Evidences of Spiritual and Physical Healing (Triumphs of Faith 1.8)

EVIDENCES OF SPIRITUAL AND PHYSICAL HEALING.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities;
Who healeth all thy diseases. – Psa. ciii: 23.

Philidelphia, PA., June 24, 1881

Dear Miss Judd:

After reading the account in “The Prayer of Faith,” of your wonderful guidance, and deliverance from sickness, I cannot help giving you a short sketch of my own past life, which, though very simple, may nevertheless be the means of helping someone in a similar condition to a fuller and more complete dependence upon Jesus’ mercy and love. But, above all, would I glorify the name of our Heavenly Father, from whom all things do come.

I have been taught by a Christian, God-fearing mother, and it is now over seven years since I acknowledged Christ as my Saviour and united with the Church. But how little I knew when what it was to be a child of God in reality as well as in name! I was indeed serious in my desire to be a living, active, Christian. Now it is all plain to me, but I could not tell then why I should fail. My good resolutions fell to the ground, one after another, as soon as formed, and instead of advancing, I seemed to be continually falling back. At last I became discouraged, but, seeing no better way, continued still trying to improve myself. What a mistake, as I afterwards discovered! Had I stopped trying, and given it all to Jesus to do for me, I would sooner have known and realized the peace which was afterwards mine.

Three months ago I attended special service held in a private residence in Philadelphia, where I was shown the truth in Christ Jesus. There I learned by the testimony of others, through the influence of the Holy Spirit, that, in order to have the assurance I desired, I must make a complete surrender of myself to the lord, and believe He accepted me, then and there, through Christ. Not only that He accepted me willingly, but that He would keep that which I had committed to Him, “For there is no respect of persons with God.” –(Rom ii: 11.)

Step by step I was conscious of being led on by the spirit of God, and taught just what He wanted me to know. (1 Cor. ii: 10.) And now I want to relate an instance which, more than anything else, assured me that God really was keeping me.

All my life I had a great terror of thunder storms. Nothing that my friends could do to cheer or comfort me was of any avail, and, at last, I settled down to the belief that I must endure it with patience and submission. All my prayers seemed to return unanswered, and I now understand fully why it could not have been otherwise. I asked for strength to overcome my fear, but at the same time had a secret doubt of being answered, forgetting that according to our faith it should be done unto us. We are told in James i: , to “ask in faith, nothing wavering,” and had I any right to suppose God would answer my prayer when I failed to comply with the condition required? About a month ago, taking 1 John v: 14, 15, I again asked for freedom from this terrible fear, and had confidence that He would grant my petition as He had promised. It was some time before I could see, except by the eye of faith, that my prayer had been answered, as no storms came. He has not promised to give us grace for next week for what He requires of us today. Neither will he give strength before it is needed. But Satan continually tempted me to think that after all perhaps He had not heard me, or would not notice my prayer. Jude, 24^th verse, tells us that He is able to keep us from falling, and so, believing still, but through His power alone, the storm came, and terrible it was. I can never think of this without being filled to overflowing with gratitude. The fear had left me entirely, and here let me say that I think I never passed a more peaceful or happier hour in my life.

I had never heard a great deal about healing by faith, and confess had thought it something most improbable. I supposed in some rare cases it might be so, but that the person must necessarily be far advanced in a Christian life before being able to claim such a promise-at least, it could not be meant for me. What reason I had for thinking so, I can not imagine; but we often from our option of many things upon no better authority than I had in that case. In James v: 14,15, by “any” God certainly meant whoever and as many as will believe.

I was at last convinced by a dear friend who had herself been healed by faith some time before; and in whose life I could see the gentle leading of her Saviour. She prayed most fervently for my restoration, and together we poured out our prayer at the footstool of Him who sitteth upon the Throne. Again He lovingly answered His children, and took away that most irritating disease, rheumatism, which had troubled me for so long-made me, as He had promised, “a new creature.” Since then I have several times been tempted to doubt. But we are not allowed to be tempted above that we are able to bear, and we are “more than conquerors through Him that loved us.” –(Rom viii: 34.)

And now, my dear readers, who have never taken the Father at His word, but have doubted His readiness or ability to keep you in all things, go to Him now and tell Him you will believe and trust Him. Consecrate yourself, body and soul, completely to Him, and believe that He accepts you, and will make you “to will and to do of His good pleasure.” He will teach you everything by His Holy Spirit. Do not depend upon yourself in anything, but in all things look to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. He is abide to do exceeding abundantly, above all we ask or think.-(Eph. iii: 20.) Believe what He tells you, because He has said so, not because you feel it. “He is faithful that promised,” and what He has promised He is able also to perform.

            Yours very truly,

                     E.M.G.

***

HE MAKETH THE BLIND TO SEE.

The following account of the remarkable restoration of sight to a blind child, published in The Watchman, is translated by Dr. S. F. Smith from the account given by Rev. Mr. Thessmacher, long known as a beloved Baptist ministered in Germany. His story is as follows:

“In July last, in the town of Sage, I visited a family, both the heads of which are, I trust, converted persons. They had been for a time in great trouble, because all their children, if I mistake not, six in number, from one to eleven years of age, had long been terribly afflicted by a disease of the eyes.

“When I visited the family about eight weeks previously, the parents were almost inconsolable, the physical having told them decidedly, after a very careful examination, that both eyes of a daughter three years old were irreparably gone; and if they would do a good thing for their child, they should send her to a blind asylum.

“At the request of the anxious parents, I joined them in earnest prayer, begging the Almighty Physician, if it was consistent with His will, to restore to this child the precious gift of sight (as He once healed the blind man in the way), notwithstanding the decided declaration of the physician that both eyes were gone. And the covenant-keeping God enabled this child, who had been totally blind for nine months, to see again.

“On the day preceding my visit, she had walked out into the broad light of nature for the first time. When she first saw a flower she clapped her hands for joy, and then taking it in her hands she kissed it again and again. The parents were so rejoiced when they witnessed her expressible happiness, and saw so manifestly that we have a prayer-hearing God, that the father said, ‘Before, I could not bear my grief alone, when I saw the misery of my poor, blind little girl, and now I cannot bear my joy alone. I must and will tell it to others.’

“Eight weeks before I had wept with the weeping parents, and wrestled with God, to restore the sight of their child; now I could heartily rejoice with them, and humble thank God for so great a blessing. Oh, if we had more faith how often should we behold the glory of God.

Satisfied - Carrie F. Judd (Triumphs of Faith 1.8)

SATISFIED.

BY CARRIE F. JUDD

The fear of the Lord tendeth to life; and he that hath it shall abide satisfied.. – Prov. xix: 23.

All over the world are unsatisfied hearts, seeking for something- they scarcely know what- to meet the demands of the inward hunger which ever impels them onward to fresh exertions to satisfy it. How truthfully the Wise Preacher describes this unsatisfactory search, when He says, “All things are full of labor; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.” (Eccl. i: 8.) “Neither is his eye satisfied with riches.” (Eccl. iv: 8.)

Are not these words daily verified in the lives of those who are vainly seeking a “satisfying portion” in the outside pleasure of this deceitful world? they find bitter mingled with every sweet, and are forced at last to acknowledge that they have discovered nothing to satisfy the longing of their souls.

St. Augustine, who for so long a time before his conversation, followed the dictates of his own passionate will, admitted at last that there was no true rest except in God. His words were these, “Thou hast made us Thyself, and the soul never resteth till it findeth rest in Thee.”

But I am not thinking so much just now about the unsatisfied pleasure-seekers of the world, as I am about unsatisfied Christians. This very term seems contradictory, for if we are Christians we ought to have such a deep knowledge of the One Whom we profess to love and serve that we should indeed be “satisfied as with marrow and fatness.” And yet it is a grievous truth that there are many, very many, “who profess and call themselves Christians” who are pining secretly with spiritual hunger and heart-sickness and who do not gather their fill of the “hidden manna” which lies about their very pathway.

It is such a wonderful thing to “abide satisfied,” and yet this abiding satisfaction in Christ is our blessed privilege. How precious are the words, “He satisfyeth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.”-(St. Luke i: 53.) Let all of us who are panting for the fullness of life, grasp this truth for ourselves, and meekly say, “Be it unto me according to Thy word.” For it is the meek who “shall eat and be satisfied” (Psa. xxii: 26), and we must be ready to yield up all of our own words and ways and humbly submit to those of our Heavenly Master before we shall be empty enough to be filled with Himself.

One dear sister of my acquaintance who is hungering for a higher Christian life, and who has experienced repeated failures in her efforts to rise above the mists which envelop her, wrote me recently, “I am living now in either the rest of faith or the rest of despair; I know not which.” Strangely enough these very words of wistful complain suggest the condition of heart to which we must be brought, before our longing souls can be filled with “the fullness of God.”

We must indeed know the “rest of despair” as far as self-effort is concerned, before we can know the “rest of faith” which depends on God’s work to accomplish in our souls that which all of our own striving has failed to do.

We may, and must, despair of ourselves, in our feebleness and folly, but let us beware lest at the same time we forget our Saviour’s might and wisdom.

When we read Paul’s words, “O, wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” we realize the despair of all self-effort, but when he immediately adds, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord,” he acknowledges our Saviour’s power to accomplish what he, himself, could never do.

As long as there are any strivings on our part to work out the deliverance which only Christ could purchase for us, we must be shown by constant failure how futile are our attempts. But when we are willing to cease from our own works and “become like little children,” we shall know what it is to rest in Jesus’ arms without a struggle, trusting Him to defeat our enemies, and knowing what it means to be “more than conquerors through Him that loved us.”

***

Oh, that you could but know just what your Lord meant when HE said, “Consider the lilies, how they grow; for they toil not, neither do they spin.” Surely these words give us a picture of a life and of a growth far different from the ordinary life and growth of Christians-a life of rest, and a growth without effort, and yet a life and a growth crowned with glorious results. And to every soul that will thus become a lily in the garden of the Lord, and will grow us as the lilies grow, the same glorious array will be surely given as is given them, and they will know the fulfillment of that wonderful mystical passage concerning their Beloved, that “He feedeth among the lilies.”

   -H.W.S.

True Service for Christ (Continued) (Triumphs of Faith 1.8)

TRUE SERVICE FOR CHRIST.
­[Concluded.]

 The apostles were pre-eminently men of service, and men who had power in their service, and their history is ever held before us as the history of a successful working and witnessing Church. Let us go to some of our Lord’s teachings, and see how they open in the light thrown upon them by the lives of these Apostles, after the Spirit of Truth had come to them and they were prepared to be witnesses for Christ.

In his lesson, drawn from the Vine and the branches hear Him say: “I am the true Vine.” “Abide in Me.” “The branch cannot bear fruit, except it abide in the Vine. Ye cannot bear fruit except ye abide in Me.” Then follows five distinct things said of the branch that abides even through purging:

…”He bringeth forth much fruit.”
…”Ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you.”
…”Ye shall abide in My love.”
…”Your joy shall be full.”
…”Ye shall love one another.”

And interwoven all along to make the fabric complete, comes the “Abide and keep My commandments,” and, “If ye keep My commandments ye shall abide.”

This is made very personal, for, listen, again: “I have chosen you and ordained you that ye should bring forth fruit; that your fruit should remain; that whatsoever ye may ask the Father in My name, He may give it to you; that ye love one another; that with the Spirit of Truth ye have that joy that no man taketh from you; and that with this Spirit ye shall bear witness.” There is an element of life belonging in the common to the Vine and the branches, for, “If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept My sayings, they will keep yours also.”

This abiding and its abundant blessing was all proved true in the experience of the disciples, and, reading it now, with their lives as exponents of the text, we know that the life which flowed so freely between the Vine and the branches was of the Holy Ghost.

What was true for the disciples may be made true for us; and what was their need is no less our necessity. Witnesses for Christ must be branches of this living Vine. By the Holy Ghost we may have the fuller knowledge of the abiding presence crowning the work of Jesus in our hearts. Do any ask to hear God’s word, to know His voice, to have His power? “When the Comforter is come He will guide you into all truth.” “He that is of God heareth God’s word.” “Then shall ye receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.”

Seeking gifts we only limit our advances to Him, Whom having, we have in Him all things. Abide, and the branch will receive from the Living Vine the Holy Ghost. He will come bringing peace and joy and love, and strength to keep the commandments, so that we shall do whatsoever He shall say to us. He will come, making all grace abound. “that ye always, having all sufficiency in all things, may about to every good work.” He will come ministering bread for your food, and multiplying your seed sown, and increasing the fruits of your righteousness.

The Life from the Vine nourishes the Branch, and fruit is produced, the fruit of the Spirit; with the measure of the fruit-bearing limited by the soul-abiding. The practice of a grace, however beautiful, may be all in the life of self-nature and self-culture, and therefore unto death. The care of the branch is left in other hands, and when fruit appears, the purging of the Husbandman, alone, can bring more fruit, and the fruit that is unto life.

As living branches, we, putting into form and expression the life within, the life of the Vine, ask and receive, for we ask what He wills. His words are spoken, for the words are the expression of His life, and His life is there. His words are to us the outward signs of an inward truth; we keep them, to because His will is our law, but because His will expressed in these words is our will also.

The branch bears no fruit for its own using; the service is for another, and in the laying down of our life for others, more life comes; in the giving of all, all is received. Then abiding in love, for “God is love,” and cannot withhold Himself; and in “fullness of joy,” for He fills all our present and measures out present life and present duty; in quiet acceptance of today, we find out content, and our best having, and bear witness in our lives that we have been with Jesus from the beginning.

What is your need then? Hear Christ’s words: “Abide in Me, and whatsever ye shall ask the Father, in My name, He will do it. Abide in Me and bring forth fruit, yea, much fruit; yea, fruit that shall remain. Abide and have the love of God shed abroad in your hearts. Abide and have that joy that no man taketh from you. Abide and keep My commandments as I have kept My Father’s commandments.” So shall your life be of God, and your service, true service.

CONSECRATION AND FAITH PLEDGE

CONSECRATION PLEDGE.

Dear Lord; I present myself unreservedly to Thee.

My time.

My talents.

My tongue.

My will.

My property.

My reputation.

My entire being.

To be, and to do, anything that Thou requires of me.

PLEDGE OF FAITH.

        Now as I have given myself away, I am no longer my own, but all the Lord’s.

        I believe Thou dost accept the offering I bring.

        I trust Thee to work in me all the good pleasure of Thy will.

        “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and I will receive you.”

                As I do give myself to Thee, I believe Thou dost receive me now.

Wondrous Things - Abbie I. Mills (Triumphs of Faith 1.8)

WONDROUS THINGS.

BY ABBIE I. MILLS.

“Open Thou, mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law.”

Angel Falls in Venezuela

How appropriate this prayer! The plan of salvation is so full of wonders, that were it not for our blindness of heart, we would be constantly filled with wonder, love and praise. Under the Spirit’s operation, the range of vision is constantly increasing. We reach no mountain where we shall not hear the command “Go forward,” with the assurance that we have encamped there already long enough.

The written Word declares that Jesus “is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.” This “uttermost” many think they have reached when sin is forgiven, and the new song of praise wells up from heart to lip. General assent to the fact that Jesus was able to save had long been given, but the plague of their heart seemed so great, could He, would He, save them? That uttermost was where faith took hold, and salvation came.

A great salvation, but what a mine of wonders it contains yet unexplored. The light shed abroad in the heart reveals the need of the cleansing that reaches all the springs of action.

Will this salvation sweeten all the bitter waters of the affections, the desires of the flesh, its appetites and activities? Again, that word, “uttermost,” reveals the fact that provision has been made for a state of soul, where all is joy, and prayer, and praise, because the soul is “dead indeed unto sin,” but “alive unto God,” through the righteousness of Christ. The rest of faith found, more of God is seen from day to day. That he is really in everything is not fully comprehended by many who have consecrated all to Him. But, more and more, they are led to see this wonder, and to rejoice in the rest it brings.

But the souls thus taught of God, dwells still in a body, which shows lamentably the effects of sin. Praise is hindered by the sigh of pain. The works of the enemy are seen in all sorts of abnormal bodily conditions. Skilled physicians are thwarted, and disease fills days and nights with weariness and woe, and the tongue cannot speak the praises of the Saviour.

Is there no power, in this, so great salvation, to reach and heal the body? “He is able to save with the uttermost, seeing he ever liveth.” While H\e walked on earth, disease fled at His touch. Death could not hold Him. Watching over those He died to save, He ever liveth, to give abundant life to those who believe. This uttermost relation does not stop short of the fleshly temples that surround the sons of God on earth. He is able to heal now. His unchangeable love and compassion make Him still willing, and faith says, “He doeth it,” for it sees this included in the “whatsoever” things that prayer breathes forth in Jesus’ name.

And, thanks be unto God, the faith that staggers not at God’s promise, is followed by facts, that show to an unbelieving multitude of Thomas-like disciples that the body, as well as the soul, is still within the scope of the “Exceeding great and precious promises.” Wonderous things are ready for those who have open eyes, to behold. Let the prayer, then, go on, “Open thou mine eyes,” lest the wondrous experiences of God’s power and love that might have been ours, lie, like  the hidden gold in the mine, gold still, but of no use to us, because not sought with a faith that defiles all obstacles while in search of the coveted treasure.

In the Healer's Arms - M.J. Palmiter (Triumphs of Faith 1.8)

IN THE HEALER’S ARMS.

BY M. J. PALMITER.

Bruised and weak, and sick and fainting,
            Prostrate at Thy feet I fall;
Listen to my sad complaining
            O Thou Holy Lord of all:
                        Help is needed,
            For that help on Thee I call.

Many mighty prove to feeble,
            Greatest skill is far too weak,
Surely Thou alone art able
            My emergency to meet;
                        Look in pity
            While I’m waiting at Thy feet.

Thou, compassionate Physician,
            Every case can clearly see;
Understanding my condition,
            Thou canst well prescribe for me.
                        O, but tough me,
            And disease shall quickly flee.

Soul and body united,
            Thou canst heal the self-same hour;
Then could I exclaim, delighted,
            “Thou hast wrought a perfect cure!
                        All the glory
            Be ascribed to Jesus’ power!”

So I’ll wait, and wait believing
            He does undertake for me,
And my soul is now receiving
            What is truly best for me,
                        Sweetly resting
            Till I His salvation see.

If in His renewing wisdom
            He can speak the word, “Be whole,”
Soul and body all exultant
            Shall the glorious truth reveal,
                        Ever telling
            There’s a God in Israel.

But I know this Great Physician
            Will the needful health impart,
Or He’ll press me closer, closer,
            To His tender, loving heart,
                        Safely shielding
            From the tempter’s fiery dart.

O how safe in health and sickness,
            Strom and sunshine, night and day,
Safe for Jesus’ love and greatness
            Careth for us all the way,
                        Till triumphant
            We shall rise to endless day.

My Experience (Continued) - A.W.P. (Triumphs of Faith 1.8)

MY EXPERIENCE.
­[Continued.]

BY A. W. P.

“Now may the very God of peace sanctify you wholly… Faithful is He that calleth you Who will do it.”

In my last chapter I alluded to the fact that a messenger of God was sent to me at the very moment of my deep spiritual need. Hearing rapid steps on our front walk, I looked out and saw a man approaching, evidently absorbed in thought, for as he walked he was humming snatches of a hymn. I was entirely alone in the house at the time of this occurrence, the other members of the family having left town, and I had given the servants permission to go to a wedding. I was about to say that all this chanced to be so, but I don’t believe there is any such thing as chance in this world. I think God’s hand is in what seems to us to be the most trifling events of life. And surely this was one of the most crucial hours of my life, when my soul was tossed about upon the waves of doubt and despair, and there seemed no light, no deliverance for me anywhere. If I had not been entirely alone in the house, the interview which followed, closing with prayer, could not possibly have occurred as we would have been liable to many interruptions. I do not recollect that I was ever left in that way before in my life as it had never been our custom to allow both servants to be absent at the same time. I dwell upon this to show that the Lord wonderfully arranged and planned every circumstance connected with this interview.

I felt a little timid about answering the door-bell, and hesitated about doing so, but finally went and as I looked through the screen door I saw such a pleasant, honest face that I felt re-assured and opened it. Finding that he had come upon business, I asked him to walk in. We were entire strangers he not even knowing whose residence it was.

Something in his general demeanor caused me to look at him wonderingly with a vague presentiment that something of importance was about to occur. After finishing his errand he lingered, seemingly unwilling to lave, and suddenly noticing a religious book upon the table, he took it up and, after running over its pages, quietly seated himself and began to talk about the holiness of heart! He told me he had been one of the worst of men, addicted to almost every vice, that at the time of his conversation he was an actor in a third-rate theatre, but was suddenly arrested in his downward course by the Holy Spirit and brought under deep conviction of sin. He was happily converted, forsook all his evil habits and started out in an earnest Christian life. He felt much joy and peace at times, but after continuing in the Christian life. He felt much joy and peace at times, but after continuing in the Christian race after a few years he discovered that he was not wholly delivered form sin, but that he many times found himself taken captive by the adversary, which was a source of much grief and shame to him, but which he was wholly unable to prevent. He found himself to be in the condition of the man described in Rom. vii:18-19, “For to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would, I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it but in sin that dwelleth in me.” He saw that he had not “reckoned himself to be dead indeed unto sin and alive unto God” as we are commanded to do, and felt that he had known little of “the glorious liberty of the Children of God” which it is the privilege of every one of His children to enjoy. The more he searched the World the more clearly he saw his need of that purity of heart without which “no man shall see God.” He was plunged into the most terrible conflict with the devil at this point, and the battle raged so furiously for several days that he actually feared that reason would be dethroned. Indeed he became so desperate that at last he entered his home one day with the determination to put an end to the life of his wife and then his own. But the calm innocence of her face as she sat with her infant on her lap and looked up wonderingly at him, quite disarmed him, and he turned and rushed out of the house. There was one dark stain upon his life before his conversation which he had never confessed to his wife, and now the Holy Spirit continually whispered, “Go and tell her all,” but Satan would quickly reply, that if he did so, she would surely cast him off forever, and thus he would lose the wife and child he so dearly loved. This thought it was which almost drove him to madness as he walked the streets battling with his contending emotions.

Finally he cried out in anguish that he would go and make a full confession, and if the Lord saw fit to strip him of wife and child and all he possessed, he would bow to His will; and so imploring His help, he returned to his home. Trembling and with many tears he told to his astonished wife his story, and was overwhelmed with gratitude and surprise to hear her say at once that she freely forgave it all! How the enemy loves to make us think that the commands of our God are “grievous” and His yoke heavy to be borne, and thereby would discourage us from following the leading of the Holy Spirit. If we will simply obey, “looking neither to the right hand nor to the left,” we will invariably find that a blessing rather than a cross awaits us, as in case of this brother.

With streaming eyes they knelt together, and while in prayer and praise he felt that every chain was broken and his soul set free in Christ. He had in humility and faith come to Jesus and laid all at His feet, and thus coming emptied of self , he was in a condition to be filled with the Holy Ghost. From that moment he set out joyfully in “the way of holiness,” feeling that henceforth he would trust in Jesus to carry on the blessed work begun in his heart, and to daily cleanse and keep him from all sin. “If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us form all unrighteousness.” His countenance beamed with light and joy as he related to me how he had ever since been “kept by the power of God unto salvation,” and had been enabled to overcome the assaults of the enemy every step of the way. He then took from his pocket a testament and read to me the 3^rd chapter of 1^st John-that wonderful chapter which I had heretofore read with eyes that saw not! Oh how my hungry, aching heart drank in the words “Ye know that He was manifested to take away our sins”!

“Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not.” He that committeth sin is of the devil. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil!” Blessed be God for those strong words of encouragement; how many a fainting heart have they helped to seek full deliverance in the Son of God! A gleam of light-a faint ray of hope dawned upon me. It almost seemed as I listened that this blessed salvation was for poor, unworthy me. It was evident that it was precisely what I needed and what I was stretching out my hands in the darkness to find.

(To be continued.)

Delivered From Sickness - Mrs. M. Baxter. (Triumphs of Faith 1.8)

DELIVERED FROM SICKNESS.

BY MRS. M. BAXTER.

Confess your faults to one another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. – James v: 16.

“By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.”-(Eph. ii:8.) This is true for soul and body. Jesus has redeemed us in bearing our sins and our sicknesses upon the Cross, and it can never be by any other merit than His own, that we may claim the benefit of His redemption for spiritual or for physical healing. But God is a jealous God, and He is preparing a Bride for His Son who must not have “spot or wrinkle or any such thing,” but “be holy and without blemish”. He would have His Bride to be such that He could always say to her, “Thou art all fair, My love; there is no spot in thee.”-(Cant. iv:7.)

In souls which responded to the wooding of the heavenly Bridegroom, and who experience a desire above all other desires, to be pure as He is pure, holy as He is holy, there is a growing consciousness that the Lord becomes more and more exact in His dealings with them; and it frequently happens that healing comes more slowly to some, than to others whose spiritual experience is not so deep.

For instance, a lady in Wurtemberg had been suffering for a considerable time from an internal malady, which cost her such suffering that every movement, at times was torture. Being of an energetic temperament, she strove against it, and, in spire of the suffering, continued her usual duties, but month after month her strength failed her, until her friends almost feared she would die. Hers is a consecrated life, all for Jesus, and because she would have Jesus all for her, she did not so much as think of consulting a physician.

A child of God, who had been herself healed by the Great Physician, and also in some cases blest in healing others, was staying one night in her house, and she asked her to lay hands on her and anoint he with oil in the name of the Lord. She replied, “I am no elder,” and the suffering sister said, “God has made you an elder to me by leading me deeper into His truth through your means.” The other replied, “I will ask the Lord’s permission,” and both retired for the night to lay the matter before the Lord. In the morning the suffering sister came into the other’s room in great agitation, saying, “God has been dealing with me, I have not slept all night; He has laid it upon me to confess a sin which bound me captive for years, and which, even now, is made by the enemy a source of uneasiness.” She then, with the deepest emotion, unburdened her soul. “If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”-(1 John, i:9.) She knew that she was cleansed. Her friend said, “I have now full liberty from God to anoint you in the name of the Lord.” After reading some passages about the anointing, she laid hands on her and anointed her in the name of Jesus Christ, four other devoted Christians being present.

Immediately after, she rose from her knees without effort, quoting the words, “leaping up, stood and walked… walking and leaping and praising God.”-(Acts, iii:8.) From that moment all pain was gone and she has been from that time (eight months) as well as she ever was in her life, praise God. But in her case, until confession was made, no prayer availed for her healing. God would have His chosen ones, His priestly ones be transparent as the light, hiding nothing because they have nothing to hide.

A young man in the north of Germany who believed in healing, and who professed to be a wholly consecrated man, was nevertheless overcome by a feeling of bitterness against a sister-in-law who had acted unkindly and unjustly toward him. An attack of feverish influenza seized him. He sought to attend an evening meeting after he had felt quite ill for two days. There the power of God’s Spirit was present; there were confessions of sin and some blessed testimonies to the power of the blood of Jesus. Amongst others this young man confessed the bitterness towards his sister-in-law which had unconsciously gained power over him, and instantaneously he was freed from every trace of his malady and was filled with joy in the Holy Ghost.

The confession of sin can never be the means of healing, but the failure to confess may sometimes be a hindrance in the way. As long as we are not standing right with man, the flow of the Holy Sprit’s power throughout our being is interrupted. It was where Christians were “of one heart and one soul,” where “they had all things in common,” where “great grace was upon them all,” that all the sick who were brought to them were healed. O lord, make Thy children once they fit to be the instruments of Thy love and power.

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Now the just shall live by faith; but if any man draw back, My soul shall have no pleasure in him.
-Heb. x:38.