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
VI.
THE TESTIMONY OF MISSIONS.
There is a special and weighty reason why we should lay emphasis on any testimonies on
this subject coming from those who are preaching the gospel among the Pagans. The rigid logic
which is supposed to fence out miracles from modern Christendom, does not seem to have been
careful to include heathendom in its prohibition. For when it is said that "miracles belong to
the planting of Christianity not to its progress and development;" it will at once strike us that
missions are practically the planting of Christianity. There is really little if any difference
between Paul at Melita, and Judson in India. In each instance it is the herald of the Gospel set
down among a superstitious and idolatrous people. And admitting the proposition just quoted to be
true, it would be very difficult to say why if Paul went into the house of Publius in the one
place and laid his hands on his sick father and healed him, it might not be
OF MISSIONS. 117
permitted Judson to go into some home in Burmah and do the same. And if it be said that
signs are not needed while we have the history of the Christian Church, and the influence of
powerful Christian nations for the authentication and enforcement of the gospel,* it must still
be remembered that these forces are practically powerless until by the planting of Christianity
the heathen have been made acquainted with Ecclesiastical History and brought in contact with
Christian civilization; so that the argument comes back again to this conclusion: that if
miracles belong to the planting of Christianity, there would be no inherent improbability of
their appearing on missionary fields, and among those who are engaged in introducing the Gospel
into new countries. The justness of this conclusion has been recognized by several writers.
We are glad to find, for example so devout and eminent a theologian as Professor
Christlieb of Bonn accepting most candidly and frankly this position. For after admitting the
force of the argument against miracles in Christianized countries he says:
" Our age however is still characterized by the
See Alford on Mark 16.
118 THE TESTIMONY
establishment of new Churches. The work of missions is outwardly at least more extended
than it ever was before. In this region therefore, according to our former rule, miracles should
not be entirely wanting* Nor are they. We cannot therefore fully admit the proposition that no
more miracles are performed in our day. In the history of modern missions we find many wonderful
occurrences which unmistakably remind us of the apostolic age. In both periods there are similar
hinderances to be overcome in the heathen world and similar confirmations of the word are needed
to convince the dull sense of men: we may therefore expect miracles in this case."+
And then as though less afraid of the imputation of credulity than of skepticism, he
gives several instances, in the genuineness of which he expresses entire confidence. These we
believe are but samples of hundreds that might be produced were it not for the exceeding
timidity, the shyness amounting almost to shame-facedness with which so many Christians approach
this subject. Of course with this sentiment of distrust generally prevailing on the subject, we
could hardly expect that witnesses would be very forward in reporting things indiscreetly
supernatural, though quite confident of having seen them.
* Abp. Tillotson puts forth a similar view. Works, x. p. 230. + Modern Doubt and
Christian Belief, p. 332.
OF MISSIONS. 119
We venture however to give several instances of what seems to be divine healing, as they
have been reported from missionary fields the first three being those cited by Dr. Christlieb
in the work just referred to:
" And now read the history of Hans Egede, the first Evangelical missionary in Greenland.
He had given the Esquimaux a pictorial representation of the miracles of Christ before he had
mastered their language. His hearers, who, like many in the time of Christ, had a perception only
for bodily relief, urge him to prove the power of this Redeemer of the world upon their sick
people. With many sighs and prayers he ventures to lay his hands upon several, prays over them,
and lo, he makes them whole in the name of Jesus Christ! The Lord could not reveal himself
plainly enough to this mentally blunted and degraded race by merely spiritual means, and
therefore bodily signs were needed."
"At a Rhenish mission station in South Africa in. 1858, an earnest native Christian saw
an old friend who had become lame in both legs. Impressed with a peculiar sense of believing
confidence, he went into the bushes to pray, and then came straight up to the cripple, and said,
'the same Jesus who made the lame to walk, can do so still: I say to thee, in the name of Jesus,
rise and walk! The lame man, with kindred faith, raised himself on his staff and walked, to the
astonishment of all who knew him." (Vide the Memoire of Kleinschmidt, Barmen 1866, p. 58, ff).
120 THE TESTIMONY
Another most remarkable instance occurred in the case of a missionary of the Rhenish
society, named Nommensen, working in Sumatra.
"On one occasion a heathen who had designs on his life managed secretly to mix a deadly
poison in the rice which Nommensen was preparing for his dinner. Without suspicion, the
missionary ate the rice, and the heathen watched for him to fall down dead. Instead of this,
however, the promise contained in Mark xvi: 18, was fulfilled, and he did not experience the
slightest inconvenience. The heathen, by this palpable miraculous proof of the Christian God's
power, became convinced of the truth, and was eventually converted; but not until his conscience
had impelled him to confess his guilt to Nommensen, did the latter know from what danger he had
been preserved. This incident is well attested, and the missionary still lives." 1873, (vd v,
Rohden Geschichte der rhein, Missionsgesellsschaft, p. 324.)
It will be seen that these instances cover several specifications in Mark 16: 17, 18.
Their miraculous character cannot of course be vouched for with certainty. For we have not
witnesses supernaturally inspired to accredit works supernaturally wrought, if there are such
still. But one would hardly wish to charge deception on those who have reported them. For us,
however, their probability rests more strongly on the words of the
OF MISSIONS. 121
great commission* under which these missionaries were acting than on the trust-worthiness
of human testimony. Doctrines which have been almost universally denied are certain to force
themselves into acceptance again if they are in the Bible, and that Bible is studied. And a
promise in the missionary's commission which says: "These signs shall follow" is liable now and
then to break through custom and prejudice and get itself fulfilled. Besides that commission is
certain to fall into the hands of native preachers, who are unskilled in the arts of refining and
spiritualizing scripture, and who know no better than to take God literally at his word. And who
can tell what may not happen when a Christian who has not learned to doubt comes to God to claim
the fulfillment of one of his promises? In such a case we
* " But, inasmuch as far later times are full of testimonies to this point, I know
not from what motive some persons restrain the gift to the first ages. While I readily grant to
such persons that there was a richer abundance of miracles in order that the foundation of so
great a structure might, in spite of the world's power, be laid, I cannot with them perceive why
we should believe that this promise of Christ has ceased to be in force. Wherefore, if any one
preach Christ, as he would have himself preached, to the nations that know him not (for miracles
are peculiarly intended for such, I Cor. xiv. 22), I doubt not that the promise will still be
found to stand good; for the gifts of God are without repentance (Rom. XL 29). But we, whenever
the fault lies in our own sloth or ' unbelief, throw the blame on him." Hugh Grotius. 1583
1645.
122 THE TESTIMONY
may hear of miracles quite artless and rude in their form.
A missionary of the Presbyterian Board who has been laboring for many years in China,
declares that with the New Testament in their hands the native Christians are constantly finding
and putting in practice the promises for miraculous healing. This fact has led him to a careful
revision of his opinions on the subject. He writes :
"Fully believing that the gifts of the Spirit were not to be taken from the Church, I
feel assured that our faith ought to exercise and claim their use now. The salvation aimed for by
all, should be present release from sin and the power of Satan. If this is attained then the
whole advantage of Christ's life, death and resurrection will be secured. Healing is as much a
part of this as any verbal proclamation of the good news. The ministry of healing, therefore, can
not be divorced from the duty of the missionary."
An honored missionary among the Karens gives the following experience :
"While traveling in the Pegu district I was strongly urged to visit an out of the way
village, in which were only a few Christians. Entering the house of one of them, I had been
seated but a little while when there came in a Karen, an entire stranger, but whose salutation
proved him a Christian. He at once said that hearing that the teacher had come to visit the
village, he came
OF MISSIONS. 123
to beg that I would go and pray for his son who was very ill, he feared dying. He
quoted James
v., 14-15 as his excuse. Of course Mrs.------and
myself went at once, accompanied by the three or four Christians of the house in which we
were. The patient was found to be a child of about fifteen years of age, possibly not over
fourteen, but through scrofula, he was distorted and crippled so that he could not walk, indeed
had never walked upright but crept painfully on knees and hands. He was greatly wasted, and had
been much worse for some weeks, and at the time was perfectly helpless through extreme weakness.
He had every appearance of one near death. We prayed, each in turn, the lad mingling short
requests with ours. I think in all seven brethren offered petitions. A little bottle of medicine
was left from our scanty supplies and we took leave of the poor little fellow. Six months
afterwards the father came to the city, and on inquiring of him he said that his son was well,
well as he had never been in his life, and was actually walking on his feet, that the heathen
families living in the village were deeply impressed, and said unhesitatingly that our prayers
had saved him. I asked him his own opinion. He, most emphatically, in his strong Karen way, said:
' God has done it; God has healed him.' He then said, 'Teacher this is no new thing; I was with
your father-inlaw many times when God, in answer to prayers, healed the sick, and that is why I
asked you to pray with my boy, and now he is healed.' "
Many testimonies have been recently published by missionaries of their own recovery from
hope-
124 THE TESTIMONY
less sickness through the prayers of faith. We can give place to but one, and that quite
abridged in form. It is from Rev. Albert Norton, and is written to Dr. Stanton of Cincinnati,
formerly moderator of the General Assembly. After describing his terrible sickness in Elichpoor,
India, June, 1879 an abscess in the liver which had worked itself through the pleura and was
discharging itself into the right lung the most intense pain ever endured, and withal malarious
remittent fever, &c, He continues :
" I was thinking only of how I might die as easy as possible, when I was aroused by
strong desire to live for my family, and to preach the unsearchable riches of the Gospel, and the
thought came 'why cannot God heal you?' My dear wife was the only Christian believer, except an
ignorant Kerkoo lad, within eighteen miles. At my request she anointed me with oil, and united
her prayers with mine that God might at once heal me. While I was praying vocally, before I felt
any change in my body, I felt perfectly certain that God had heard and answered our prayers. When
we were through praying we commenced praising; for the acute pain in my right side, and the
fever, had left me. I was able at once to read some from the Bible, and to look out some passages
from the Greek Testament. Neither the fever nor the acute pain returned, and from that hour I
began rapidly to grow stronger. In a few days I was able to walk half a mile without fatigue.
OF MISSIONS. 125
In this sickness I took no medicine, and had the help of no physician but Jesus. To him
be all the praise and glory. Why should it be thought a strange thing that he can heal our
bodies? It is written of him, ' Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses. Is it not
said of our Lord, * Who healeth all thy diseases,' as well as ' Who forgiveth all their
iniquities'? " *
We must believe, however, that if God really stretched forth his hand to heal in these
instances, it was for the furtherance of the gospel as the chief purpose. Miracles are the signs
and not the substance of Christianity. They are for the confirmation of the Word, and not merely
for the comfort of the body. And this fact especially enhances the probability that they might
not be entirely wanting in heathen lands.
The blind man must read his Bible by means of raised letters and through the coarser
sense of touch, since he is lacking in eyesight. And what if to the blind pagans, God should be
pleased now and then to present the gospel embossed in signs and wonders, if "haply they might
feel after him and find him" in this way, when they could not at first discern him with the
spiritual understanding? No more serious objection could be made against
The Great Physician, by Rev. W. E. Boardman, p. 73.
126 THE TESTIMONY
this method than that it is a revival of the primitive. "And they went forth and
preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following."
Not for the satisfaction of the flesh but for the glory of God and the vindication' of his truth
does our Lord stretch out his healing hand and " make bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the
nations." If it should be his good pleasure to make use of those other miracles, the miracles of
martyrdom,* and to show the power of his grace in the supernatural endurance of his servants
under suffering, the same end has been reached. Perpetua and Felicitas, going to a terrible death
with a serenity rising into absolute joy the declaration of utter insensibility to pain made
before a multitude of witnesses who has not read of the thrilling impression thus produced upon
the heathen, and of the irresistible impulse thereby given to the truth? These are but miracles
of healing seen on their reverse side; the Lord's hand stretched out to rob death of its pain,
instead of robbing death of its victim. "That the word of the Lord may have free course and be
glorified whether by my life or by my death";
*"Martyrdoms I reckon amongst miracles, because they exceed the strength of human
nature." Bacon.
OF MISSIONS. 127
whether by my cure or by my patience under suffering this must be our prayer always. But
God be praised that he willeth the health of his people and not their hurt. The priests of Baal
seek to prove their God by cutting themselves with knives and lancets. Elijah has just proved his
God by calling the widow's dead son to life and delivering him to his mother. How greatly do the
idolators, with their endless worship of self-torture, need to be taught this truth: that our God
is one that makes alive and not one that killeth.
Would, then, that the heathen could know Christ as the Healer! Who has not said it as he
has read of the awful loathsomeness of their sicknesses and the cruel impositions of their
doctors. Next to the intolerable tyranny of evil priests is that of "the forgers of lies, the
physicians of no value," with which every pagan nation is afflicted. Can we describe or imagine
the joy of the heathen's deliverance from the hopeless search for peace of conscience, as he
finds Christ, the sin pardoner? "Great Spirit untie the load of our sins. If this load were bound
round our shoulders we could untie it for ourselves; but it is bound round our hearts, and we
cannot untie it, but thou canst.
128 THE TESTIMONY
Lord untie it now." So prayed a poor Fejee Islander.* Was not the revelation' beyond all
price that made known to him the fact that Christ "bore our sins in his own body on the tree,"
and so could instantly lift the load which he had toiled in vain to lift? And what if added to
this he could hear and appropriate that other revelation, that "himself bare our sicknesses?" If
when "the whole head is sick and the whole heart faint, from the sole of the foot even unto the
head, no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrifying sores ;" and if, after spending
all his living on false physicians, his wounds " have not been closed, neither bound up, neither
mollified with ointment," he could then know the Saviour's healing touch laid upon him, and hear
the word " thou art made whole," what glory would he give to our Lord and Redeemer!
Is it unbecoming or presumptuous for us to conjecture what effects would ensue if the
gospel were thus to be preached on heathen fields " with signs following? " Sickness is the dark
shadow of sin, and nowhere does it lie so heavily as on the pagan nations'. If now and then that
shadow were seen to be lifted by the Lard's hand, the event
* Journal of Weslyan Missions.
OF MISSIONS. 129
could hardly fail to open a wide and effectual door of entrance for the gospel. God
forbid that we should desire or grasp for anything which it is not his pleasure to give. But what
if it should seem to us that the great commission demands these signs instead of forbidding them?
Baptism, that sign of Christ's death and resurrection and of our justification thereby, is in the
commission: and what bitter battles have been fought in the Church for its maintenance! And
healing the sick, that sign of Christ glorified and alive forevermore, is in the commission just
as unequivocally. And yet we are so weak and perplexed and impotent before it. Yes! it is there:
But who is sufficient for these things?" Who of us would quite dare to repeat on behalf of our
Missionary brethren, some of whom are laboring among hostile rulers, and blood-thirsty tribes,
the apostles prayer "And now Lord behold their threatenings and grant unto thy servants that
with all boldness they may speak thy word, by stretching forth thine hand to heal: and that signs
and wonders may be done in the name of thy holy child Jesus?" If we cannot utter this prayer we
may at least join in the petition which a devout commentator
130 THE TESTIMONY
breathes over the closing words of Mark's Gospel. "Let us cry to the Lord: strengthen and
bless thou the hands of thine authenticated messengers: that they may rightly lay them upon men;
and that before thy coming again thy promise may be abundantly fulfilled: they shall be healed:
it shall be well with them."*
*Stier's Word's of Jesus.
Return to Main Page