The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1915-06-05
ANCIENT AND MODERN FAITH
CURES.
Sixth Lecture Delivered Before the
Bible Section of the carroIlton
Club by Rev. James c. Byrne.

Bible Section of the carroIlton
Club by Rev. James c. Byrne.
With the enacting clause: go II.
preach to every creature" Our Lord
Jesus Christ commissioned the in
structed and organized college of the
| Apostles to take His place in the ex-
ternal manifestation of His Kingdom.
To make their work efficacious and
lasting, He promised to be with them
to the end of time. To win them the
goodwill of the people, and to give a
token, that their work is a. continual
on of His own, He promised, that
miraculous works would follow belief.
Among other things he foretold that
they (the believers, whether Apostles
or not) shall lay hands on the sick
and they shall recover" Christianity,
therefore, is, and has always been un-
derstood to be, living body teaching
definite truths concerning God and
the souls salvation, distinct altogeth-
er from the signs of it's truth, which
may reside in its power to heal, or in
any other eyidential work.
Cures Narrated in Acts.
The prediction of Our Lord was full
filed The Acts of the Apostles bears
witness that the predicted signs did
lame man, who for years had been
brought daily to the temple and laid
at the gate called Beautiful and who
at the word of Peter stood up and
leaped for joy. Further on, we read
that the multitude brought their sick
from the neighboring cities that,
when Peter came, his shadow at the
least might overshadoW any Of them
who were all healed" (V, 81.
Peter at Lidda healed a certain Eneas
of the palsy and at Joppe raised a GER
tain Tabitha from the dead Tx, 81,
4O). Similar healing powers are mar
rated of ST. Paul. He. too, healed a
lame man who never had walked
and who at the word of the Apostle
Hleaped up and walked" XIV, %.
Again we read: "And God wrought
by the hand of Paul more than com.
mon miracles, SO that even there were
brought to the sick, handkerchiefs and
aprons, and the diseases departed
from them and the wicked spirits
went out of them (XIX, 12). AT
Troas young man, named Eutichus,
made drowsy by the heat of many
lamps in the room, and the length oil
the sermon, fell out of the window, in
which he was sitting, from the third
loft down and was taken up dead" St
Paul restored him to life (XX, 10),
| The benefits of such marvels were
manifold. They called attention to the
| Apostles, conciliated the benevolence
of peoples, trumpeted the Gospel far
and near, and above all they showed
that the Apostolate was sustained by
| the same divine power that had sus'
tanned Prophecy of old and the more
recent ministry of Christ The Cos
| pei came, however, not always with
healing. Saul and Elymas were
striken blind, Ananias and Saphira
were stricken dead. These afflictions
were likewise evidences of it's power
They put corporal healing in its right
place, showing that it is part of the
evidence and not part of the essence
of Christianity, which always was and
4 now is to illumine and sanctify the
soul and thereby cure it from error
and sin.
But the matter is not SO simple as
/ this. There are cures, which are eyi
dental, and cures, which are not
| Owing to the intimate union between
soul and body, and the influence
which the mind in a limited degree ex
ercises over the nervous system ane
thereby also over the blood, any con
fiding belief may in certain cases
have curative effect. 1t may be vel
to adduce the proof of this statement
The proof is derived with a good dea
4 Of probability from the history of re
ligion and from the history of medi
cine.
The Cures of Error.
i Heresy, as well as the true Faith
has yaunted it's cures. When Metho
dism started out, it acquired, accord
1 ing to Sydney Smith, a great deal O
\ its popularity from it's alleged cures
i Among others, he quotes the case O
a certain David Wright, "a man will
/ serofulous legs and atheistical prin
lciples," who, after hearing one Metho
\ dist sermon, walked home with tht
greatest ease and never afterwards ex
i perienced a return of scrofula or in
4 fidelity. So it was with the begin
slnfngs of Jansenism. A Jansenist deacon
named De Paris, died in heresy. 81
many cures were alleged to have beer
performed at his tomb, and sucl
i wild scenes were enacted there
THAT the French parliament passed ;
law forbidding people to go near IL
4 The Gnostics had their amulets, tn
i Jews, their frontlets, for protection
against disease. In pagan times al
lover the world there were shrines ir
| ldicating the belief of people in mil
aculous cures. The totem of the sas
age, the idols of the Greeks and Re
mans, the guardians Of the holy mour
i tain of the Arabians and of the hol
lWelIs Of the Druids, we're invoked TO
laid. Votiye offerings and pictures a
Itested the apparent success of the il
vocation. Nor must we forget th