SPIRITUAL HEALING.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18399, 4 June 1925, Page 7

SPIRITUAL HEALING.

SERVICE OF INTERCESSION. A service of intercession in connexjon with spiritual healing was held m the Ohristchurch Cathedral yesterday afternoon, when the Rev. "\Y. H. Orbell officiated. There was a small congregation. The litany and intercessory prayers nere offered and an address was given. Mr Orbell opened Ir.s address by reading a passage from the third chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. Taking as a test for his address, "They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall be well," Mr Orbell said that those words, uttered by the Lord 3s a commandment to his followers, were just as much "a commandment to tne people of the present day. There were three kinds of healing—physical, spiritual, and mental. In every case, all people had the mysterious healing force within them. Wounds gradually hesiled up of their own accord and it- was the same in the case of plant life. Medical science enabled medical men to diagnose various cases, and the.v could concentrate a healing force on any paricular portion of the body. And if the malady were too much of an obstacle to be overcome, then surgery crime into operation. Sniritnal healing consisted of an cnpoal tr> AI mi eh ty God to reinforce the natural healing power. In a sacramental way. all people, by the laying on of hands, could have the natural power reinforced by God. One realised that .all healing was spiritual in its orig-n or in its character, because al' wisdom was traceable to the power of the Holy Sp'rit. as tihe human mind had been endowed with nowers of discovery and calculation. All Mich powers envne from God. The spiritual healer did not in any way cast aspersions on the rnedicnl nealor; He. "rather, magnified the office of the medical healers. But while all sorts of healers "ere working with the idea of helping the patient, yet, in one sense, they were all 011 n level, as they were dependent on the patient himself. 80 much depended on the state of mind of the patient. Lack of faith hindered a cure, • and ■ any sort. of prejudice operated in the same way. The mental healer was ajble to awaken the subconscious in the patient's mind. "The power of suggestion was very strong, and spiritual healing could be effected, very largely, by that force. Christ bad made use of suggestion in his miracles. In spiritual 'healing, the patient was taught_ to look outside his own body for his cure—to Christ. Man was essentially a spiritual being, and one felt that that spiritual force in man could be brought into close communion with the spiritual force that came from God: Faith in-God was absolutely necessary. A body.could only be healed through the soul, which must be developed, in every conceivable way. ■Physical maladies could, not :b© healed until the soul was made receptive.' In the case of many who came for healing, they were unable to > get rid of jpreiudices and preconceived ideas of God. All disease and suffering. were the outcome ,of the wiles .of the devil in their midst —through sin. Labour — the earning of man's bread and butter —came into the world through man's disobedience. The speaker; exhorted all people to develop their spirituality to a greater degree,- as the power of physical healing depended on" that state, almost entirely.

Daffodil e enthusiasts will be mildly intrigued at the Teport of the new spfecies of Narcissus from the Himalayas which is .said to have been exhibited at' the itaarlem Floral Exhibition. All the known species.of daffodil come from the Spanish, -peninsula or the adjoining North African coast, with the reputed exception of the Syrian N. MacLeayi, which in- all probability was carried back to the Levant from Spain by. the Moors. That a Narcissus should now crop up in so-remote'a place as the Himalayas is so unlikely -that the story is already branded by ; . some of the experts- as a Dutch practical joke on tho English newspapers.