FAITH HEALING.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXII, Issue LXII, 20 January 1912, Page 10

FAITH HEALING.

"CURES" IN AMERICA

According to reports puolished here (writes the New York correspondent of the Daily Telegraph on November 13) neither Christian Science nor any other denomination has a monopoly of faitn cures. In the public ball-room at Washington,, used occasionally for religious meetings, Bishop Oliver Sabin, of the Evangelical Science Church—an offshoot of Mrs Eddy's more famous organisation— : was credited yesterday with healing six cases-to the satisfaction of many witnesses. In each it is claimed that the diagnosis of the disease and the warranty of cure were just as scientific and just as convincing as the average cure "with which regular medical practitioners are concerned."

As to Bishop Sabin's "cures," one may be given as typical of the others. Mrs J. F. Manny, of 614, Nineteenth street, Washington, D.C., was summoned to the desk by the Bishop. He selected her first because to the spectators she seemed in the greatest pain. Her head was swathed in cloths, and she groaned at intervals. She explained that she had long suffered from abscesses on the eyes, and for nine weeks had been totally blind in

one eye

Her husband, who accompanied her, substantiated her statement. The Bishop put his hands on her head and prayed in silence, slowly passing his hands over her eyes. Her groans continued for a time. Then • they ceased gradually, a, smile flickered over her face, and grew. At last she was radiant, and sank back from the 'apparently exhausted prelate. Her face was expressive of relief.

"You feel better/ 3 asked the Bishop "I feel fine," she announced positively, "and for the first time in severa months I can see from my blind eye and the pains have ceased."

After six "cures" other people pressed forward; b\it Bishop.Sabin said it was exhausting work, and lp felt too tired for more "cures" that'day.' Incidentally, he denounced some other faith-healers as seekers of notoriety aand imposters.

In Philadelphia, San Francisco, and other cities yesterday there was also a crop of "cures," which medical gentlemen here attribute partly to faith but chiefly to credulity. Faith-healers meet the criticism of the faculty with the challenge, "Have you done better with your nostrums, and can you do better?" Bishop Sabin does not denounce regular practitioners, but admits that "they also have a field of usefulness, though not quite so extended as the public think."

In New York, yesterday, the boom ia faith-cures was the topic of a sermon by Rev. Willard Ottarson, a Congregationalist. He cited cases of chronic disease which^had come under his observation, and' Sad been cured by the application of Christian Science.

"I truly believe,'' he said, "that the time is coming wlien man will be able to conquer disease by the aid of God, just as, by the aid of God, he can overcome sin." Mr Ottarson holds that we are only just emerging from the Dark Ages to a period of real knowledge, and that within a few years the reality of the "cures" will be unquestioned and unquestionable.