HICKSON MISSION.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLVII, Issue 2763, 3 October 1923, Page 5

HICKSON MISSION.

MIRACLES PROCLAIMED.

CRIPPLED BOY WALKS, BLIND WOMAN SEES.

OTHERS GREATLY BENEFITED.

[Per Press Association.]

AUCKLAND, Last Night

The Hickson Mission was continued to-day, “when the scone during the arrival of the patients was very much tiie same as on the opening day. The footpaths outside St. Matthew’s Church were t’hrouged with onlookers. St. John Ambulance officers carried or wheeled the helpless patients into the church, where the sendees were marked by great religious fervour. After the “laying oni of hands,’’ Mrs Kitchens, of New Lynn, was seen holding the hand of her nine-year-old boy, stricken seven years ago with infantile paralysis. “He has never been able to run or walk like other child, ren,” she said, “and up to a short time ago his .legs were so twisted that he couldn’t stand straight. Look at them now!” At this the child proudly straightened his pitiful little legs, and looked down with a beaming smile on his two feet, not turned inwards, as before, but straight out, as children’s feet should be. Nearby sat a man with a halppy smile. “It is quite true,” he said. "I have known the litt'lo boy for a long time, and he has never stood so straight before.” One of the helpers told of a case of healing - , of which more will probably be heard later, that of a lady who was led into the hall by a friend, and appearing to -be rather exhausted, was taken into a quiet room. A little while later she suddenly exclaimed: “I can sec! There are chairs and you have blue on your dress.” She said she had been almost blind for eight years.

Other oases where patients have benefited are reported. One young man is said to have gone to church using crutches, and when he left he carried his crutches out.

SCENES IN AUCKLAND.

A MEMORABLE SERVICE.

MANY SICK PEOPLE ATTEND.

Never before (says the “Herald") has Auckland witnessed a scene quite like that which took place at St. Mathew’s Church on Sunday evening —the House of God was besieged by a crowd of intending worshippers so vast that it would have taken two or three churches to accommodate those who were turned away from its doors. No matter what doubts there may be in certain quarters as to the virtua of the Hickson Mission, there is no doubt whatever as to the intense and burning interest it has roused in Auckland church-goers and non-church-goers alike. In looking round on that concourse, the words of the Master, spoken 2000 years ago, came irresistibly . ta mind. “What went yo out for to see?” The cynic would probably echo the sneering jibe of a motor-man, flung after a dozen passengers who alighted opposite the Church, “Hickson madl’ But one prefers to think that the impelling force which brought that great throng to Go.d’s Temple last was something deeper than the mere impulse of curiosity. The deep earn, ettness with which the service was followed, the tenseness of the silence which fell upon the multitude when Mr Hickson mounted the pulpit, had its foundations far down among the vital things of the spirit, not in the mere emotional thrill of the moment, or in the gratification of some idle whim.

It was an atmosphere of tense expectancy, of a reaching out of mind and spirit after something dimly apprehended, together with a longing for clearer vision and. a brighter lignt There may have been, and most probably were, sceptics and cynics among the thousands of people who attended that memorial sex-ripe, but th* e was a living message to < ach and every one of them in the eloquent and powerful address delivered by the leader of this great mission. And to those who came in humility and faith, there was a message of strong comfort and encouragement, which should go far towards building up the spiritual life of all those who believe that the healing mission comes as an instrument for the working out of God's good purpose.

A PATHETIC FIGURE,

One of the most pathetic and striking figures in all that great crowd was that of an aged man, patriarchal in appearance, with snow-white hair fall, ing abundantly on his bowed shoulders. He wore a bandage across his eyes, and his hands trembled greatly as he sought to feel his way after the manner of the blind, even though kindly hands were leading him. A young man dragged himself by on crutches. Another, who was pale and enfeebled, sank into a chair as though his strength was well-night spent. Several times the remark was passed to the usher offering a hymn-sheet, “Thank you; but I cannot see!" The reading of the evening lesson, the wonderful episode of the healing of the lame man at the gates of the temple called Beautiful, was followed with breathless interest. Many hearts must have thrilled with quickening hope as the deathless words echoed through the church. . . . In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk! And He took him by the hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. And he walked with them into the temple, leaping and praising God." It was a wonderful moment, in which seemed to be centred all the hope and faith and yearning of a thousand human hearts, a moment intensified by the utter still, neps of that great white church, the ringing voice the only sound.

STRENGTH OF FAITH.

With reverence the congregation followed the bishdp through the spec-