SPIRITUAL HEALING.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 3 June 1926, Page 7

SPIRITUAL HEALING.

AEiQHtfiBIiSHOP JULIUS IN NiOiKiWTUti.

The London coi'i'egpoiideut of the Otago Daaly Humes. say® that .H.i;s Gu'uce Ardni bi(s!hop Julius, who wa.s _a.o one tiini© -citrate lait {sit. Norwich, delivered an, atlidrci-:;* at Sc. Benectkit-’s CUxurch, Noiiwdoh, on till© spiritual healing mission coral noted bv .Ylr. Hickson in New Zealand. -Pa layer® ol intercession lor till© sick were recited by tihe vicar (the Rev. K. O. Griffith). Archbishop Julius recalled at the outset of his address that 56 years ago when he was curate of a neighbouring paaiiish he frequently came down to St. .Benedict's Church. Lie .said that he himself had had a great deal to do the mission©! - , •arid inis experience wa« ituat healing, and he had often been the mdsskmetr, and his experience, was that, the preparation for a mission. was worth more than, the mission itself. In the eaise of Mr. Hickson’®. healing misision in New Zealand the services of preparation and intercession., if not as startling, were more really helpful than the mission itself. The, whole thing wa.s taken, up by the general public in a, wonderful way. Otters to help came from, every hand—doctors, nurses, ambulance workers, police, boy scouts, etc. The mission, sendees themselves he should never forget. P'art of them took place in the Cathedral of Christchurch. The attendances were vast. Tire service® were quiet. There was no excitement. Oonsideri ng the state, of the people Who were tihe re the form of service w’as, in, his judgment, much too long. The Arohbiishop passed on to explain ’the convict ions which led him. to favour the holding of the services in his province. Firstly, he held that disease was not from God. We might say He permitted it. but, it was not f according to His will. If it was according to His will then, we had 1 no right: to go to the doctor when we had anything wrong with our heiailith. We ought to, he prepared to grin and hear our ills. Secondly, he had a strong conviction that disease might arise from sin. He could not make a. distinction, and say that- while sin was abhorrent to Goul disease was not. He maintained they iboithi were. Then his next conviction was that disease could he dealt with from three different directions! —from; the physical, the' mental, or the spiritual side. The gift of healing of which they read in, the New Testament hndl .he claimed, never been wi.thdnam - n from the Church. It had been: exercised in all ages. As to tlie result of the healing mission, in New Zealand, .although a, good many of the great numbers who came forward for the laying on of hands by Mr Hickson were healed, he (the Archhishop) admitted that he thought there would hare been: more healing than there was. He could tell of ease after ease where healing occurred, and he had ' feetimony from nurses! and matrons of hospitals a® to .patients who gained enormous improvements. An inimeuise spiritual awakening ail-so took place. “T thim.k why the number of cases of healing were not greater was,” Archbishop Julius continued, “partly due to the British, character. 'll*o are a queer lot of people. We are very reserved. We are very slow to admit any spiritual influence into our lives. We have not get that intuitive power of laying hold upon, the unseen which belongs more particular]v to Oriental peoples and which T think is denied to the British -race. Another thing. T don’t think we are right .in counting puibh’city in this .matter of isipi ritual -healing." Our Lord never invited A, crowds when: He was doing acts of They came, hut He tried to get a,way from them.”