The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-08-07
A NEW HEALER.
He is President of a Burial
Company,
But Snatches People From the
Brink of the Grave.
HE RESTORES REASON
And Cures Consumption in it's
Worst Form,
All Through the Medium of
the Holy Ghost.

New York, Aug. 7-Rev. Stephen Merritt
president of the Stephen Merritt Burial
company, of this city, claims that during
the last three or four months he has been
granted the power to heal the sick and
restore reason to the demented. Mr..
Merritt Furthermore states that he has
actually restored to complete health dur
ing that time hundreds of invalids who
have been pronounced incurable by their
physicians, and in some instances by the
process of amounting with oil he has
raised the dying from their beds and i'm
bued them with the full vigor of life and
strength.
The reverend gentleman does not claim
to do all this of his own personal pow
ers. He maintains that the Holy Ghost
is working through him instrument,
and that henceforth religion is to benefit
the body well as the soul, and that the
miracles of healing are again to be COM
mon through the medium of the chosen
ministers of Christianity. Mr.. Merritt
does not say what effect this new power
of healing he claims to have achieved
will have upon the business of the burial
company, of which he is president.
Mr.. Merritt has no hesitation in talking
of his newly acquired powers and cites
many specific instances where he has al
most inStantaneouSly restored the sick to
health.
IT have felt that had this power for
many years. said Mr.. Merritt, but it
has been with me more especially during
the last three four months. I feel
that the power passes through me as
electricity goes through a wire. 1 do not
claim that I myself heal the sick but 1
know absolutely that the power of heal
ing comes from the Holy Ghost through
my fundamentally.
81 have made SO many physical cures
that it is difficult to select specific cases.
That of a lady nearly 80 years old was
one of the most remarkable. She was
sick unto death and her end was momen-
tarily expected. All thought that she
must die within a few hours of old age
| and extreme weakness. 1 was called in
to see her and 1 anointed her. She i'm
mediately arose and was perfectly well.
Today she goes to Rhode Island on a
visit to some friends of hers
The reverend gentleman was quite will
ing to give the names and addresses of
the persons he had healed, but a desire
to save them the unnecessary notoriety
of publication caused him to refrain from
doing so. Continuing, he said:
1.-The case of young woman who was
in the last stages of consumption was
marvellous. The physicians had told her
she could not live the night out and
was called to her bedside. talked with
her some time ana Inen she asked me TO
anoint her. 1 told her distinctly that if I
anointed her she would live. She full
of faith, and when her folks had brought
oil anointed her. She got well and to-
day is in perfect health. For three weeks
after her recovery she worked here, ad
dressing envelopes, and I was able to OBJ
serve that the disease had entirely left
her. She is now in Cleveland and enjoys
the best of health
ha 6a iS in daily
communication with the Holy Ghost and
has been given the third dispensation.
81 shrank back from this particular
phase of ministerial work for some
years. he said, but I feel that I have
been called to it. 1t is not my wish or
desire 1t is the promptings of the Holy
Ghost"
At the Christian Alliance convention at
Old Orchard, Me, Mr.. Merritt delivered
an address on ''Sanctihcation,' during
which he explained the healing powers
of which he claims to have become pos
sessed.
In the last few months" he said, God
has manifested Himself to me and
through me more than in all my former
Christian experience. Through me He
has opened lunatic asylums, babe inmates
come forth, and 1 have seen them depart
clothed in their right minds. He has
touched .consumptives the very brink
of the grave and restored them to health.
The crippled and infirm have been fully
healed.
81 believe that under the influence of
the Christian Alliance there is quietly
going throughout the country one of
the greatest religious REVEALS the New
World ever saw. Those who believe that
God is the Lord and who believes His
every promise, command the devil to
depart from troubled being, and he is
bound to obey their command. They also
have power to heal all manner of
diseases