The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1905-10-20

ask: When vas it ever repeale
countermanded. qualified, or chang
In any manner, by Jesus or any o.
else of those having biblical aut
GRITTY to teach or preach? Where
the record thereof? We declar
therefore, on the most explicit bibl
cal authority. that the part of tt
great commandment relating to hea
ing the sick was as imperative as ths
pertaining to preaching. Healin
sickness Is, then, an essential and ID
dispensable part of Christ's gospe
No right exists for the effort to pu
aside Jesus commandment to hea
sick and to heal according to hi
teachings and his methods of heal
ing. The same divine power tina
healed In Jesus time heals today
so far as 1t is understood and prac
ticed. There is but one Truth, ant
that Truth is eternal, Interchangeable
The healing Christ never withdrew
himself from the world. Jesus de-
clared as the solemn conclusion OF
his final commandment: "And, 10!
! am with you Away, even unto the
end Of the world"
We might well rest our conten1
ton here. But I feel impelled to call
your attention to an u%tterance of
Jesus yet more remarkable than any
to which I have referred. In the
14th Of John we read
Verify. verify, l say unto you, He
that believeth on me, the works that
do shall he do also; and greater
works than these shall he do, be-
cause I go unto the Father"
Marvellous words! When we think
of the mighty works he performed
we are almost overwhelmed by the
deep solemnity of such an utterance.
Jesus destroyed all forms of sin
healed all manner of sickness:
walked the waves; raised the dead:
md did many other wonderful works,
fet in words startling in their plain
aess nc declares that those who be-
,ieve on him shall do, not only the
great works that he had done. but
greater. Can this be? Is it pos
sible that the believers in the great
Nazarine are destined to do the
mighty works he did and even
mightier? What shall be u ans
wer? If he mean what he said and
was a true prophet, our answer must
be, Yes.
Then, my friends, what follows.
We must either strive. to learn the
divine law by virtue of which these
works may be done, or we must de-
clare ourselves unbelievers on Him: |
unbelievers in Christ and his teach
ing; therefore unbelievers in God
and the Bible. Shall we accept
Jesus words for what they say or
shall we not? BY whom shall these
great works be done if not by Chris
tians? Jesus distinctly said thew
should be done by those who believe
on him, those who understand end
obey his teachings.
1t is matter of we'll authenticated
history that healing sickness throuah
prayer and the direct agency Of the
divine Power was praet,eed by the
early Christians Down to the close
OF the third century; and that as
late as the close of the second cen
fury. the dead were raised. Among
other standard historians who treat
OF this subject is Gibhen, In HIS his
tory OF the Decline and Fall of the
Roman Empire he goes deliberately
into 1t, under the head of the early
Christians, quote briefly from his
work;
The Christian Church. from the
time of the apostles and their first
disciples, has claimed an uninter-
rupted succession of miraculous pow
ers, the gift of tongues, of vision.
and OF prophecy, the power of ex-
pelling demons. of healing the sick,
and Of raising the dead.
the expulsion of the demons from
the bodies Of those unhappy persons
whom they had been permitted to
torment, was considered as a signal
though ordinary triumph of religion,
and is repeatedly alleged by the an
cient apologists, as the most eeen=
yincing evidence of the truth Of
Christianity, . But the mir
aculous cure Of diseases Of the most
inveterate or even preternatural
kind, can no longer occasion any sur-
prise, when we recalleet that In the
days of 1renaeus, about the end of
the second century. the resurrection
OF the dead was very far from be-
Ing considered an uncommon event:
that the miracle was frequently per-
formed on necessary occasions, by
great fasting and the joint supplica-
ton OF the church OF the place, and
that the persona thus restored had
lived afterwards among them many
years."
In the course Of his remarks Mr..
Gibbon refers to the prevailing skep-
ticism of those early days in terms
that might we'll be applied to many
modern skeptics, both within and
without the churches. He says;-
cat such a period, wAsn faith
could boast of SO many wonderful
victories over death, it seems diff
PontipVed on psgs4