The MINISTRY OF HEALING,
Or, Miracles of Cure in All Ages.
-- A. J. Gordon
Pastor of Clarendon St. Church in Boston
Second Thousand Revised 1883
Copyright 1882
V.
THE TESTIMONY OF THEOLOGIANS.
Admitting, with the historians, that miracles ceased to be recognized in the Church, as a
whole, after the third century, there have still continued to be witnesses here and there to
their occurrence through all the ages. We call to the stand several theologians, who have not
only defended the doctrine of the continuance of miracles, but have cited illustrations of what
they regarded as credible instances in support of their theory.
Augustine, it has been claimed, denied the existence of miraculous interpositions in his
day; and he certainly said some things that give occasion for that opinion. But, on the other
hand, he has left on record what cannot but be regarded as the strongest testimony to their
continuance in his generation. Archbishop Trench considers that the true solution of this seeming
contradiction is, that he held to their cessation in his earlier writings, and, changing his
opinion, maintained their continu-
88 THE TESTIMONY
ance in his later.* If this be so, we must take the last opinion as his true conviction,
not that which he had retracted. How decidedly, indeed, he commits himself to the doctrine of the
perpetuity of miracles will appear if we read the heading of one of the chapters of the De
Civitate Dei: "Concerning the miracles which were wrought in order that the world might believe
in Christ and which cease not to be wrought now that the world does believe" He lived in a time,
indeed, when the shadows of superstition had already begun to creep over the Church, and the
records of miracles which he makes are occasionally marred by some trace of such superstition :
"For even now, he says, "miracles are wrought in his name whether by the sacraments, or
by prayers, or at the tombs of the saints. But they are not proclaimed with the same renown, so
as to be spread abroad with the former. For the sacred volume which was to be made known on all
sides caused the former to be told everywhere and to hold their place in all men's memories; but
the latter are known of scarcely beyond the whole city
*" In an early work, Dt Vera Religione xxv. 47, he denies their continuance, while in
his Retractions he withdraws this statement, or limits it to such miracles as those that
accompanied baptism at the first. In De Civ. Dei. xxii. 8, he enumerates at great length
miracles, chiefly those of healing, which he believed to have been wrought in his own time, and
coming more or less within his own knowledge." Trench; Notes on the Miracles, p. 59.
OF THEOLOGIANS. 89
or neighborhood where they may happen to be wrought." *
In the same chapter he goes on to give instances to corroborate this assertion. We
reproduce one, abridging the narrative, which is very extended, but retaining the essential
points. The story is exceedingly natural and affecting. It is concerning Innocentius, a devout
Christian, and a man of high rank in Carthage. He was suffering from a painful malady, and had
submitted to several surgical operations for its removal, but without effect. An eminent surgeon,
Alexandrinus by name, being summoned, declared that there was no hope except possibly in another
operation. This was decided on, and several officers of the Church were with him the evening
before his trial, of whom he begged that they would be present the next day at what he feared
would be his death. "Among those present," says Augustine, "was Aurelius, now the only survivor
and a bishop: a man ever to be mentioned with the greatest regard and honor, with whom, in
calling to mind the wonderful works of God, I have often conversed on the occurrence, and I find
that he retains the fullest recollection of
* Work v., p. 299
90 THE TESTIMONY
what I now relate." The rest we give in the words of Augustine:
"We then went to prayer; and, while we were kneeling and prostrating ourselves, as on
other occasions, he also prostrated himself, as if some one had forcibly thrust him down, and
began to pray: in what manner, with what earnestners, with what emotion, with what a flood of
tears, with what agitation of his whole body, I might almost say with what suspension of his
respiration, by his groans and sobs, who shall attempt to describe? Whether the rest of the party
were so little affected as to be able to pray I knew not. For my part I could not. This, alone,
inwardly and briefly, I said: 'Lord, what prayers of thine own children wilt thou ever grant if
thou grant not these?' For nothing seemed more possible but that he should die praying. We arose,
and, after the benediction by the bishop, left him, but not till he had besought them to be with
him in the morning, nor till they had exhorted him to calmness. The dreaded day arrived, and the
servants of God attended as they had promised. The medical men made their appearance; all things
required for such an occasion are got ready, and, amidst the terror and suspense of all present,
the dreadful instruments are brought out. In the meantime, while those of the bystanders whose
authority was the greatest, endeavored to support the courage of the patient by words of comfort,
he is placed in a convenient position for the operation, the dressings are opened, the seat of
the disease is exposed, the surgeon inspects it, and tries to find the part to be operated upon
with his
OF THEOLOGIANS. 91
instrument in his hand. He first looks for it, then examines by the touch; in a word, he
makes every possible trial, and finds the place perfectly healed. The gladness, the praise, the
thanksgiving to a compassionate and all powerful God, which, with mingled joy and tears, now
burst from the lips of all present, cannot be told by me. The scene may more easily be imagined
than described."
It will be seen, on careful reading, that aside from the testimony of the writer himself,
there is everything in this story to indicate the genuineness and authenticity of the miracle.
Its detailed narration shows how unquestionably the writer believes in healing through the prayer
of faith.
Martin Luther, "whose prose is a half battle," would be likely to speak strongly on this
subject if he spoke at all. Martin Luther, whose prayers were victorious battles, so that they
who knew him were wont to speak of him as " the man who can have whatever he wishes of God" would
be likely to plead efficaciously in this field if he entered it at all. And so he did. The
testimony of Luther's prayers for the healing of the body are among the strongest of any on
record in modern times. He has been quoted, indeed, as disparaging miracles. And the
explanation of this fact
92 THE TESTIMONY
is perfectly easy for those who have investigated his real opinions. Like the other
reformers like Huss and Latimer, for example, he revolted violently from the impudent Romish
miracles which in his day put forth their claims on every side. This frequently led him to speak
in very contemptuous terms of modern signs and wonder-working. And it is not strange that some,
lighting on these utterances, should have concluded that he denied all supernatural interventions
in modern times. But if we turn from Luther the controversialist to Luther the pastor, we find a
man who believed and spoke with all the vehemence of his Saxon heart on the side of present
miracles. " How often has it happened and still does," he says, "that devils have been driven out
in the name of Christ, also by calling on his name and prayer that the sick have been healed? "
And he suited his action to his words on this point; for when they brought him a girl saying that
she was possessed with a devil Luther laid his hand on her head, appealed to the Lord's promise:
" He that believeth on me the works I do shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he
do," and then prayed to God, with the rest of the ministers of the Church, that, for
OF THEOLOGIANS. 93
Christ's sake, he would cast the devil out of this girl.* Perfect recovery is recorded in
this instance as well as in several others where he prayed for the sick.
The most notable instance is that of Philip Melancthon. An account of this recovery,
which seems to be trustworthy, is given by the historian to whom we have just referred.
Melancthon had fallen ill on a journey, and a messenger had been despatched to Luther. The
story continues :
" Luther arrived and found Philip about to give up the ghost. His eyes were set; his
consciousness was almost gone; his speech had failed, and also his hearing; his face had fallen;
he knew no one, and had ceased to take either solids or liquids. At this spectacle Luther is
filled with the utmost consternation, and turning to his fellow travellers says: ' Blessed Lord,
how has the devil spoiled me of this instrument!' Then turning away towards the window he called
most devoutly on God."
Then follows the substance of Luther's prayer :
" He beseeches God to forbear, saying that he has struck work in order to urge upon him
in supplication, with all the promises he can repeat from scripture: that he must hear and answer
now if he would ever have the petitioner trust in him again"
Seckendorf's History of Lutheranism, B. III. p. 133.
94 THE TESTIMONY
The narrative goes on :
"After this, taking the hand of Philip, and well knowing what was the anxiety of his
heart and conscience, he said ' Be of good courage, Philip, thou shalt not die. Though God wanted
not good reason to slay thee, yet he willeth not the death of a sinner, but that he may be
converted and live. Wherefore, give not place to the spirit of grief, nor become the slayer of
thyself, but trust in the Lord who is able to kill and to make alive.' While he uttered these
things Philip began, as it were, to revive and to breathe, and gradually recovering his strength,
is at last restored to health."
If the reader should conclude hastily that this recovery may be accounted for on entirely
natural principles, we have to remind him that the conviction of both parties to the transaction
was quite otherwise.
Melancthon writing to a friend says :
"I should have been a dead man had I not been recalled from death itself by the coming of
Luther."
Luther speaks in the same manner writing to friends :
"Philip is very well after such an illness, for it was greater than I had supposed. I
found him dead, but, by an evident miracle of God, he lives."
Again, referring to his attendance at the diet, he says :
"Toil and labor have been lost, and money spent
OF THEOLOGIANS. 95
to no purpose; nevertheless, though I have succeeded in nothing, yet I fetched back
Philip out of Hades, and intend to bring him now, rescued from the grave, home again with joy,
&c."
Such is the witness of the great reformer, and, if needful, it might be strengthened by
reference to other remarkable instances of his power in prayer for the sick.
That of Myconius is well known, who wrote of himself: "Raised up in the year 1541 by the
mandates, prayers and letter of the reverend Father, Luther, from death."
Luthardt furnishes this version of the event:
" Myconius, the venerated superintendent of Gotha, was in the last stage of consumption,
and already speechless. Luther wrote to him that he must not die: ' May God not let me hear so
long as I live that you are dead, but cause you to survive me. I pray this earnestly, and will
have it granted, and my will shall be granted herein, Amen.' 'I was so horrified,' said Myconius,
afterwards, 'when I read what the good man had written, that it seemed to me as though I had
heard Christ say, 'Lazarus come forth.' And from that time Myconius was, as it were, kept from
the grave by the power of Luther's prayers, and did not die till after Luther's death." *
The stout lion heart of the Reformer revolted against the grotesque miracles of
Anti-christ; but
*Luthardt Moral Truths o£ Christianity, p. 198
96 THE TESTIMONY
the believing heart of the Christian took the promises of God, and pleaded them and
proved them; and he gained what he regarded as the greatest of conquests: that of having
demonstrated scripture, so as to be able to say of one text in the Bible: "This I know for
certain to be true.1'
Richard Baxter will be listened to with especial deference on the question before us. He
was so bold in uttering his convictions that Boyle said of him that "he feared no man's
displeasure, nor hoped for any man's preferment;" and he was also so devout that Joseph Alleine
was accustomed to preface his quotations from him with the words "As most divinely saith that man
of God, holy Mr. Baxter." He wrote very decidedly in defense of present miraculous interpositions
for God's faithful. Speaking of what he calls "eminent providences," he says :
"I am persuaded that there is scarcely a godly experienced Christian that carefully
observes and faithfully recordeth God's providence toward him but is able to bring forth some
such experiment, and to shew you some strange and unusual mercies which may plainly discover an
Almighty disposer, making good the promises of this scripture to his servants; some in desperate
diseases of body; some in other apparent dangers delivered so suddenly or so much against the
common course of
OF THEOLOGIANS. 97
nature when all the best remedies have failed, that no second cause could have any hand
in their deliverance." *
After referring to some remarkable instances in the lives of the reformers he says ;
" But why need I fetch examples so far off? or to recite the multitude of them which
Church history doth afford us? Is there ever a praying Christian here who knoweth what it is
importunately to strive with God, and to plead his promises with him believingly, that cannot
give in his experiences of most remarkable answers? I know men's atheism and infidelity will
never want somewhat to say against the most eminent providences, though they were miracles
themselves. That nature which is so ignorant of God, and at emnity with him, will not acknowledge
him in his clear discoveries to the world, but will ascribe all to fortune or nature, or some
such idol, which, indeed, is nothing. But when mercies are granted in the very time of prayer,
and that when to reason there is no hope, and that without the use or help of any other means or
creature, yea, and perhaps many times over and over; is not this as plain as if God from heaven
should say to us, I am fulfilling to thee the true word of my promise in Christ my Sonne? How
many times have I known the prayer of faith to save the sick when all physicians have given them
up as dead." (Here Baxter subjoins a note to be given presently.) " It has been my own case more
than once or twice or ten times, when means have all failed, and the highest art of rea-
*Saint't Rest, Part II chap. vi. Sec V.
98 THE TESTIMONY
son has sentenced me hopeless, yet have I been relieved by the prevalency of fervent
prayer, and that (as the physician saith "tuto, cito, et jucunde," my flesh and my heart failed,
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever.) And though he yet keep me under
necessary weakness, and wholesome sickness, and certain expectation of further necessities, and
assaults, yet am I constrained by most convincing experiences, to set up this stone of
remembrance, and publickly to the praise of the Almighty, to acknowledge that certainly God is
true of his promises, and that they are indeed his own infallible word, and that it is a most
excellent privilege to have interest in God, and a Spirit of supplication to be importunate with
him. I doubt not but most Christians that observe the Spirit and providences are able to attest
this prevalency of prayer by their own experiences." *
He then gives a detailed account of his own remarkable healing which we quote in full.
"Among abundance of instances that I could give, my conscience commandeth me here to give
you this one, as belonging to the very words here written. I had a tumor rise on one of the
tonsils or almonds of my throat, round like a pea, and at first no bigger; and at last no bigger
than a small button, and hard like a bone. The fear lest it should prove a cancer troubled me
more than the thing itself. I used first dissolving medicines, and after lenient for palliation,
and all in vain for about a quarter of a year. At last my conscience smote me for silencing so
many former deliverances, that I
* Ibid.
OF THEOLOGIANS. 99
had had in answer of prayers; merely in pride, lest I should be derided as making
ostentation of God's special mercies to myself, as if I were a special favorite of heaven, I had
made no public mention of them: I was that morning to preach just what is here written, and in
obedience to my conscience, I spoke these words which are now in this page, viz: " how many times
have I known the, prayer of faith to save the sick when all physicians have given them up as
dead"with some enlargements not here written. When I went to church I had my tumor as before,
(for I frequently saw it in the glasse, and felt it constantly.) As soon as I had done preaching,
I felt it was gone, and hasting to the glasse, I saw that there was not the least vestigium or
cicatrix, or mark wherever it had been: nor did I at all discern what became of it. I am sure I
neither swallowed it nor spit it out, and it was unlikely to dissolve by any natural cause, that
had been hard like a bone a quarter of a year, notwithstanding all dissolving gargarismes. I
thought fit to mention this, because it was done just as I spoke the words here written in this
page. Many such marvellous mercies I have received, and known that others have received in answer
to prayers."*
At once we imagine the explanations which will be given to this artlessly narrated
incident. We do not vouch for its supernatural character. We have introduced it simply to show
that Richard Baxter believed in modern miracles of healing, and there we leave it. It is not
the authenticity of the
* Ibid.
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wonder but the opinion of the man which we wish now to establish. That must be considered
unquestionable.
John Albert Bengel is not only greatly esteemed but held in real affection by lovers of
God's word who have studied his commentary. He expounds pithily, but what is far better he
believes intensely. "His works," says Dorner, "were the first cock crowing of that new kind of
exegesis which the Church so much needed." His is preeminently the exegesis of faith in
distinction from the exegesis of reason. If he finds things in the Bible too hard for his
critical faculty he finds nothing too hard for his believing faculty. Hence his interpretations
are not a sizing and sorting of scripture to the dimensions of human experience, but a frank
acceptance of it as God's truth. The word never appears shrunken as it comes forth from his hand;
it does not present a scant weight as though it had paid toll to modern doubt. "Faith takes up
all she can get and marches bravely onward," is a saying of his that describes better than any
other his conduct in handling scripture. Now by faith Bengel staggered not at the promise of
miraculous healing, which he found in the New Testament, but believed it, and
OF THEOLOGIANS. 101
confessed it, and rejoiced in it. In speaking of the gift of healing he says:
"It seems to have been given by God that it might always remain in the Church as a
specimen of the other gifts: Just as the portion of manna betokened the ancient miracles."* "O
happy simplicity ! interrupted or lost through unbelief," he exclaims. And yet he declares, "even
in our day faith has in every believer a hidden miraculous power. Every result of prayer is
really miraculous even though this be not apparent; although in many, because of their own
weakness and the world's unworthiness, not merely because the church once planted needs not
miracles (though no doubt the early New Testament miracles have made for the Lord an everlasting
name) that power does not exert itself in our day. Signs were in the beginning the props of
faith :' now they are the object of faith."+
And then, for confirming his assertions of his belief in the possibility of modern
miracles, he introduces the following instance :
"At Leonberg a town of Wirtembergh, A. d. 1644, thirteenth Sunday after Trinity, a girl
of twenty-three years of age, was so disabled in her limbs as hardly to be able to creep along by
the help of crutches. But whilst the Dean, Raumier was his name, was from the pulpit dwelling on
the miraculous power of Jesus name she suddenly was raised up and restored to the use of her
limbs."
* Comment on James v. 17. +On Mark 16: 14.
102 THE TESTIMONY
This story the American editor omits as though solicitous for the critics reputation; but
Faucett the English translator retains it in its place, and adds from information gathered from
other sources that "this, happened in the presence of the Duke of Eberhard, and his courtiers and
was committed to the public records which are above all suspicion."
Edward Irving is another illustrious confessor bearing witness to the doctrine we are
defending. A man of wonderful endowments,* his highest gift seems to have been that of faith. He
believed, with the whole strength and intensity of his nature, everything which he found written
in the Scriptures. Cast upon times of great spiritual deadness, he longed to see Christendom
mightily revived, and he conceived that this could only be effected by stirring up the Church to
recover her forfeited endowments. "To restore is to revive," was emphatically his motto. He gave
great offense by his utterances and had his name cast out as evil. He was accused of offering
strange fire upon the altar of his Church, because he thought to relight
*" But I hold, withal and not the less firmly for these discrepancies in our moods
and judgments, that Edward Irving possesses more of the spirit and purpose of the first
Reformers, that he has more of the head and heart, the life and unction and the genial power of
Martin Luther, than any man now alive: yea, than any man of this or the last century. I see in
Edward Irving a minister of Christ after the order of Paul." Coleridge; works v. vi., p. 115.
OF THEOLOGIANS. 103
the fire of Pentecost. Need enough was there of restoration, when teachers had so far
made void the word of God by their traditions that in their discussion with him they openly
appealed from the Bible to the standards. Have you never read what Jehoiakim the son of Judah did
with his penknife upon the prophet's roll?How "it came to pass that when Jehudi had read three
or four leaves, he cut it with his penknife and cast it into the fire ! " Alas! that modern
theology should have given occasion to be accused of doing likewise with the xii th of I
Corinthians and sundry other parts of scripture that tell about "to another the gift of healing
by the same Spirit, and another the working of miracles, to another prophecy," etc.
Irving, with a zeal for the Lord not always temperate, accused the Church of having
clipped out these portions from the scripture with her exegetical penknife, because she had said
"these things do not pertain to the Church of today." And he went farther"the Lord commanded
Jeremiah to take another roll and to write in it all the former words that were in the first roll
which Jehoiakim the son of Judah had burned." And Irving conceived that he had a similar com-
104 THE TESTIMONY
mission or at least permission, not to make any new revelation, as he was accused,
but to retrace the faded lines of the old, wherein it spoke of "spiritual gifts:" and so he
encouraged his flock to seek for, and if the Lord should permit, to exercise the gifts of
prophecy and of healing. This was his chief affront, and that which brought his splendid career
under an eclipse, a result inevitable indeed considering that he was to be judged by those who
knew no distinction between innovation and renovation.
But bating any extravagances into which he may have fallen, we confess that our heart has
always gone out to him in reverence for his heroic fidelity to the word of God, and his
willingness, in allegiance to that word, to follow Christ "without the camp bearing the
reproach." And we believe that when the Master shall come to recompense his servants, this one
will attain a high reward and receive of the Lord double for the broken heart with which he went
down to his grave.
Irving wrote upon this subject with his usual masterly ability. Considering the Church to
be "the Body of Christ," and the endowment of the Church to be " the fullness of him that filleth
all
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in all," he held that the Church ought to exhibit in every age something of that
miraculous power which belongs to the Head. That as she endures hardness and humiliation as
united to him who was on the cross, so she should exhibit something of supernatural energy as
united with him who is on the throne. This he conceived to be essential for the Church's full
witness to Christ to him "who is now creation's sceptre-bearer as he was heretofore
creation's burden-bearer."
He lamented that the Church in her working has descended so much to the plane of the
merely natural, that in preaching, the arts of the logician and the rhetorician have so far
supplanted the gifts of the Spirit. "The power of miracles must either be speedily revived in the
Church" he says, "or there will be a universal dominion of the mechanical philosophy, and faith
will be fairly expelled to give place to the law of cause and effect acting and ruling in the
world of mind as it doth in the world of sense."*
He considered miracles to be intended not only for a perpetual demonstration of Christ's
power as now living and glorified, but also as a visible fore-
*Works V.: 479-
106 THE TESTIMONY
token of; his coming kingdom. He has pointed out with marked clearness the significance
of the various signs promised in the great commission, showing how these were given as
firstfruits of the kingdom of God as it shall appear in its full consummation. As that kingdom
was always to be preached, he held that these signs were promised as the perpetual accompaniment
of that preaching. He concluded that their withdrawal is due to the Church's unfaithfulness, and
not to any revocation on the part of God.
"These gifts have ceased, I would say, just as the verdure and leaves and flowers and
fruits of the spring and summer and autumn cease in winter. Because by the chill and wintry
blasts which have blown over the Church, her power to put forth her glorious beauty hath been
prevented. But because the winter is without a green leaf or beautiful flower do men thereof
argue that there shall be flowers and fruits no more?
Trusting in the word of God, who hath Created everything to produce and bring forth its
kind, man puts out his hand in winter and makes preparations for the coming year: so if the
Church be still in existence, and that no one denies: and if it be the law and end of her being
to embody a first fruit and earnest of the power which Christ is to put forth in the redemption
of all nature; then, what though she hath been brought so low, her life
OF THEOLOGIANS. 107
is still in her, and that life will under a more genial day put forth its native
powers."*
It was from such convictions as these that he reasoned so powerfully and prayed so
earnestly for the recovery by the Church of her primitive gifts. If the effort brought pain and
persecution to him, we believe it has brought forth some very sweet and genial fruits in others.
He was no mere theorist. He not only exhorted his flock "to live by faith continually on Jesus
for the body as well as the soul," but he has told us the story of his casting himself on the
Lord when mighty disease laid hold of him; and how his faith was tried to the last extremity till
with swimming brain and deathly sweat he stood holding on to the sides of the pulpit, waiting for
God to fulfill in the eyes of the people his word "the prayer of faith shall save the sick ;" and
how his Redeemer at last appeared for his help and loosed for him the bands of sickness enabling
him to preach on that morning with such demonstration and power of the Spirit as he had rarely
known.
Thomas Erskine has written on this subject with rare insight and depth of conviction.
Those who
* The Church with her Endowment of Holiness and Power; Works, V. p. 101.
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have read his writings know what a subtle and intuitive spiritual apprehension he has. A
barrister by profession he is far more widely known as a theologian, while he is most deeply
revered as a Christian, "who" to use Dr. Hanna's words in his preface to his letters " moved so
lovingly and attractively among his fellowmen and who walked so closely and constantly with God."
Speaking of miraculous healing and the other gifts he says:
"But I still continue to think, that to any one whose expectations are formed by and
founded on the New Testament, the disappearance of these gifts from the Church must be a far
greater difficulty than their reappearance could possibly be."*
In his correspondence with Dr. Chalmers, when the latter argued that we ought not to
desire signs from the Lord, but to be satisfied with the ordinary manifestations of the Spirit,
he replied that we ought to desire them, if God has ordained them:
" If the Lord gives these things as means, surely it is not genuine humility which says I
am satisfied without them. When the Lord desired Ahaz to ask a sign he answered, ' I will not ask
neither will I tempt the Lord :' but he is severely rebuked for this apparent humility." (Is.
vii: 12, 13.)
His strong conviction was that the miraculous
* Letters p. 408.
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gifts were designed to be a permanent endowment of the Church:
"The great and common mistake with regard to the gifts is that they were intended merely
to authenticate or to witness to the inspiration of the Canon of Scripture, and that therefore
when the Canon was completed they should cease: whereas they were intended to witness to the
exaltation of Christ as the head of the body, the Church. Had the faith of the Church, continued
pure and full these gifts of the Spirit would never have disappeared. There is no revocation by
Christ of that word."* (Mark xvi: 17, 18.)
With such views he watched with great interest any indications of a revival of these
gifts, and in the movement in that direction going on in his day, he believed he witnessed some
genuine instances of miraculous healing, as well as of speaking with tongues. We refer to one
case mentioned in his letters :
" In March, 1830, in the town of Port Glasgow, on the Clyde, lived a family of
MacDonalds, twin brothers, Jaraes and George, with their sisters. One of the sisters, Margaret,
of saintly life, lay very ill, and apparently nigh to death. She had received a remarkable
baptism of the Spirit on her sick bed, and had been praying for her brothers that they might be
anointed in like manner. One day when James was standing by, and she was in-
Brazen Serpent, p. 303. Id. p. 198.
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terceding that he might at that time be endowed with the power of the Holy Ghost, the
Spirit came upon him with marvelous manifestations. His whole countenance was lighted up, and
with a step and manner of most indescribable majesty he walked up to Margaret's bedside and
addressed her in these words, 'Arise and stand upright.' He repeated the words, took her by the
hand, and she arose. Her recovery was instantaneous and complete, and the report of it produced a
profound sensation, and many came from great distances to see her. Mr. Erskine visited the house
and made careful and prolonged inquiry into the facts, and put on record his conviction of the
genuiness of the miracle."*
His whole discussion of the subject in the work referred to, "The Brazen Serpent," is
deeply instructive, and especially his exposition of the intention and significance of miracles
of healing as signs.
Dr. Horace Bushnell, in his well-known work " Nature and the Supernatural," not only
admits the existence of present-day miracles, but considers that a denial of their possibility
would imperil his whole argument for the supernatural. Conceding that the Church as a whole has
lost her miraculous faith, and would be inclined to repel it were it offered to her, and
admitting that thinking
* Letters, pp. 176, 182, 183.
OF THEOLOGIANS. 111
men are not open to conviction on this point, because "the human mind, as educated mind
is just now at the point of religious apogee, where it is occupied or preoccupied by nature and
cannot think it rational to suppose that God does anything longer which exceeds the causalities
of nature," he yet holds that among humble and simple hearted believers "sporadic cases" of
miracles have constantly appeared, and continue to appear. And not only this; he considers that
in our time there are signs of a revival of the primitive apostolic gifts; that Christians "
feeling after some way out of the dullness of second-hand faith, and the dryness of merely
reasoned gospel, are longing for a kind of faith that shows God in living commerce with men such
as he vouchsafed them in former times." " Probably, therefore," he continues, "there may just now
be coming forth a more distinct and widely attested dispensation of gifts and miracles than has
been witnessed for centuries."
Dr. Bushnell's testimony as a whole is quite remarkable, because it is that of a
cultivated reasoner, looking at the question through the eyes of logic as well as through the
eyes of faith. His
112 THE TESTIMONY
well argued discussion and wide array of facts ought at least to arrest the attention of
the savans who toss off this subject with a derisive sneer. That unripe skepticism, which denies
before it has even doubted, has nowhere been more arrogant than on this field. Presumptious
enough it is to attempt to pick a miracle to pieces with the steel fingers of logic, but to leave
it cooly alone is worse. And yet this is the method which reason has too often taken with
anything professedly supernatural in these days. Scientific reason and Christian reason have
passed by modern miracles as poor relations, to be looked at askance but not to be admitted into
the best circles of faith and credence. And it is, therefore, quite gratifying to note the frank
and cordial recognition which a thinker like Dr. Bushnell extends to them. Healing, prophecy, and
gifts of tongues he admits as possible, and to some extent operative today as in the beginning.
From a large array of instances adduced in his work we give place to but one, referring the
reader for further information to the fourteenth chapter of the work named, in which he discusses
the proposition: " Miracles and super' natural gifts not discontinued."
OF THEOLOGIANS. 113
The case cited is from the experience of a friend of his, who had been healed by prayer
himself, and had, as he believed, received the gift of healing. He gives the instance to Dr.
Bushnell in writing, and the doctor considers his character and veracity to be such as to put his
story beyond question :
"At length one of his children, whom he had with him away from home, was taken ill with
scarlet fever. And now the question was," I give his own words, "what was to be done? The Lord
had healed my own sickness, but would he heal my son? I conferred with a brother in the Lord,
who, having no faith in Christ's healing power, urged me to send instantly for the doctor, and I
dispatched his groom on horseback to fetch him. Before the Doctor arrived my mind was filled with
revelation on the subject. I saw that I had fallen into a snare by turning away from the Lord's
healing hand to lean on medical skill. I felt greviously condemned in my conscience; a fear also
fell on me that if I persevered in my unbelieving course my son would die, as his oldest brother
had. The symptoms in both were precisely similar. The doctor arrived. My son, he said, was
suffering from a scarlet fever, and medicine should be sent immediately. While he stood,
prescribing, I resolved to withdraw the child and cast him on the Lord. And when he was gone I
called the nurse and told her to take the child into the nursery, and lay him on the bed. I then
fell on my knees, confessing the sin I had committed against the Lord's
114 THE TESTIMONY
healing power. I also prayed most earnestly that it would please my heavenly Father to
forgive my sin, and to show that he forgave it by causing the fever to be rebuked. I received a
mighty conviction that my prayer was heard, and I arose and went to the nursery, at the end of a
long passage, to see what the Lord had done, and on opening the door, to my astonishment, the boy
was sitting up in his bed, and on seeing me cried out, ' I am quite well and want to have my
dinner.' In an hour he was dressed, and well, and eating his dinner, and when the physic arrived
it was cast out of the window.
Next morning the doctor returned, and on meeting me at the garden gate he said, "I hope
your son is no worse? " He is very well, I thank you, said I in reply. 'What can you mean?'
rejoined the doctor. I will tell you; come in and sit down. I then told him all that had
occurred, at which he fairly gasped with surprise. ' May I see your son,' he asked. Certainly,
doctor; but I see that you do not believe me. We proceded up stairs, and my son was playing with
his brother on the floor. The doctor felt his pulse and said, 'Yes, the fever is gone.' Finding
also a fine, healthy surface on his tongue, he added, 'Yes, he is quite well; I suppose it was
the crisis of his disease." *
These testimonies might be increased by the addition of such names as those of Hugh
Grotius, the Dutch theologian, and Lavater, the "Fenclon of Switzerland," as he has been called,
and Hugh McNeil, the eminent English evangelical minister
Nature and the Supernatural, p. 480.
OF THEOLOGIANS. 115
of the last generation, and Thomas Boys, M. A., of Trinity College, Cambridge, England,
and others.*
But we have not space to refer to more. These are a goodly array of witnesses; yet not
because of their eminence have we summoned them. We care little for the testimony of a deep
thinker except he has thought deeply and devoutly upon the subject in hand. The shorter sounding
line, if it has dropped its lead to the utmost limit, has told us more of the depth than the
longer one that remained coiled and dry. And so the very mediocre theologian who has studied this
question to the extent of his capacity is a better witness than the most profound who has never
investigated it, but has rested in unreasoning assent to what Dr. Bushnell calls "the clumsy
assumption" that all miracles closed with the apostolic age.
The works of Thomas Boys, "The Christian Dispensation Miraculous" and " Proofs of
Miraculous Faith and Experience of the Church in all Ages" are full of learning and information
on this whole subject, and this book gratefully acknowledges its indebtedness to them for several
quotations and translations from rare and inaccessible works.
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