MR MILNER STEPHEN.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 3109, 20 March 1883, Page 2

MR MILNER STEPHEN.

(Bv ouk Special Reporter.)

“ The ills that flesh is heir to ” are so numerous and so dreadful that the art of healing is an honoured one amongst us. There may be a tnillcnial day coming when pain and sorrow shall be no more, but it is yet far away ; and, in the meantime, ho who can heal disease and alleviate pain, is sure of- a “ good name ” and a fair share of the riches which many people deem “ better than the good name.” Mr Milner Stephen has arisen amongst us as a healer of diseases, and it is not to be wondered at that he should find numbers of believers. As to the reasonableness of his claims, the source of his power and its nature, and the genuineness of the wonders he performs, I shall endeavor to set forth tho matter as it presented itself to me. Mr Milner Stephen is by profession a barrister, and a brother of the late Sir Alfred Stephen, the Chief Justice of Now South Wales. He is a spare, wiry man of scarcely medium height apparently over 60 years of age. He is courteous and gentlemanlike, of course, he is most communicative and selflaudatory. He has a profusion of testimonials, and he speaks freely upon his career. About three years ago, he says, it came to him that he really possessed a gift of healing. He cannot account for it; he concludes the theory of St. Paul as to bestowal of gifts, in I Corinthians 12tb chapter, applies to his case. He has of late become more convinced of the divine origin of his gift, because he has discovered in himself a force similar to that referred to in the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 3, verses 1-11. The Apostle Peter directed the lame man to look upon him; and on looking, the cripple immediately found relief, and began leaping and walking about in the sight of all the people. This power Mr Stephen says he has discovered himself to possess. He has by him sheaves of grateful acknowledgments, letters from all sorts and conditions of people, caseregisters wherein are recorded cures of every known malady, bottles containing cancers removed through his agency, a boot with a sole seven inches thick, belonging to a patient who before submitting to his operations, had one leg longer than the other, bnt now uses a pair of ordinary boots ; he relates cases of the complete cure of deaf and dumb mutes,and erysipelas patients; he asserts that his portrait has a healing efficacy ; that ho has given up the legal profession (with many emoluments in his case), for tho practice of tho healing art, and he is about to visit America and Europe on a mission of healing. Such is the substance of Mr Milner Stephen’s claims and purposes. Now it is clear that a person who has developed so extraordinary a power over suffering and disease, is a mortal of no ordinary mould —the possession of such a gift would entitle one to be ranked with Jesus and the Apostles in the general estimation of mankind. I confess I perceive nothing supernatural about Mr Stephen, and do not at all credit him with a “divine gift” (using the phrase in its usual acceptation.) He has nothing rapt or angelic about his appearance ; he is peculiarly shrewd, and is turning his powers to a very profitable use as a means of income. His fee is two guineas which he requires to be paid before he puts forth any effort to cure ; and he is very particular to insist upon this preliminary being observed. It is easy to perceive that a judiciously arranged tour, with a “reputation” always preceding him, must be a very profitable speculation. During my visit to Mr Stephens quarters at the Grosvenor the following persons came to see him: —A, who was suffering from deafness, had been treated expensively for it without avail and declined to give the fee until some good had been done; B and his wife who came to consult him about a child with an affliction of the leg, and to take the child to him this morning. 0, who has a very serious lameness for which he is unable to assign a cause. This last case is under Mr Stephen’s treatment, and should he succeed with him it will be a thorough convincer to the most sceptical. His modus opcrandi is to gently rub, and press the afflicted member with both hands; after a few minutes of this treatment, Mr Stephen asks the patient how he feels. I can quite understand that the excitement of anticipation, and certain external influences may inspire the patient for a few minutes, with a new sensation in which his infirmity is forgotten and his pain swallowed up. That may not last, but perhaps it is worth two guineas, and I think if I were afflicted with a howling sciatica, or an obstinate lumbago, I would pay that for an hour or two of relief and devote my first painless moments to writing my deliverer a testimonial. Judging from these things, his modus operandi ; the records of his cures, and the classes of complaints in the cure of which he has been most successful; and his own account of himself, I conclude that Mr Milner Stephen possesses a magnetic power, which is really not uncommon, though not often developed, and I can quite understand that the knowledge that he possessed this power came upon him “like a flash." Such a power as this is doubtless highly efficacious in tho cure of nervous complaints, hence the frequency of his cares of neuralgic affections. I can quite conceive too that contracted limbs may yield to this power. But I confess I cannot, unless ocular demonstration ho afforded me, believe in tho cure of cancers and such like wonders. There is no question about tho power, but it is, I believe, a magnetic power, and Mr Milner Stephen might well cast off tho robe of mystery, disclaim being the vehicle of supernatural power and accept it that he possesses a quantity of magnetism which happens to bo an excellent remedial fluid. I offer no further comment. I have sot down for your readers a statement of facts, and my own deductions. I should add that, on my asking Mr Stephen about tho Rev. G. P. Mutu having, in tho columns of the ‘- 1 Lyttelton Times," written denying the cures said to have been effected on certain Maoris, ho was good enough to show me the statements, with Mr Mutu's autograph attached to them, in his record book. * ,