FAITH HEALING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 260, 2 November 1932, Page 10

FAITH HEALING.

PRACTICE AND EXPERIENCE REPORTS ON MISSIONS. PLACE OF THE DOCTOR. (By W.M.) (No. I.) There can be no doubt that the Church received the commission to heal the sick as part of her duty. Charges to heal were given to the Seventy, the Apostles and elders. We learn from the Acts that many sick folk were healed. St. Paul and St. James both mention the gifts of healing, and St. Paul seems to distinguish them from miracles (I. Cor., xii, 28). But it is apparent that there were limitations to these gifts. All did not possess them, and some have thought that St. Peter possessed the gift, but St. John did not. St. Paul can only have formed the conclusion that all had not the gift of healing by observing results, and it is therefore pertinent that definite proof of their possession should be demanded from those who claim to-day to possess the healing gift of the Spirit. This proof should be of the strictest kind. It does not necessarily follow that a cure which follows certain treatment is entirely due to that treatment. A chemist, who put up a cure for bronchitis, was subsequently sent quite genuine and unsolicited testimonials from people who claimed to have been cured of ailments on which his medicine could have had no possible effect. Something must be allowed for imagination. Gift of Healing.

It is to be noted that St. Paul does not attach the chief importance to the exceptional gifts of the Spirit. He ranks them below the gifts of faith, hope and charity. Some Church historians think that the gift of healing was continued to the Church till the latter half of the third century, and then the gift fell into abeyance, either because of some decay of faith on the part of the Church, or because there was no longer any need to attest the Gospel by sigite and wonders. Others maintain that the gift remained, and is evidenced to-day in the cures effected at Lourdes and other shrines, as well as in healing missions. Dr. Harnack says thatannointing and prayer were the ordinary Christian methods of healing disease, until well down in the third century, when it was abandoned for what by that time had no doubt proved the more immediately effective method of striking at disease from the physical side of the psycho-physical organism. Hickson Mission. The of the Hickson Mission do.not seem to have been scientifically classified. From inquiries made at the time in different parishes, it would appear that actual physical cures seldom exceeded 10 per cent. One vicar reported having presented over 40 patients, without any very positive results; others gave'instances of numerous cures attributed to the mission. In most cases the only evidence available was that of the patients themselves. There were some instances: where the failur to receive a cure had, as a result, .either a loss of faith, or else an increase of despondency and j consequent aggravation of the original ailment. Many cases were reported where the patient had received spiritual benefit, thougb there bad been no direct physical result. Some cures were stated to have been temporary only, with a subsequent relapse. Twenty Australian bishops, in a pastoral letter, expressed their unanimous appreciation of the value of the series of healing missions held in that country, and undoubtedly much spiritual good resulted.

Mass Suggestion. At the same time there are" dangers in mass suggestion. Christ seems to bave avoided pubh'city in His miracles of healing. He charged the leper, "See thou tell no man," and the command is repeated at the raising of Jairus' daughter. Sir Robert Armstrong-Jones, one of the doctors appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury to serve on the committee of 1920 to consider spiritual means of healing, said:. "The desire on the part of the clergy for a corporate effort of the whole Church to carry on healing missions is a dangerous tendency, because it borders on mass suggestion, and it" is not religion." The Rev. C. H. Pritcfcard, in an article in the "Nineteenth Century," On spiritual healing, said that if violent ipassions were aroused, or strong sympathetic sentiments awakened in a wrong •direction, or without the accompaniment of some practical and beneficial result, such excitement was undoubtedly bad. Priest and Doctor.

For every true Christian there is, however, such a thing as spiritual healing. It is the supernatural work of God the Holy Spirit upon the spiritual part of. mail, and, proceeding thence to influence his ■ soul and body. It is designed to assist, not to supersede, the work of the physician or surgeon. "JTo sick person," says the report of the Archbishop of Canterbury's committee, "must look to the clergyman to do what it is the physician's or surgeon's duty to do . . ~ Whether the sick person throw off the sickness or not, the work of the Church will have been effective, if he has thereby found truer peace of Bpirit, and a more real knowledge of the uplifting presence and power of Christ." We can place no limits to the power of the mind over the body. Dr. Dubois said that prayer, if sincerely believed in, was the very best remedy for certain forms of functional nervous disorders. The sense of divine protection and the consequent calmness of mind may affect favourably almost any form of disease. Lord Dawson says that all healing must come from within, and that the patient can do much to help himself. There are instances of Divine healing as well attested as. any cures reported in medical text books. St. Luke recognised that God could cure where man had failed. There is a remarkable passage in the Apocrypha on the relation of spiritual to medical healing. It runs: "Honour a physician according to thy need of him with the honour due unto him, for verily the Lord hath created him. For from the Most High cometh healing. . . My son, in thy sickness be not negligent, but pray unto the Lord, and He snail heal thee . . . Put away wrong doing. . . Then give place to the physician, for surely the Lord hath created him, and let him not go from thee, for thou has need of him." In the ministry of healing all means and methods are to be used, every invention of science pressed into the service. The spiritual healer is to aid the doctor, and to create a mental atmosphere in the patient, which must assist the powers of medicine. The Divine Healer is at work in the skill of the doctor, and He blesses the means that He has provided for working cures, _ -