BETHSHAN.
BY CHARLOTTE C. MURRAY.
Some of your
readers may have heard of the opening of Bethshan in London, Eng., as a house
for the accommodation of the sick people seeking the Lord as their Healer. And
it may interest them to know how the work is carried on.
The thought of
such a place, and the need for it, had often been presented to the minds of Mr.
Broadman and Mrs. Baxwer, as well as to my own, but we had never seen our way
clear to open such a work. Mrs. Baxter and I were so constantly engaged in
Evangelistic work that it did not appear the Lord’s will for us, and yet we
could not get rid of the thought, and spoke of it to Mr. and Mrs. Boardman. AT
length, quite suddenly, the Lord showed us a house and bade us take it, and He
provided the money for partial furnishing; then came the question of who was to
undertake it, and clearly I was to do this. Before a month was ended form the
day that we took possession of the house, it was furnished and half filled with
sick people. Truly “the thing was done suddenly,” for God ‘had prepared” it all
long beforehand. We prayed for servants and the Lord sent just those we needed
and at the right time. He has stood by us and helped us in every way.
Our first act upon
the entering the empty house was to put the government of it “upon His
shoulder”; to make the Lord, Master and Head; and we prayed that He would
regulate who should, or should not be received, and suffer none to come who
would not obtain a blessing. Moreover we prayed that His presence might pervade
the whole house and be felt in every room, so that all who came in might know
that He was among us. We prayed in faith, and already the Lord has given us
some blessed testimony to His faithfulness as the Answer of prayer.
I will give two
instances which seem to me important as illustrating the principle of faith,
and the Lord’s object in His dealings with us.
Miss Scoones
arrived at Bethsahan one Wednesday afternoon; she had been an invalid of many
years’ standing from a combination of internal and nervous disorders. She had
been under the biggest surgical advice in London, had frequently undergone
dangerous operations, and her case had been pronounced quite beyond the skill
of man. A large internal tumor caused at times intense suffering which produced
fits, partially epileptic and partially hysteric, and at time she would fall
into a short cataleptic trance, retaining consciousness while unable to give
any sign of life. She was scarcely able to walk at all and had to be carried up
and down stairs. She arrived very much exhausted from the unusual exertion of
riding, but determined by God’s grace to be present at the weekly meeting held
at Bethshan every Wednesday evening. Accordingly she was helped in and laid on
a sofa, but in a little while the pain became so violent as to bring on a sever
fit of convulsions and hysteria which lasted nearly an hour, and though,
through God’s grace, the fit did not return, she remained in exceedingly
prostrate and suffering condition. Sunday came and in the evening Mr. Boardman
was having a little Bible reading and prayer with our dear invalids. Miss S.
was present, lying on the sofa, vainly endeavoring to grasp the threat of what
was said; her brain seemed to weak to follow, but just one passage impressed
itself upon her: “Himself took our infirmities and bare our sickness.” – (Matt.
viii: 17.) Again and again the words came before her, until at last she saw
their depth of meaning and said to herself: “If Jesus took my sickness then it
can not be mien any longer. Then why am I lying here? If He took my sickness
and it is no longer mine, then I am healed!” She lay quiet thinking it over
until something bade her rise and say she was healed. Satan whispered ‘Better
wait and not disturb the meeting.” She felt impelled to rise, though feeling no
different in her body. She rose and said aloud, “I am healed.” And then it was
as if the diseases all rolled off down the to the ground, and she walked to Mr.
Boardman’s side, knelt down and returned thanks to God. The tumor had
disappeared. She ran upstairs that night to her bedroom, and has ever since
been perfectly well, though at times tried by weakness. But she always
finds that when she looks to Jesus for strength, He always give it; the weakness
is when she looks away form Him to herself.
Before Miss S.
came to Bethshan she had long been seeking the rest of faith and
sanctification. She knew there was an experience beyond what she had known, and
she longed for that even more than her bodily healing. On one of the days
intervening between arrival and her healing, she had seen that her privilege as
God’s child was to have Christ, the indwelling Christ as her sanctification, to
cleanse her heart and keep it clean, and she had accepted Him as such and
o9pened her heart to her Lord that He might enter in and dwell there. By faith
she had received Him and given her whole being over into His hands to be
healed, and thus she had obtained the rest of faith. Hence the Lord, having
obtained full possession of her, was able to do according to His heart’s
desire, and heal her body.
The other case
was different Sarah Arter had been brought up a Roman Catholic. In consequence
of severe internal disorders, abscesses and a fibrous tumor, she had been in
Plymouth and London hospitals the best part of three years. She had undergone
eight operations and the last of these had so irritated her nervous system that
she was subject to attacks of acute pain which convulsed her whole frame and
often ended in epileptic fits. Every natural function had become disordered.
While in the Plymouth hospital she was visited by a dear child of God, and in
spite of all her opposition, this friend continued to write her, and when she
returned to her family in London, sought her out and treated her like a sister.
Sarah’s heart was won: like Ruth of old she said, “Thy people shall be my
people, and thy God my God.” Hearing of the Saviour’s love she felt grateful,
and thought herself, and was thought to be, converted. But all this time there
was no real intercourse with God. Prayer and the Bible were no delight to her
unless shared by others; it was a second-hand religion. She came to us at the
very beginning of our work, and remained on and on, getting worse rather than
better. When Miss Scoones fell into a fit on the day of her arrival, Sarah’s
nerves had a great shock, and she herself had a succession of fits which
necessitated some one being with her night and day. An internal displacement
which occurred at this time quite prevented her from walking or sitting up, and
she could neither eat nor sleep.
One of our
invalids, a dear Christian lady, was sitting beside her, and telling her about
Jesus and His love, when it came out in a course of conversation that Sarah had
never prayed herself, except in times of great trouble, and that she had never
really been converted to God. She found peace then and there, and that night,
for the first time it could be said of her, ‘Behold she prayeth.” This was on
the Thursday evening after miss S. had been healed. On Saturday morning I was
sent forth by Sarah, and went expecting to find her in great pain. “Oh Miss,”
she said, “I have had such a time!” I asked if she had much suffering?-“Oh no,
I have had such a beautiful time, I have been talking to the Lord and He has
been talking back to me, and made things so clear that I never could understand
before Then something seemed to say to me, ‘You are healed.’ Five minutes
before I could not even sit up in bed for the pain, but when I heard this I
felt quite different. I sat up and then I got up, and I had no pain and I am
healed.” It was all blessedly true. She dressed and came down stairs and went
about the house; the displacement had been put right by the Lord’s own hand.
The inflammation had been subdued nor has there been any return. Still the
tumor remained, and now that the other pains were gone, Sarah seemed to feel
the weight and uneasiness of it very keenly. One Saturday and Sunday she had
pain all over her body, apparently connected with the tumor, and was feeling
very exhausted when our evening meeting began. But in a little while I noticed
she was sitting up, not lying down, and soon she rose and said, “I am now quite
healed; the Lord tells me so.” It was so; the tumor had disappeared and with it
the languor and weariness and pain. The Lord had gained the heart and ear of
His child, there was no further need of sickness. To Him be all the glory
forever. Amen.
These are two out
of the many cases of healing which our Lord has been working among us.
London, England.
