The Warner weekly sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1885, 1885-06-05
Curing by Faith.

huOWl6ug6 INA buH 'IhlLn cure
has risen to the dignity of a "~craze'
in Boston, the reputed center Of occi
dental civilization, is calculated to ex,
cite a smile throughout the country.
The whole idea seems at first incon.
gruous: We associate it inevitably with
the ignorance and superstition of a
past age, with charlatanry, street
corner quacks, spirit healeIs, sacred
relies, and the working of miracles by
PRAYER. But Boston is not alone in the
present enjoyment of this ''craze." A
wave of healing faith seems 10 be pass.
ing over the whole country, and In
England such wonderful cures are re-
ported to have been effected by the
Salvation Army people that there
actually has been talk in high circles
of a~ffiliaUing this fantastic organization
with the Established Church. Thou
sands have fiocked into halls there to
be prayed for, and the lame, the para
lytic, the deaf, and sufferers from a
myriad other real or imagined diseases,
have gone away believing themselves
cured.
These ~displaysof credulity are not,
perhaps, SUI prising. In one respect
they are the natural outgrowth OF the
Christian faith. Logically, there is no
reason why the man or woman who
believes in the divine interposition In
response to prayer should stop short
of praying for relief from physical suf-
fering, or hesitate to believe that the
relief will be given. The Church, in
deed, specifically encourages this
faith, for has it not formulated special
prayers for the sick. and does it not
offer them up whenever the afflicted
cry for helpP The church, then, can
not carp if the afflicted rush in throngs
to some ill-regulated and yer aealous
man who announces that faith and
prayer are sufficient medicines for the
sick body.
Science, at any rate, is far from
soothing at all faith-cures. There are
diseases which ne amount of faith will
affect; there are others in which faith
alone seems to be the needed medicine.
In all these endeavors there is, of
course, an enormous percentage of
failures, though they are temporarily
lost sight of in the excitement attend
ant upon the few real and fancied
cures. But that some of them are real
any physician can testify. They have
themselves often wrought them by
bread pills or colored water. The
fancy plays strange tricks with every
body. Sydney Smith tells how the
poet Rogers caught a severe cold at a
dinner party by imagining that a great
sheet of plate glass behind him was an
oOor ond <bara 10 a otoyy nf a
French criminal who died under the
impression that he was being bled to
death, when the physicians were in
reality pricking his flesh and initiating
the sound OF flowing blood. In other
cases people have been cured of ner-
vous ailments by sudden shocks like
an alarm of fire or from burglars; and
generally physicians maintain that
often one of the most difficult phases
of disease to combat is the patients
own lack of faith In his recovery.
Faith cures, then, are not only far
from impossible, but are based upon
one of the recognized laws of human
ity; and they are by no means de-
pendent upon religious ardor. Three
centuries ago, in fact, the quacks who
WOTktu upon Juc lmdSiudtiOnS Va 1HO
sick were as much trusted as regular
physicians, and the .'wise women"
the vendors of herbs and salves, were
in the time of Henry III. protected by
law. That statute declared that
s'divers honest people whom God hath
endued with the knowledge of the ma
ture, kind and operation OF certain
herbs. roots and waters were to be
allowed to prescribe for sores, swell
ings, scalds, burns, '.the web and pin
in the eye,' and more dangerous com-
plants. And even Lord Audley urged
Cecil to try the virtues of a "sow-pig,
nine days DID," or a hedgehog distill-
ed with various spices and wines, as a
remedy for fever. We have advanced
beyond that point now. happily, but
we are still far from the day when
man will 50 fully understand the laws
of his own being that the quack and
the faith healer will have no further
occupation ST. LOUIS Globe Democrat.