Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1895-08-14
is FAITH OMNIPOTENT {?


Honaker, Va.
FAITH OMNIPOTENT?
If thou canst believe, all things are possible
to him that believeth.-Mark, tx, 3D.
The incident referred to is not mere
ly remarkable but startling, for it sets
us to thinking along unusual lines. We
very naturally ask whether Jesus
meant all He said, or whether the ex-
preston used, "All things are possible
to him that believeth," was merely
rhetorical and intended as severe re-
buke of the skepticism which prevailed
among the higher classes and was re-
fiected in the lower. 1t is evident that
the little audience which had gathered
on the occasion were astounded at the
utterance, and still more astounded at
the complete cure which Immediately
followed it.
That same incredulity has prevailed
during the last nineteen centuries, and
it is certain that if the Lord should re-
appear and repeat his words and his
miracle we should be torn by bewilder
ing doubts and declare that His state
ment was opposed to the scientific
knowledge of our time. We could no
more accept it as the revelation of a
law higher than the physical laws with
which we are acquainted than did the
two or three learned Pharisees who
looked askance at each other and said,
in the language of a shrug, that Jesus
was simply an honest enthusiast, igno
rant of the memorable forces which
govern the material universe.
Suppose we spend a moment in ask
ing what Jesus could have intended to
convey to His hearers by the phrase
"All things are possible to him that
believeth.n 1t is clear that He used no
figure of speech, but told what He re-
garded as literal truth. He was either
mistaken in judgment or we have done
ourselves an injury in not accepting
His statement and making it factor
in our lives. In the general opinion of
our day, and it is day of brilliant
scientific achievement and wonderfully
successful research, the body controls
the mind far more than the mind con
trolls the body. Jesus declared, how
ever, that the mind is the imperator,
and that even our physical functions,
our health as well as the measure of
happiness we enjoy, depend very large
ly on what we believe or do not believes;
in other words, that man is what his
mind makes him rather than what his
body makes him. A good thought, &C
cording to the revelation of the Lord,
is better than a powerful drug. While
not denying that the world is filled
with physical disorders and derange
ments, He intimatcs that we must seek
for the cause of evil in the hearts of
men, and allows US to infer that if our
thinking were true and our feelings
pure, or, to state the matter in differ
emit way, if we lived closer to God and
regarded Him as an actual rather than
theological Father, we should have
better bodies as we'll as more whole
some souls. Diseases are the conse-
quence of conditions of mind, and when
the mistakes of the mind are rectified
the ailments of the body will be cured.
At first we turn aside from such a
theory as irrational and impractical.
Science arches its eyebrows and won
ders how long mere dreamers will i'm
pose on the populace. Religious folk
attempt to explain the words of Jesus
in some odd fashion that is unsatifac
tory to themselves and to everybody
else. But there stands the statement
firm, infiexible and imperative.
On second thought, we get faint
glimpse of something that makes us
tremulous. 1t is true, after all, that
some maladies have been cured by the
remedial agency of faith. We can no
longer sheer, for the facts are not to be
denied. Even the family of Thomas
has examined them and been forced to
admit them. A poor creature hobbies
ON his crutches to the shrine that con
tains sacred relic and in few mo
ments leaves the crutcheS behind and
goes home whole Was the cure effect
ed by miracle; was the relic the prime
cause of it? Not at all. He simply had
the miracle-working power within him.
self and the relic reused it into activity.
He believes, and that unusual condition
of his mind started the hitherto dor
mant forces of his body and he became
a well man. 1t was the thought in his
mind, the feeling in his heart that
ministered unto him, and he suddenly
discovered, as suddenly as though the
heavens had opened and an angel had
descended to make the announcement,
that Jesus did not indulge in hyperbole,
but stated the simple, unvarnished
truth that ''all things are possible to
him that believcth."
The best parts of man are his brain
and his heart. If these are wrong the
whole man is wrong, and if these are
right the whole man is in a position to
require health or to keep it. Diseases,
many of them, are the consequence of
mental conditions, and curative medi-
cation is to be found in nobler thoughts
and feelings rather than in opiates and
stimulants
If we turn from body to soul, what
magnificent prospect opens before US
Faith is the food that furnishes
strength; doubt is the chronic indiges-
ton that makes us weak and despond-
ent. There is no despair when we can
see the face of God by looking heaven
ward. Give us the globe for a foot
stool and a constellation for chariot, |
satisfy every craving of physical OPP |
posite and every mental aspiration, but |
deny us any measure of faith and the |
sun shines ia vain, for the cloud within |
darkens the whole landscape of life. |
Better faith with nothing than donbt
with everything. By him who believes
the mountains al removed, the valleys
are filled up, the crooked ways are
made straight. He travels heavenward
with grateful heart, accompanied by
a cloud of witnesses" who guard him
night and day.-N. Y. Herald.
There are some people who never
wear dark glasses and yet they never
see anything bright it's the people
who are dyspeptic and soured. Every
thing is out of joint with such people
II suffered many years with Dyspepsia
and liver troubles but have been re-
lieved since taking Simmons Liver
Regulator. I know others who have