SPIRITUAL HEALING

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 129, 28 November 1923, Page 11

SPIRITUAL HEALING

PATIENTS HAPPY IN THEIR FAITH

MR- HICKSON'S WORK IN SOUTH

ISLAND.

(BY TELEGRAPH FREES ASSOCIATION.) CHRISTCHURCH, 27th Nov.

The spiritual healing mission was jpened in the Cathedral this morning Dy Mr. J. M. Hickson. Soon after 8 o'clock a large crowd began to gather about the Cathedral grounds. Motorcars filled with invalids came into the Square from different parts of the city, and without any delay the patients were t»ken into the building by the stewards. Sightseers, who were very numerous, were kept out of the grounds by the police and a "live fence 1' of Christ's College and High School boys. ■ The arrangements made for the reception and comfort of the patients were wonderfully complete. Once tne healing part of the mission service bad begun there was a Bteady stream of motors ready to take patients away as speedily as possible. In the grounds were large tent 3, which were used as resting places and refreshment rooms for patients. In.these places the service given .by nurses and helpers was good and quick. It was just 11,50 o: clock when Mr. Hickson laid hands on his first patient, an old man who was blind, and he then passed from one to another. Most of the patients were happy in their faith, and many of them looked much more cheerful and hopeful than when they went into the building early in the morning. . "I feel so much happier," said an elderly woman in an invalid chair, who had her arms and legs in bands and plaster. "I have faith and I know that all will be well with me, so I have just to keep on praying." "I feel a decided improvement," said a young married woman with leg troubla, who went into the building on a stretcher, and came out on one, but as soon as she went into the rest tent she became better, and was able to sit on a., chair and walk a little. Sitting on a stretcher in the tent, a young mother, crying with joy, had her arms round a mite of a boy, aged two years and a half. "He has walked to-day for the first time," she 1 said, "and I'm sure that faith has done it, for his father aiid I have prayed so." She said that her child's brain had not developed much, and he did not seem to have confidence enough to walk. He could go 'One step and then he would collapse on the ground. . After the ceremony in the Cathedral she had him sup: ported by her side as she. placed a contribution in the box at the door. As she did so the child broke away from her side and walked down the steps. VISIT TO QUAIL ISLAND LEPERS. Mr. Hickson. with Archbishop Julius and others, visited the leper patients at Quail Island this afternoon. After Mr. Hickson had addressed the patients the laying-on of hands took place, Archbishop Julius also laying on his hands. "We left the patients very, very contented and happy," said the Rev. A. J. Petrie.of Holy Trinity Church, Lyttelton. Mr. Hickson expressed the opinion that they were well prepared. The men were keyed up, and for an hour or two before the arrival of the party •were in a state of quiet excitement. During the service they were deeply moved. Even the two Chinese seemed fully to comprehend and appreciate everything that was being done for them."