HEALED BY THE GREAT PHYSICIAN
BY L. E. E.
The
excessively hard work in the schools for Freedman in the South during the year
1872 induced a sever illness, from which I never fully recovered. Over-work,
anxiety, or under care, would cause always days-sometimes weeks-of prostration.
Strength seemed slowly wasting, and in the fall of ’77 I was taken down with
spinal fever. In the spring I gained a little, but the summer being a very hard
one for me, I became much reduced, and when the cool weather came, was only
able to move about the house very feebly, and with great pains. Again my old
enemy, spinal fever, laid me low, and again I partly rallied so as to move
around a little but after each attack I was weaker, more waited, more hopeless
than after the preceding. Another year passed, and, as the leaves began to fade
and fall, hope went out of my heart utterly. I was confined to the bed the
whole time, and always in great pain.
The most
skillful physicians had been consulted; humanly speaking, all had been done
that could be done.
At this
time a sister wrote me to write Dr. Foster, of Clifton Springs, N.Y., for his
advice. She could not give up my recovery.
I wrote
him, and in reply he said: “You are far beyond the reach of human aid; but
there is the Great Physician. Have you ever thought of going directly to Him
for healing?”
In the
same letter he gave me Miss Judd’s address, and the fact that she had been
healed of a similar disease in answer to the prayer of faith.
While I
did not doubt her healing, I could not believe it was for me to be thus
restores. Weeks passed; I grew weaker, often not able to speak or to swallow
solid food for days together. These attacks always followed some effort on my
part to help myself, or do a little more than usual. I tried very hard to sew
and knit in bed, even after my left arm became almost helpless. These desperate
efforts to work were sure to be followed by weeks of agonizing pain.
One day I
said to mother, “Will you lay the last paper on my bed?” Some days I could read
a few lines at a time, though with great pain and weariness. My eyes rested on
a notice of Dr. Tyng’s sermon, “The Mountain Moves.” I said to myself, “ I will
go to the Lord Jesus Christ-I will touch the hem of His garment- I will be made
whole;” but, just as it would seem to me that I stood near Him, multitudes of
doubts and fears crowded me back. I could not reach Him. I could close my eyes
and see His loved form, weary and wayworn, traveling the road to Bethany, or
standing upon the sands of Galilee, but I could not reach Him, I was so full of
unbelief and darkness.
When I
had strength to do so, I wrote Miss Judd. She replied at once, telling me that
at her house the next Thursday evening, between seven and nine o’clock, the
members of the Faith-Meeting would unite with me in claiming the promise to the
sick, in James v.
She told
me to consecrate myself wholly to the Lord, and pray for faith; to ask God to
show me if there was anything in my heart that would prevent the wonderful work
of grace in my life, and if He showed me nothing, to rest content that there
was nothing. This was Saturday. My sister was with me, making a good-by call,
for she, too, was sick, and was going to Chicago for medical advice. As she
stooped over the bed to kiss me, she said, “I shall never kiss you on the bed
again.” She was gone, leaving her prophetic words ringing in my ears. I read
Miss Judd’s letter again, “We will pray for you on Thursday evening between
seven and nine. You have only to believe, and God will do more for you than you
can ask or think. Pay no attention to your feelings from that hour. If your bad
symptoms continue, they do not arise from the disease, for that will be
eradicated; but they are permitted to test your faith. Get right up and walk by
faith.”
Monday
A.M. I had great light given to me, but Tuesday and Wednesday were days of
great darkness and many temptations. Thursday brought no peace of mind. I could
not see that I had any faith, and so I longed to see my faith, that I
might know for a certainty that I had it. I gave up the struggle towards night,
as a tired child does. There came into my heart a consciousness of the
sweetness of obedience. I repeated again and again, “Obedience, obedience.”
As the
hour drew near, all the members of the family withdrew for prayer. Mother came
to my room; I could not keep awake, though I tried very hard. I would rouse
enough to know I was sleeping, and would say, “Dear Lord Jesus, forgive me and
help me to keep awake,” and, with His name on my lips, be instantly lost in a
sweet, sound sleep.
Between
half-past eight and nine I was awake; mother had gone to her room. I turned
over, got up, walked to her room, out to the kitchen, where I sat down for a
few moments, and then arose, opened the door, stepped out onto the piazza and
walked down to the north end, then turned, walked back to the south end into
the parlor, and through to my own room! I had no human help. From the first I
walked alone. Mother followed me gently, praising the Lord with a trembling
voice. In the morning I dressed myself with little help, and at ten o’clock
went out to meet my father, who had just come in on that morning’s train. As he
opened the gate I stood on the steps! I cannot describe those days, so filled
with joy and fear.
Friday,
the 24th, I rode down to the Post-office, and after returning,
worked with my hands for two hours. My helpless left arm moved easily. Saturday
A.M., Christmas morning, I walked quite a distance over the frozen ground, did
a good deal of work during the day, and read and wrote some. I had more or less
pain each day, but my strength was wonderful. For eight months previous to my healing
I had not eaten a meal at table. When I had tried to sit up I had invariably
fainted or fallen from my chair; but now, in one short hour, I had been made
strong. Christmas passed; Sabbath morning came; I found my strength all gone. I
had to learn that the “Lord was my strength.” Then, and then only, could I make
continued exertions. My strength, which the Great Physician had withheld, to
teach me to walk by faith, was, in the afternoon of the same day, instantly
restored.
I soon learned
that there was but one way, and that was to look continually to Jesus to complete
the work which he had begun. I was His own child, brought with a price; to
please Him was the one strong desire of my heart; to grieve Him caused the
greatest sorrow.
I
continued to grow strong. In three weeks I went twenty-five miles to see a sick
sister, when she, too, was healed in answer to prayer. And the sister that went
to Chicago consulted the best talent of that city, only to learn that she might
possibly be relieved, but could not be cured, all the physicians agreeing that
there was an inherited tendency in our family to diseases of nerve centuries.
Before leaving Chicago she wrote Miss Judd. We, at home, remembered her also,
and she was restored to health. I walked to the depot to meet her upon her
return.
Two
sisters in Florida, in different stages of chronic wasting of spinal cord, were
restored within a few months, and a brother, who was a great sufferer from
hip-disease, was made well and strong, even though the bone was in a state of
ulceration, and he greatly reduced. HE put away his crutches and now uses a
cane, unless he designs taking a long walk. His lameness is not wholly removed,
but the pain and soreness were immediately rebuked, and I have no doubt that,
had his faith claimed restoration of limb to its natural size and shape, it
would have been make whole like the other.
These
restorations, following one after the other, lifted the black cloud that had
hung over our lives for ten years. We could only praise the Lord continually
for His wonderful works to the children of men.
At present,
after a year’s work, we are all well, and doing hard service. I can study many
hours without the faintest trace of pain in my head, take long walks without
fatigue. I never lie down to rest during the day, and often study until ten or
eleven o’clock in the evening. I have gained many pounds in flesh; in fact, I
am perfectly well.
Praise
the Lord, and blessed be His holy name.
December 19, 1881
***
The above
is strictly true. I am acquainted with all the parties mentioned and with all
the facts, and shall take pleasure in replying to any question that may be
asked in regard to the matter.
Rev M. L. Eastman,
Royalton, Wis,.
Formerly Lisbon, St.
Lawrence Co., N. Y.
