FAITH HEALING

Southland Times, Issue 22491, 28 January 1935, Page 7

FAITH HEALING

FIRST CHURCH IN ENGLAND.

GREAT CROWDS ATTEND.

(United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright.) London, January 24,

Invalids in bath chairs, men on crutches, and many doctors and nurses were among the crowds that flocked to England’s first faith healing church. The services, which were a preliminary to the laying on of hands by the Rev. Mr Maillard on January 25, resembled a religious festival. Mr Maillard’s voice penetrated like a bass bell as he said: “Is God powerless in the presence of cancer, consumption and paralysis? Certainly not. We receive many benefits from science, but none of us pretends that they are the only means which God uses.” A previous message read as follows: The Church of England, for the first time in its history, is using a church exclusively for faith healing—namely, St. Stephen’s, Brighton, the Rev. John Maillard administering its affairs. He has been a leading figure in faith healing for 15 years, and many attribute recoveries to his ministrations. The Rev. Mr Maillard makes no extravagant claims. He intends to hold week-night services for the laying on of hands, prayer and anointing with oil. LAYING ON OF HANDS INVALIDS “ELECTRIFIED.” (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright.) (Rec. 7.20 p.m.) London, January 26. Although no miraculous cures and no crutches were thrown away and there was no spectacular emotional incident during the faith healing, many of the 200 sufferers from paralysis, arthritis and other malignant diseases and mental disorders, declare that the Reverend Maillard’s laying on of hands “electrified” them like a surge of new life, giving peace and power not previously felt. All declare they had been greatly helped. The suppliants were mostly women, many so crippled that they were unable to kneel at the altar rails. The Rev. Maillard possesses letters from cured people, one bedridden for two years with arthritis, another cured of cancer in five weeks and a third cured of a tumour on the brain.