LAYING ON OF HANDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18518, 1 October 1923, Page 9

LAYING ON OF HANDS.

THIS MORNING'S SERVICE.

COT AND STRETCHER CASES.

PERSONAL ATTENDANCE.

The mission of healing will'commence at St. Matthew's Church this morning and will continue for a week. The cot and.stretcher cases will be taken first.

Patients with red cards should bo in the vestry, the entrance to which is from Wellesley Street, by 9.15 a.m. Patients with white cards and intercessors should be in their places in the church by 9.30 a.m. The vestry doors will be closed at 9.50 a.m., and "the church doors at 10 a.m., and after those hours there will be no admission to the building. Mr. Hickson will deal with a certain number of special cases in the vestry, but the service proper will start in the church at 10 a.m. ' It will be of a very simple character. Bishop Averill will present his license to Mr. Hickson and this will be followed by the bishop's blessing on the missioner and his work. A hymn will then be sung, and Mr. Hickson will give an address. The laying-on of hands will then commence. Mr. Hickson will go to the cot and stretcher cases, children in their mother's arms, and other children. The remaining patients will go in order to the altar rails. Mr. Hickson will say a suitable prayer for each individual case, and a clergyman will give tho church's blessing. As each case is ministered to the patient will leave the building, and the church should be' cleared of patients by one o'clock. A special service will be held in St. Paul's Church during the time of the service in St. Matthew's. DEAF WOMAN HEARS. REPORTED AUCKLAND CASE. PREPARING FOR MISSION. The case of a woman who was deaf but who can now hear splendidly was mentioned by the Rev. E. G. Coats, in a sermon at St. Aidan's Church, Remuera. yesterday morning. He said that just be ; fore ho left home to go. to the church, the woman, who had been attending the preparation services in connection with the mission, telephoned to him and told him with very great joy that her hearing had been restored. " It is,'' Mr. Coats said subsequently, " a definite case of a woman who was deaf, and was going through the preparation for the mission, and now suddenly hears. It is not a matter for the doctors, but simply between the patient and the Maker. I say there is a certain privacy to be observed and the woman, who happens to be particularly sensitive, herself asked that her name should not be mentioned." Mr. Coats added thai the woman was not stone deaf, but it had been necessary to speak very loudly to make her Jiear. RESTORATION OF SIGHT. CASE OF THE REV. J. SMYTH.

AN ANSWER TO PRAYER.

[Br TELEr.KAVH.-OW>' CORRESPONDENT.]

CHRISTCHUKCH, Saturday. Exceptional interest is being taken in the reported cure of the Rev. Thomas Jasper Smyth, of Christchurch, who as a result of faith healing states that he has regained both sight and hearing after being partially deaf and also blind in tho right eye for a considerable time. Interviewed to-day concerning the telegram from Auckland relating to his cure, Mr. Smyth stated that he had been always a strong believer in the power of prayer. He was 84 vears of age and a few days agfl had celebrated tho 60th anivcrsary of his ordination. Some time ago ho had received word from his daughter in Sydney urging him to attend the Hickson mission when it, visited Christchurch. His daughter stated in her letter that;she had seen some of the cures which had been effected in Sydney during the visit of tho mission there, and she urged her father to ask for an improvement of .his sight and hearing when the mission visited Christchurch. Mr. Smyth stated that he realised that Mr. Hickson was but a channel through whom Christ healed and he decided to go direct to his Saviour. Ho then explained that he had a private'.list of 16 persons for whom he was interceding. After interceding for these people and before retiring to bed on September 7, Mr. Smyth said he had asked God for a sign that his prayers were being heard. He asked that God would increase his powers of sight and hearing. He had been suffering at the time he had offered his prayer from' a cataract over the. right eye and for the past four years had not been able to read the largest print with it. His hearing had also failed and he was forced to use an ear trumpet at his meetings. When he had asked for a sign he said he felt that he had done wrong, but on going to bed had considered the matter in r» different light. On awakening the next morning ho had opened a book to sec the result of his prayer, and had found that he could read with his right eye-in which he had hitherto been practically blind. For three days there had been a discharge from the eye and.on the fourth day it had become dry. The sight with it had improved to such an extent that when interviewed to-day he demonstrated that he could read the smaller type in the average daily newspaper with it. He said that his sight was improving every day. . His hearing, too, had improved wonderfully, and h" was now able to dispense with the uso of the ear trumpet altogether. _ '". _ j Referring to the cure a prominent Christchurch eye specialist stated that it would be impossible to make any statement regarding it unless the condition of the eye, both before cure and after it, were known. He further said that if the cataract had really been removed in the manner stated it was a miracle, the equal of that in which water had been turned into wine.