A RATANA “MIRACLE”

Greymouth Evening Star, 29 June 1921, Page 6

A RATANA “MIRACLE”

AN EDENDALE CASE. Ten years ago Mrs. Jackson, wife of the postmaster at Edendale, developed a tubercular spine, and days and nights of agony ensued. Doctors despaired of her case, which was complicated by ulceratii n of the stomach proceeding from the trouble in the back. For o\er 11 months she lay in bed and her medical attendant admitted that she was past aid. When she talked of making an effort to rise she was assured that, even if her ailment eased sufficient'y to allow of this, her strength would have been so dissipated by her lengthy period of inaction that her legs would collapse if she made a sudden effort to stand, On Friday, a “Southland Times” reporter talked to Mrs. Jackson in Invercargill, where she was on a vi>it. He found her looking wonderfully strong and able to walk firmly without assistance.

This is the remarkable story of her case in her own words : —

“Last July,” she said, “I thought that 1 would write to Ratana in an endeavour to gvt the relief from spiritual sources that had been deni d from temporal sources. 1 wrote my loiter, and one Sunday recently 1 was lying in my bed talking to a friend. Siuidenly a wave of new strength seemed to flood through me, and 1 turned to my friend with the remark that Ratana had written. Two days later I got the letter—it had been written ftn the Satur lav.

“In his letter, Ratana enjoined complete faith in God, to whom he said, all things were possible. He told me to pray for strength, and he promise! to pray for me. He also sent me the Sixth Chapter of Matthew, verse 24, as a text—No man can serve two masters ; for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and Mammon.

; “Some days later, having followed Ratana’s advice, I made an attempt to get up, and had to be carried,,back to bed feeling very exhausted. On the f Rowing Thursday I had turned over i , bod in on ling to try to sleep when the thought came to me that in obeying the doctor’s instructions to keep in bed, I was putting him before God. So 1 got up and stood and walked without difficulty or feeling of weakness. Further, all pain left me immediately, and I have been free of it for the'first time for ten yearns. I 'walked about the house without difficulty, and when my husband was telephoned that I was up and about he would not believe it. To day I am feeling quite well and I am well on the road towards permanent recovery. There is not the suggestion of pain, and I must confess to surprise that, although I was in bed so long, there is no weakness in my limbs. “Aly doctor’ states that the trouble is dormant, and that nothing short of a miracle could have worked the change. And it is a miracle. There are times when I feel that there is a strength helping me /hat is, not my own. Undoubtedly, my cure p; due to the Greatest Physician. The work that Ratana is doing is such' that no tme who benefits should be afraid to

admit it, for there may be many who could bo helped by him. Mr. Jackson, who was present, and Mrs. Jackson’s married sister, corroborated this remarkable story. The case has become noised abroad among the friends of the Jacksons, all of whom looked upon Mrs. Jackson as .a permanent invalid, at least. 1 The story has aroused considerably interest further afield, also, and Mr. Jackson states that he is besieged by enquiries for Ratana’s address.