epilepsy and insanity more frequently than any other forms of disease.

Such was the ministry of healing and comfort carried on by this holy woman till the day when she fell asleep in Jesus, and such was the blessed example which she left behind her. Travellers tell us of a deep and secluded lake in Switzerland in whose crystal mirror the reflection of distant mountains may be seen, though the mountains themselves are not visible to the eye. In the tranquil, hidden life of this Swiss peasant girl, the image of the invisible Saviour was clearly mirrored, and how many of those who knew her in life, and of those who have read the story of her consecration since her death have therefrom caught a reflected glimpse of the unseen Redeemer, and been quickened with new love to him, and a new sense of his present power.

Samuel Zeller took up the work at Mannedorf as it dropped from the dead hands of sister Dorothea. He is the son of the founder of a well-known boys’ reformatory at Beuggen, near Basle, and brother in-law of Gobat, late bishop at Jerusalem. He had been a co-laborer at the home before the death of its founder, and with much prayer that the gifts of faith and of healing might rest upon him she had committed the work to his care. Since her death the institution has continued with no apparent loss of power or usefulness under his direction, he being aided by Miss Zeller, his sister, and by several devoted assistants. All the helpers, even to the servants, render their service as a labor of love, in grateful return in most cases for the recovery which they have received at this home.

Mr. Zeller is a fervent evangelist, going out in every direction preaching the word, as well as laboring "in season out of season" for the souls and bodies of those who come under his care. From two houses the home has grown to ten, and they are always filled with patients, from many nations. The same methods are employed as under his predecessor. He lays hands upon the sick; he anoints with oil in the name of the Lord, and pleads the promise given in James 5:1-20th chapter; and his reports published year by year are full of striking instances alike of healing and of conversion.

He entertains no extravagant views of his mission. Holding most tenaciously to the perpetuity of the promise: "The prayer of faith shall save the sick," he yet strongly recognizes the sovereignty of God in the answer. To the question asked by a recent visitor, whether it is not God’s will that all his children should be free from sickness, he replied that it is evidently the Father’s will that some should overcome sickness and that others should overcome in sickness, and he quoted significantly the words of Hebrews chapter 11: Some, "through faith, subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens; Women received their dead raised to life again; and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment. They were, stoned; they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword; they wandered about in sheepskins and goat-skins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented (of whom the world was not worthy); they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. And these all having obtained a good report through faith," etc. A visit to this home was made a few years since by several eminent German preachers and professors, and when one of these was asked his opinion of the work he answered; "Where the Holy Spirit speaks with so much power, we can do no other wise than listen to his teaching; critical analysis is out of the question." A quiet and deep spiritual life, a profound faith in the promises of God, and a humble and self-denying surrender to his word and will are the traits which have characterized the work from the beginning until the present time. The cases of recovery at Mannedorf are so fully given in the report of the home that we need not here reproduce them.

Pastor Blumhardt exercising his ministry in the small Lutheran village of Mottlingen, in the heart of the Black Forest in Germany, is another who was greatly honored of God in his prayers of faith. He died quite recently, but during many years of his active pastorate he was credited with extraordinary grace in praying for the sick. Like others of whom we have spoken he had the ministry of healing thrust upon him. He first became known for his unusual consecration, and for his zeal and ability in stirring up formal Christians to renewed activity. He prayed for the diseased with such efficacy, and such well attested cures were reported from his intercessions, that very soon he was resorted to by the suffering from every direction. His home and neighborhood became a hospital, where not only invalids, but sorrowing and sin-sick souls came for counsel and help. One writing of him says; "As regards Blumhardt and his work, it may emphatically be said that the pleasure of the Lord prospered in his hands." He seems to have taken no pains to report his success, having evidently learned the secret that "the way to have a strong faith is to think nothing of yourself." But others praised him if not his own lips, and he became widely known throughout his country as a pastor who considered the sick bodies of his flock to be under his ministration as well as the sick souls.

We give one instance from the life of Blumhardt, to show the vast influence which a striking exhibition of miraculous power may exert upon the spiritual life of a people. On commencing his ministry in Mottlingen he found the place fearfully given over to infidelity and sensuality. As his fervent preaching began to tell upon the community, Satan seemed to come in, with great wrath to resist him. A case occurred in the village which exactly resembled the instances of demoniacal possession recorded in scripture. The woman thus afflicted endured the most excruciating agony. The Pastor being called in was quite appalled, having never seen anything of the kind; and in his perplexity was inclined to be excused from interfering with it. But some of his brethren in the Church who had listened to his strong utterances on the subject of the prayer of faith, came to him saying. "If you do not wish to shake our belief in your preaching you cannot retreat before the evil one." After a moment’s thought, and silent prayer he answered: "You are right; but to be in accord with the word of God you must also unite with me in supplication according to James 5:14." What followed appears from the following account by his friend Pastor Spittler. He says: -- "Kindly permit me not to mention in this place the frightful details of her sufferings. The medical man who attended the person was perfectly at a loss as to the case. He said, ’Is there no clergyman in this village who can pray? I can do nothing here.’ The minister (Blumhardt) who had then the spiritual care of the village felt the force of such a reproach, joined as it was to that of his believing people. He went to the house in the strength of faith. The more frightful the manifestations of the destroying power of Satan became, with the more unshaken faith in the all-overcoming power of the living God, that pastor continued to struggle against the assaults of the infernal powers, till at last, after a tremendous outcry of the words, ’Jesus is Victor! Jesus is Victor!’ heard almost throughout the whole little village, the person found herself freed from all the dreadful chains under which she had sighed so long, and often come to the very brink of death."

"That voice, ’Jesus is Victor!’ sounded like a trumpet of God through the village. After a week one man of very loose and deceitful character, whom the pastor on that account felt almost afraid of approaching, came trembling and pale to Blumhardt into his study, and said, ’Sir, is it then possible that I can be pardoned and saved? I have not slept for a whole week, and if my heart be not eased, it will kill me.’ He made an astonishing confession of iniquity, which for the first time opened the pastor’s eyes to the multitude and enormity of sins prevailing among the people. The pastor prayed with him and put Christ before him, in his readiness to pardon even the vilest of sinners that would come to him for mercy. When the man seemed completely cast down and almost in despair, Blumhardt found it his duty, as an ambassador of Christ, solemnly to assure him of God’s mercy in Jesus Christ; and lo! immediately his countenance was changed, beaming with joy and gratitude.

"The first thing which the man now did was to go to his fellow-sinners, from cottage to cottage, and tell them what he had just experienced. First they were astonished, and could not understand it; yet they saw the marvellous change in him. He urged them to go to the minister about their souls; some he even dragged as it were in triumph to the manse, till about twenty persons were in the same way convinced of sin, and found grace and forgiveness in Jesus." (Pastor Blumhardt and His Work. London. Morgan and Scott -- See 13. Appendix, Note D).

Then follows the account of a most gracious and wide-spread revival. The whole village became a Bochim. With tears and lamentations the people came confessing their sins, and inquiring the way of escape from the wrath of God that was resting upon them. The Pastor’s house was besieged from morning to night with penitents, so that within two months, as he declared, there were not twenty persons in the place who had not come to him bewailing their sins and finding peace in Jesus Christ. The transformation which resulted was hardly less wonderful than that which occurred in Kidderminster under the preaching of Richard Baxter. The story gives a most striking indication of what might result even now, under the preaching of the gospel "with signs following."

"The soul is the life of the body; faith is the life of the soul; Christ is the life of faith" -- so wrote the good John Flavel; and thus he traced very obviously and directly the course through which Christ the Redeemer acts upon the human body.

Pastor Otto Stockmayer might be fitly named the theologian of the doctrine of healing by faith. He has given some very subtle, not to say bold and startling expositions of the relation of sin and sickness. "The soul is the life of the body," and the Lord does not intend that his saving and sanctifying ministry shall stop with the regeneration and renewal of the soul, is Stockmayer’s strongly asserted doctrine. Attaching great weight to the words of Scripture which declare that Christ, "healed all that were sick that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet saying, himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses" he reasons that if our Redeemer bore our sicknesses it is not his will that his children should remain under the power of disease, any more than that having borne our sins it is his will that they should remain under condemnation and disobedience. He says:-- "Once understanding that it is not the will of God that his children should be sick (James 5:14-18), and that Christ has redeemed us from our sickness as from our sins (Matthew 8:16-17), we can no longer look upon healing as a right which it would be lawful for us to renounce. It is no longer a question whether we wish to be healed, God’s will must be fulfilled in our bodies as well as in our souls. Our beloved Lord must not be robbed of a part of the heritage of his agony.

It is by virtue of a divine will that the offering of the body of Jesus Christ has sanctified us (Hebrews 10:10), which means that Christ by his death has withdrawn the members of our body, with our entire being, from every sacrilegious end or use. He has regained and consecrated them for his own exclusive and direct use.

Wrested by Christ’s ransom from all foreign power, from the power of sin or of sickness or of the devil, our members must remain intact, surrendered to him who has redeemed them. "Let my people go" was God’s word to Pharaoh, and such is God’s command to sin and sickness, and to Satan: "Let my people go that they may serve me." Thus God’s children must not seek the healing of the body without taking at the same time by faith, all the new position which Christ’s redemption gives us -- and which is expressed in these words of Moses to Pharaoh: or better still in Paul’s words (2 Corinthians 5:14-15), which amounts to this -- Nothing more for self, but all for Christ. Before seeking freedom from sickness we must lay hold of the moral freedom which the Redemption of Christ has obtained for us, and by which we are cut off from any self-seeking: from the seeking of our own will, our own life, our own interests, or our own glory. Our members are henceforth Christ’s, and neither for ourselves or for our members, but for Christ and for his members we desire health. We knew none other but Christ." This in brief is the doctrine of Pastor Stockmayer as set forth in a tract entitled "Sickness and the Gospel," (Partridge and Co., London) which has passed through many editions and been very widely read. As the minister of a Christian flock his practice has conformed to his teaching. He has used the same methods as those employed at Mannedorf; and he has now a home in Hauptwiel Thurgan Switzerland for the reception of such as desire to be healed through prayer.

Pastor Rein is another of the same group of primitive teachers and ministers. He was greatly esteemed while living, and it is only a few years since he fell asleep. He began his service in the gospel as a decided formalist. But shutting himself up to the Bible and determining to shape his ministry rigidly by its teachings without regard to tradition, a great change came over him. He now abandoned the habit of reading prayers at the bedside of the sick, and began to pour out petitions directly from the heart. Later he felt constrained to use the practise of laying hands on them while praying, according to the word of the Lord in Mark 16:1-20. Still later he began to anoint with oil in the name of the Lord in connection with his praying for the sick, carrying out strictly the directions given in the Epistle of James. His ministry seems to have been as conspicuous for its humility as for its zeal and consecration; and diligent care for the welfare of others so marked his course, that he may be said to have illustrated the maxim that "true humility consists not so much in thinking meanly of ourselves as in not thinking of ourselves at all." From a very tender tribute to his life which recently appeared we make the following extract (See Israel’s Watchman, Aug. 1878): "When sick people were brought to him he received them as sent by the Lord. Much blessing and consolation was found in the silence and retirement of the simple cure of Pastor Rein. He loved to work for the kingdom of God in self-renunciation, and always in silence, without show, and he always shrank from being spoken of. Oh how blessed it is when the word of God accompanied with prayer is used as the medicine of the body as well as soul.

Rein never employed a doctor, believing in the words of Exodus 15:26: "I am the Lord that healeth thee," or as it is in many translations, "I am the Lord thy physician." When he was ill the elders of his Church or his friends laid hands on him, and prayed over him, and he was always better than if he had taken medicine; he was kept in a greater calm, and his communion with God was not interrupted by the doctors’ visits, and by the continual occupation of punctually following their directions. He lived in such intimate relation with God that he asked him for all he wanted, the greatest and the least things alike. This was why he could not except even healing, and he shrunk from seeking any help but that which came directly from God.

He was jealous for God that he alone should have the glory. That which grieved him deeply was to see how little glory is given to God in general, and especially in the cure of illness, which is attributed generally to doctors or to medicine. Thus he would not allow any remedy to come between him and his God, and he rejoiced with all his heart when he saw others leave the old track of this world’s laws of prudence, to follow the path of an obedient and unreserved faith. When he prayed over and laid hands on the sick he watched attentively for a knowledge of God’s will regarding the person whom he was occupied with, and always besought him to reveal to him, whether the sickness was unto death, or whether it was rather a merciful visitation, sent to lead the subject of it to reflection; and he prayed accordingly. This confidence in God, which made him renounce all human means in illness, caused him to be much criticised. But we must say to his honor, that Rein was extremely charitable towards others, never seeking to put a yoke upon them or to lay down the law to them, in that which he looked upon as a permission, a precious grace from on high.

He never regarded it as a sin in any one to take medicine, or to consult a doctor, when they had not the special faith to do without them; a faith which very precious as it is, is not necessary for salvation. Who can find fault with such as declare, like Rein, that they cannot do otherwise than commit themselves solely to God in ail things, even for bodily health, and that they esteem as happy those who can do the same.

He was actuated by a holy jealousy, when he heard the signs which should follow them "that believe" (Mark 16:17-18), spoken of as belonging only to Apostolic times, instead of its being recognized, that it is owing to the decline of faith that these signs no longer exist. It has been said that "Faith is God s power placed at man’s disposition." So he believed, and on this principle he acted."

Several interesting incidents of recovery under his prayers are given in connection with this sketch of his life, but they are of the same type as those elsewhere recorded, and we will not reproduce them.

Among other Evangelists and pastors abroad, who hold the same faith and practice as these we may mention Lord Radstock of England. A very devoted and deeply spiritual man he is known to be by all who have come in contact with him. And many who have never seen him have read with interest of his evangelistic work among the higher ranks especially in Russia and Sweden. Writing to the London Christian [magazine] concerning his work in the latter country, he sends reports of several very striking instances of cure in answer to prayer and says: -- "One interesting feature of the Lord’s grace in Stockholm is the obedience of faith with which several pastors and elder brethren have accepted their privilege of anointing the sick and praying over them in the name of the Lord. There have been many remarkable instances of God’s gracious healing. I enclose details of a few cases, that God’s children may be encouraged to see that God has not withdrawn the promise in James 5:15, and that it is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man." In America there are several homes for healing conducted on the same principle as that of Miss Trudel. Quite a number of them are under the direction of pious women, who have learned the secret of the prayer of faith. We have only space to refer to one work which is most widely known through its published reports, and of which, from his near neighborhood to it, the writer has had an excellent opportunity to judge.

Dr. Charles Cullis is at the head of what is known as the "Faith-work" in the City of Boston. The work has many branches, the Consumptive’s Home; the Willard Tract Repository; homes for children; city mission work; foreign missionary work; schools among the freedmen, etc., all maintained upon the same principle virtually as the orphan work of Pastor George Muller, at Bristol in England. Any one who has been made acquainted with a single department of this enterprise, as for example, that of the Consumptive’s Home can have no doubt as to the most beneficent and Christ-like character of the labors there carried on.

Dr. Cullis has for several years been accustomed when applied to, to minister to the sick in the manner above described. And there are among us many unimpeachable witnesses to the answers which have been granted for the recovery from disease. The writer is well acquainted with quite a number of these, some of several years standing, and has no hesitation in saying that they bear every evidence of genuineness. How Dr. Cullis was led to exercise this ministry is best told in his own words which we extract from his published report called Faith Cures.

"For several years my mind had been exercised before God as to whether it was not his will that the work of faith in which he had placed me, should extend to the cure of disease, as well as the alleviation of the miseries of the afflicted. I often read the instructions and promise contained in the fourteenth and fifteenth verses of the fifth chapter of the epistle of James. They seemed so very plain, that I often asked of my own heart, why, if I can rely on God’s word, "whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do," and every day verify its truth in the supply of the daily needs of the various work committed to my care, -- why can not I also trust him to fulfill his promises as to the healing of the body. "The prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up"? I could not see why with such explicit and unmistakable promises, I should limit the present exercise of God’s power. I began to inquire of earnest Christians whether they knew of any instances of answer to prayer for the healing of the body. Soon afterwards the Life of Dorothea Trudell fell into my hands, which strengthened my convictions, and the inquiry arose, "if God can perform such wonders in Mannedorf, why not in Boston?" At this time I had under my professional care a Christian lady, with a tumor which confined her almost continuously to her bed in severe suffering. All remedies were unavailing, and the only human hope was the knife: but feeling in my heart the power of the promise, I one morning sat down by her bedside, and taking up the Bible, I read aloud God’s promise to his believing children; and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him." "I then asked her if she would trust the Lord to remove this tumor and restore her to health, and to her missionary work. She replied ’I have no particular faith about it, but am willing to trust the Lord for it.’ I then knelt and anointed her with oil in the name of the Lord, asking him to fulfill his own word. Soon after I left, she got up and walked three miles. From that time the tumor rapidly lessened, until all trace of it at length disappeared." The work thus begun has gone on now, for quite a number of years, and we think there can be no reasonable doubt that in Boston as well as in Mannedorf and in Mottlingen there has been a living and repeated demonstration that God is still pleased to recover the sick directly and manifestly in answer to his people’s intercessions.

If these things be so, can any say that we have not reason to praise God and rejoice with new joy in him: -- "Who forgiveth all thine iniquities, Who healeth all thy diseases"? "Any explanation but the admission of the miraculous" is the cry which an unbelieving world raises when anything wonderful happens. And Christians more solicitous for their caution than for their faith, have sometimes joined in the cry. And thus the seal of the supernatural has been assiduously withheld we fear, where it should have been permitted to place its impress and testimony. But we do not so much call attention to these instances of healing as to these examples of faith. There may be mistakes in the estimates put upon the cures, but can there be any in the sure word of promise? If any of these testimonies of recovery should prove ill-founded, it would only demonstrate the ignorance of men. But God hath in the last days spoken to us by his Son and "he that receiveth his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true."