Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1915-02-11
PRAYER AND HEALING.

Editor Honolulu Star-Bulletin, -
Sir: Insyour issue of January %,
under the title. THE Real BENEFIT of
Prayer, Is epitomized the finding of
an English meteorological com
mission or committee, consisting of
ten doctors and ten divines, which
finding purports to be the result of
three years Investigation of the be-
ing commonly referred to In Christian
lands as The Almighty" for the pur-
pose OF determining whether there is
any evidence that he is moved by
prayer to heal the sick. H. ~
The twenty curators Of soul and
body find that as a matter of fact the
god whom the Christian world has
selected as its object Of worship eth
er cannot or win not vouehsafe any
answer to petitions Of this nature, but
that certain limited results are indi.
rectly obtafned through the sugges-
ton of help that comes to the deluded
patient from the otherwise quite flu
tile petitions OF himself or others,
though this suggestion is not suffi.
GENTLY powerful to affect organic dis
abilities. WI -r.#. -" - n =
Having thus squeIched any presump-
tuous claim on the part of the deity
to butt into" the domain of the reg
ularly licensed medical practitioners,
the ten doctors do the square thing
by the ten diyines by subscribing to
the conclusion 4 that spiritual minis
trati0n SHOULD be recognized .equally
NTH pnodiooI T,aix, ,.o TO-, = :. ,.>s,1
potent form of suggestion. .
1t may well be doubted whether the
investigations of the twenty were car
ried on with any burning desire to
reach different result from the one
obtained Human nature is prone to
find what It is looking for, and is usu-
ally able to do so. So far as the ten
divines are concerned, the Book which.
they presumably profess to believe
furnishes conclusive proof (if they do
believe IT'D that, in the words of one,
James, THE prayer of faith shall save
the sick and the Lord shall raise him
up. Had these latter day represen-
tatives of the church followed in spirit
and in deed the example of the found.
er Of that church and his earlier adj.
herents they could have determined
in less than three years whether the
words Of James are true, and they
might possibly have found that they
are. 9
The rediscoyerer Of the system of
spiritual healing known as Christian
Science has stated 4''Science and
Health with Key to the Scriptures, :
page ID, The prayer that reforms
the sinner and heals The sick is an
absolute faith that all things are pos.
sible to God, spiritual understandin
of him, an unsettled love-. It will be
noticed that the three essentials Of
this prayer are faith understand
ing, love 1t has been established
beyond pefadventure and is no longer
open to doubt from those who care to
examine the proofs, that this kind of
prayer heals every kind Of disease,
organic or functional, known to sufs
fering humanity, even in these days
when pitiless and Unsuitable microbe
lies in wait in every nook and corner;
and there are thousands who can testi-
fy to this. Even the twenty investi-
gators admit tnat suggestion cannot
cure organic disease: but unless the
almost countless diagnoses Of celebrat-
ed physicians and surgeons are wrong
such disease is being daily cured by
the sort of prayer above described, and
will continue to be so cured in spite
of "the wisdom of this world" and OF
the Twenty. - 5.s. ss-
w. H. SMITH,
Christian Science Committee on Pub.
lication for Hawaii.