Smyrna times., 1894-08-22
The Faith-Cure Controversy.


how? is the theme of an interesting
symposium in the Boston Globe. Dwight
Il. Moody, the evangelist, leads off by
saying that he believes "the sick are
healed largely by faith"
As showing the extent of his belief
Mr.. Moody says: 'In our schools at
Northfield we have 800 pupils. If we
had a case of typhoid fever or other
dangerous disease 1 should send for the
best physician l could get at once, but
should also pray that the patient
might recover, and should have faith
that he would. And if the patient had
faith, too, it would add largely to the
chances of recovery"
Rev. DIR. Al. Gordon, one of BOston's
most prominet Baptist pastors. puts the
same view in this form II believe that
the sick can be cured by faith. l have
known many cured by that means.
But if had dangerous case
of sickness in my own family l should
secure the best physician l could get"
Now it is plain on the face of these
statements that neither Mr.. Moody nor
Pastor Gordon really have faith in
prayer as reliable curative power un-
assisted by trained medical skill and
the material remedies which that skill
invariably employs to cOunteract dis
ease. They believe in prayer plus the
physician and his prescription
Very different and much fuller of
faith is the declaration of Rev A. B.
Simpson, president of the Christian Al
lance, now III session at Old Orchard
Beach, who says that he has known
large numbers of persons healed of
every kind of disease by faith alone,
without medicine. The maladies thus
cured, within his personal knowledge,
he says, Include consumption, heart
disease, cancer in the most malignant
form ,tumOrs of every class, rheumatism
fevers of all kinds, paralysis, pneu.
monia, la grippe and even fractures of
bones and dislOcatiOns of joints, as well
as many cases of mental diseases and
demOniacal possession"
Per contra, Dr. George Stedman, a
noted physician of the Hub, says that
some of the diseases named by Rev. Mr..
Simpson are simply impossible of cure
by faith or by any means whatever.
Disease of the heart, for example, is, be
insists, incurable. Nevertheless, DIR.
Stedman believes sit is possible for
faith to produce favorable or curative
effect in certain functional nervous
conditions"
This is a controversy almost as old as
the human race. The Old Testament
is full of it and the New Testament, also.
Believers in faith cure have abounded
in every age. 1t is not a new but a
very ancient belief. About 100000
persons touched Charles II of England
in the belief that it was good for their
various maladies so to do. Valentine
Greatrakes, "the stroker," is not a
myth. History certifes clearly that he
lived about two centuries ago and that
hundreds of his sick fellOwmen went
away from his presence perfectly well
after he had stroked them. He began
'stroking" in Ireland and stroked his
way to London, where he amassed a
fortune by his miraculous cures.
1t is probable that the power of mind
the imagination, the will, or whatever
term we use to designate that faculty
in man which certainly controls to some
extent his bodily condition, has been
underrated by the materialist and ex,
aggerated by the spiritualist school
, That this is very great is undeniable
} Sydney Smith tells US that the banker.
poet Rogers was at dinner party and
mistook u large sheet of plate glass fol
an open window. He felt the imagined
draught therefrOm so keenly that he
rose from the table with severe cold
A man who had been laid on the gull
; lotine for execution and was reprieveC
just as the knife was about to fall was
taken up dead, and on the back of hi:
/ his neck a mark as of the knife was
, plainly visible, though it had not
} touched him.
} On the whole it is a subject for in.
f quiry rather than dogmatism. Faith
l alone may not be a cure-all, but it is
: probably true that no mans death from
= disease was ever fastened by feeling
, of great confidence on his part that ht
would recover.-Ba'timOre Sun.