St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-04-08
FLOUR CITY PULP|TS.
Rev. H. M. Simmons Defends
Faith Cure in a Quail
fed Way.
Ie
But It Should Be Faith in
b the Laws Of
Health.
Rev. D. j. Burrell Eloquently
4 Defines the Golden
B. Rule"
Rev. M. D. Shutter and Rev.
w. j. lannon's Ser
mons.

ID. NJ. Simmons preached ON "Faith-
Cures" taking for text the story of the
woman cured by touching Jesus gar
ment hem. He cited many similar
stories in the literatures of other re-
ligions and church history, in the MARIA
tlves of saints and relics, in the ac-
counts of the royal touch and of many
no more reasonable remedies in the
annals of medicine. and in the claims
of ''faith-healing" and ''mind- healing"
to-day. He said all these stories are
much alike and rest on about the same
evidence; and if we are going to reject
some we must reject all, and if we give
a hearing to some we must to all. If
we accept this unknown authors story
of the woman healed by Jesus garment,
we must accept the honest st. Angus
tines account of the miraculous cures
wrought in his one day and city by the
touch of garments that had been laid
on Stephens shrine. If we accept the
stories of Jesus other cures we must
also accept the statement of DR.. Wise
man, the best English surgical writer
OF his day, when he says: 81 my
self have been frequent eye-wit-
ness of many hundreds of cures
performed by his majesty's touch
alone.n The latter evidence is quite as
good as the former. Nor have we any
right to reject the supernatural from
one century and claim it for another.
Ii we are going to deny miracles in the
nineteenth century, we must deny
them in the first century also; or if we
admit them there we must admit them
here. If we believe that Jesus raised
Tta0h n rirr1,f 70 lon l., =
Christians can do it to-day, especially
when we remember that Jesus own
saving, ''Verily, verify. say unto you,
ne that believeth in me. the works that
do shall he do also, and greater works
than these shall he do" The preacher
who believes his New Testament should
give nospitable hearing to whatever
miracles ''faith cure" or "Christian
sciemce'' may claim; and if he rejects
the latter as humbugs, he should be
ready to see humbugs in the New Tes-
lament stories too.
Probably a better way is to admit
great deal of eXaggeration and error in
both cases, and to see some and the
same truth in both. One may we'll be-
lieye that many of these stories of Won
derful healing have some truth in them.
when he sees that Nature herself has a
healing power which has often sur.
passed the doctors. When it was the
custom to pour boiling Oil int wounds
it was doubtless much help merely to
wash and dress them, and then cure
them miraculously by that weapon oint-
ment which was put OH the weapon
instead, or by that sympathetic powder,
which was put Oh the cast-off clothes.
When it was the medical Gus
tom to give such diabolical drugs,
If no
patient to cure him miraculously by
the sign of the cross, or the relic of
some saint, or even by Perkins metallic
tractors or mesmerism. That woman of
the New Testament story ''had suffered
many things from many physicians,
and was nothing bettered, but rather
grew worSe;;" and. if they were no bet
ter than physicians continued to be for
many centuries after, she doubtless got
much more help from Jesus garments
than from anything they could do for her.
And she would get still more help from
Jesus soothing words: Daughter, be
of good comfort; thy faith hath made
thee whole"
For faith itself has miraculous heal
ing power; and Jesus showed His WIS
dom in aScribing her cure not to His
garment hem, or to Himself, but simply
to her own faith. The sufferers own
faith that he is going to be helped is the
real secret of all these miraculous heal
ings in history. This one and the same
principle was doubtless the chief cause
of all the Gu es by relics and royal
touch, and tractors and chestnuts car
ried for rheumatism, and powders ''from
all old shoe sole that had walked much,"
or from the thigh bone of a hanged
man. and many medicines worthless or
worse; and is the chief cause of the
cures still wrought by prayer or mind
cure, Oh metaphysics, or Christian sci
ence, or whatever you may call
it. For whether it be faith in
doctor or doctrine, in a minister or
medicine, in prayer or plaster; so
be helped, it has healing power. There
is doubtless deep truth in "mind
cure" and the mind, both of the sick
man and of the doctor who cheers him,
often helps more than medicine. Nor
would / deny in this world of wonders
that mind may have other mysterious
influences not yet known. Even the
christian science'' theory that nothing
ais the patient is true enough in
great many cases. as all doctors know.
And in the abundant cases where it Is
not true, and sound medical knowledge
is needed, good doctors will. and do
make much use of this principle that
faith does help to heal. And they will
try to cultivate this faith, and turn it
from belief in quackery and nonsense
into faith In the laws of health and in
the healing that can be gained through
them.