The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1896-11-15

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| Hence, there must be Il special revelation
/ that the sickness is not unto death. and
| that it is the will of God to heal. before
| there can be unwavering faith in behalf
( of any given case.
! =. That every exercise of faith for heal
! ing is for person i'll probation, in whom
it may he the Divine purpose to bring
| forth for the identifying of the moral
! character the grace OF submission to the
Divine will. No one but God knows how
hot or how long the furnace is to be heat.
ed. None but he knows the hour of de-
| liverance. When the sufferer, or any
| other person, has divinely inspired in
| timation that that hour has come. he
can exercise unwavering faith for his
| cure.
We can but regard the modern eager
desire for the gifts of the spirit instead
of the graces of the spirit comprised in
| that charity q Cor. Xiii,) which has been
APPLY styled, the greatest thing in the
world, as sign, not of real spiritual
| progress, but rather of decline in the di-
vine life. St. Paul after a full descrip-
ton of these ordinary gifts in Cor xii,
| gives this command, "But desire earn
estly the greatest gifts. And still more
| excellent way l show unto YOU" He
then proceeds to give panegyric of
charity, or love, as the eternal principle,
without which all gifts are worthless, IL
principle superior in quality and digni-
ty to all other cardinal Christian graces
and therefore infinitely superior to those
miraculous gifts which may exist in the
absence of love. Matt vi 22:23)
Says John Wesley: "Many have had
| the gifts of faith who thereby east out
devils, and will yet at last have their por-
| ton with them" =,
TO prefer gifts to that fullness of love
which st. Paul eulogizes is to rccede from
the highest spirituality. if not to fall from
grace. These gifts were attended by
I various cNtravagances, excuses and
fanaticisms, which gave st. Paul so
much solcitude. have been pastor of
fifteen churches and thank God that
none of them was 50 disorderly and 50 thy
ing To my patience as the church of Cor
inth, where the extraordinary gifts of
the spirit were fully bestowed, must have
been TO st. Paul "Wranyling over Paul
Apollos and Cephias, running after false
teachers, full OF envying, strife and Iii
visions, carnal walking ms men. harbor-
ing an incestuous person, without disci.
pline, degrading the Lords Supper into
feast of appetite end drunkenness. Civ
ing TO Pastor Paul constant sorrow and
! anNiety-the Corinthians needed miracles
to give them Il respectable nane and
they abused miraculous gifts by ieul-
ousy and contention. that they turned
their Sabbath assemblies into ca5als of
men and women singing, praying, shout
ing, prophesying, pell.mell without or
der or decency.
Hence, l have never offered prayer
| for the restoration of the charisms. or
extraordinary gifts Following the
Apostles to the Gentiles as n guide,
have found the more excellent way. the
~ lnVn nd I
Though the apostle TO the Gentiles on
rare occasions, exercised the gift of heal
ing, he never gave it any prominence in
| his practice, and never mentioned it in
| his recorded sermons His only mention
of it in his epistles is TO relegate it to the
rear of the beautiful procession of Chris
tian graces, the fruit of the Spirit AS
for himself, he had IL physician as his
travelling companion, who doubtless APP
Piled appropriate remedies to him in
sickness. Why do | think so? 1t is an
inference from the Holy Scripture. ''Ye
know that because of the infirmity of
the flesh preached the Gospel unto You
the first time. y Gal. iv. 13. r. W Some
physical disability, 1t may be lamcness,
hindoreh his journey through Galatia to-
ward Europe, but did not prevent his
preaching while unable To travel From
il study of the Acts, chapter xvi. ITO, we
ascertain from the change in the pro-
nouns from they to ''we'' that DR..
Luke had overtaken St. Paul ut Troas.
we infer that in his detention in Gaatia,
near by, he sent for Luke because he was
| in neel of his professional services Our
Inference is confirmed by IL study of Col
~. II: Luke, my beloved physician,
and Demas, salute you" Why do | say
my instead of the" Because it is
grammatical to express an unemphatic
possessive pronoun by the article in Greek
as II is in English, ''the doctor,'' mean
ing my DOCTOR The Greek scholar will
find seven instances of this kind in his
epistle to the Colossians. quote only
one found in the first verse, our
brother" instead of 1.-THE brother" as in
II. v, margin. See Bishop Lghtfoot on
Colossians
There are grave perils attending the
doctrine that the atonement conditionally
covers all sickness as it does all sins. 1t
is. perilous to read more into the d
vine promises than the Spirit of inspira-
ton intended. heard William Miller
read into prophecy the second advent in
1913, and in 1871 heard him express
his regret for his mistake, and the wish
tiiho he could get Il peep ut Gods clock
and set his watch by it, His misntcr
probation of the Bible may not have sub
verified his own faith in God, but it utter
ly destroyed the faith of many of his
weaker disciples In like manner many
have been assured that the exercise of the
grace of faith would heal their sickness,
to be bitterly disappointed in the dying
hour. This. to my mind. is the worst feat
ure OF the deluson Of divine healing rs
it is taught III our day. The sick are of
ten trusting for II cure while steadily APP
preaching the gate of .dcath. They are
taught to insist that they are healed, and
to regard all the symptoms of disease as
the deNlLs cOMMtcriclts To shnEe their