The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-07-19
AGENCY IF FAITH IN ACCORD WITH.
 NATURAL LAWS
Dr. Bennett Speaks at St. John's Church on the Method of Scriptural
 Healing

lICdUttS
 As a continuation of the subject of
 "Healing'' which was the outcome of
 the healing mission recently held at St. Johns Episcopal Church. Ensley, Dr.
 Edmunds Bennett pastor, took for his
 morning subject "The Method of Scrip tLral Healing." His text was taken from rSt Paurs statement, Your whole body,
 soul and spirit"
 He said in part:
 .Is there a method? Does God do any,
 thing at haphazard? Even what we know
 as Christ's miracles had plain method.
 His method with people included the
 whole personality.
 "A man is not an organic or. other
 structure in three water-tight compart'
 merlts-body, soul and spirit. Every part
 contributes to whole dominated by that
 elusive mystery caiied fife; and liie ols.
 tributes itself throughout the whole of
 him, until you cannot tell where the
 physical on the one hand and the spirit
 ual on the other begins endsJ They
 interfuse.
 The spiritual significance of the body
 is indicated in St. Pauls, The whole E1Seation scoaneth and travaileth in
 pain together until now. waiting for the
 adoption, to wit, the redemption of the
 body adoption into the liberty of recov-
 cry of the normal, anticipating the time
 when disease shall be an anachronism Whatever may be said for "a fall up- wards there has very plainly been
 physical fall downwards Take the
 Maori and the Sandwich islander. SPIRITUAL AGENCIES Redemption contemplates restoration and the normal type of physical man
 hood and womanhood through spiritual agencies so that spiritual, moral and physical therapeutics should go hand in hand In the moral and spiritual sphere, prayer and effort are two factors with one aim So it should logically be in
 the physical Doctors recognize agen-
 cies they formerly did not. "As far as I know, Jesus never said
 to His disciples You shall perform
 miracles He said, in effect, You do not know the powers and abilities ln-
 vested in you. You do not know what God has made you competent to do. Ills sine qua non was conscious, direct, ex- plicit contact with God. And that not for the superman. Is there method? Or der is heavens first law and men who subscribe to that are apt to say that pa~t of that order is physical applica- lions and treatments of physical ail- ments'
 "But we have shown that one cannot tell where the functions of the body and spirit end or begin. The man is com posite and the treatment pust be com posite or the method is defective. We believe in natures pharmacopoeia as adopted and developed by medical sci ence but we by no means believe 1t compasses the whole restorative process. Medical practitioners do not. T have known a physician so non- plussed and wonder struck at the result of other methods than his that in utter arnazement he exclaimed in the face of the quick transformation. It is the fin ger of God There was method more
 or less. but he was not able to see the process
 | "One has heard men say, Why, yes. | there is nothing mysterious about it; I can see how it works Accompanying prayer and the laying on of hands there | is certain recuperation. Precisely. what
 has he. the critic, now discovered but l that God is operating on his subject though all that subjects functions? ADJUNCTS OF PRAYER But what has the confessed prime agency? Prayer and it's adjuncts God 1 is healing methodically with a wonder 1 ful being representing a combination of | }lnSepdrdple parts, d perSOIdllly, anu lie Christian disciples believes withal that his master is making good his pledge, Tt is r. "Let Him answer as He will so that He answer. It is not likely that He will ignore or override the ordained uses in | the constitution of what He has made and begotten when it's best well being depends upon their use.
 | But Gods method is more inclusive vat hau ir, y,oep a r, I one or two instances in which when certain persons of my acquaintance were I in great stress or need, praying for re- lief, other persons, quite unaccountable ito themselves, were impelled to answer these prayers. The simple-hearted sup pliants were not perplexed over interme- diate agencies. Their accounting to me was, T tell my Father and He never fails me.
 Gods method of co-ordinating with existing laws, the miracle was the method which was no miracle, and these people have represented the most per ! feet type of happiness I have ever seen,
 although very poor Gods method is not only remedial hut also constructive
 and superbly educative. results at which His benefactions always aim. VITALIZING ATMOSPHERE A prime end of our praying is to create a vitalizing atmosphere in which | i'll germs and destructive elements can not flourish, but their opposites can and do.
 I've Know something of what science has to say about the effects in the sys- tenn of bad motions and tempers, how they create and induce an actual and positive poison. And contrariwise the principle and rule hold good. And not one jot is the process less Idivine or the agency of faith impaired | by the fact that the processes are in accord with natural and discoverable laws Rather is the splendor of the method magnified in our own eyes be- cause of it's consistent and ordered utility.
 Said a patient of the healing mission. now we'll. to me, Whether or not I re- ceived any physical benefit. I do not know, but I know that received an in definabIe something much more impor- tant Others say. I discovered in my self not only a certain buoyancy. but powers I did not know of before. y pERC0NAT.