THE HICKSON MISSION.

Hokitika Guardian, 11 June 1923, Page 4

THE HICKSON MISSION.

IS FAITH-HEALING AILRACULOUS? (By Victor C. Bell in a Sydney Paper). The widespread disposition to regard the reported cures of the Hickson mission as miracles scorns to call for some modification that will confine them within rational limits. It is u common habit of the average mind to isolate events, to cut them off from their historic relations and to see no uniformity in human experience. This isolation is the essence of miracle. Thousands of unthinking people to-day arc on the verge of hysteria concerning the second coming of Christ ; and see in earthquakes, in plagues, in miscarriage of justice, and other things, the sure evidence of approaching cosmic dissolution. But they quite ignore the fact that such tilings have happened in every age of man. Likewise, many people are now regarding the Hickson cures as special miracles, quite forgetting that for thousands of years men in practically every nation have done exactly wlitit Air Hickson is doing to-day.

Long before Christ was horn, the belief that ttll diseases were caused by indwelling demons was widespread. Josephus, for instance, says in his Jewish history that "Solomon composed such incantations by which distempers are alleviated. And be left behind him the manner ol using exorcisms by which they drive away demons so that they never come again.” The same writer states that he himself saw one. Eleanor, in his own country doing this. The exorcist pul a magic ring to the patient's nose ami drew the demon out through his nostrils fn order to convince the sceptical onlookifs of the validity ol the cure, lit placed a 'cup of water at a little distance from the sufferer s head and commanded the devil to kick the vessel over as a proof of his exit, wnicil, being clone, we may suppose established Eleanor’s claim to he a 1 tea let. PSYf lire HEALING.

Here we have an ancient form or expression ol Certain facts which are present in all eases of psychic healing. First, the fact of disease, presumably functional : second, the faith of the patient in the power of a certain healer to mediate or to originate the desired cure: and, ihird, the resultant wonder in the mind of the onlookers. The history of mental healing is [lacked with instances which confirm this statement, and it is being borne out by every ease of faith-healing to-day-in tin.-. Slate. In the matter of disease it is gen-e-rally overlooked that Christ Himself believed in the demonic origin of physical ailments. To say that He anticipated the discoveries of modern pathology hut accommodated himself to the primitive ideas of His time, is quite out of keeping with His fearless and revolutionary teachings in other spheres. He never toned down the truth. If ho had any knowledge of the germ as a cause of disease we maytake it for granted from Hi.-, general methods, that He would have declared that truth. But lie did not. On the contrary' lie everywhere assumed that malign spirits caused dumbness, paralysis, lunacy, and kindred maladies. Any authority, therefore, which lie delegated to His disciples for curing the sick, was bused upon Hus assumption. And il seems most iniroasonahlc to contend that this authority was meant to extend up to the present century, when the whole field of human suffering has been transformed by the strong hand of seiotice. li lie meant lids command !-> apply now, what are we to think cl lii- eonm: md to "raise the dead.” whn-h was given at the same timer Jesus was essentially a progiess.ive thinker, who welcomed m-w light from whatever quarter it enitn:-. Andthere

can scarcely be any doubt. Hint, it ffc were hero tei-dti'. lie would accept and tt -c- the di-eo' cries of modern 1 niiiologv, and regard the belief in demons, ahovemeutiom-d, as the. Im-p-L-rlect knowledge ol an un«cieii! file

Il mu-1 also he remembered ilnii Jesus did not claim to have a monopoly of healing power. Mow could He. when it had been practised long befon lie Mime/ lie habitually r«cruised oilier healer 1 - who did not invoke l!i-, name in their cures. The disciples could mil appreciate this breadth of vision and forbade one who healed, but did not belong to their party. Jesus severely reprimanded Ihe si for their narrowness. "Forbid him mu." Sueli word- are significant lor those people to-day, who deny the action of hypnotism and nut o-sugge.-- • imi in the Hickson cures. And the actum of ( hrist t brows light in thi' w hole question o! disease in ancient times. !i indicates the operation of a very strong mental clement in physical ailments, for a man who really Believed that lie had a devil in In’s hotly would find it easy to he ill in quite a variety of wavs. FAITH ALL-IMPORTANT. From this it follows without any strain upon our logic that the all-im-portant factor in faith-healing is the faith of the patient. The name of the god in whom he trusts is of secondary importance. The Greek lying in incubation by his holy well. babies bathed in the waters of Mo.xseiiia, Vespasian laving his hands on nervous people, St. li 'inard curing the lame and the blind, English and French kings healing scrofula by a touch, Hapsbiirg counts curing stammering by a kiss, Grontrakos in Ireland and ■Streeter in Loudon alleviating all kinds of suffering, and thousands of Indians to-dav crowding into the (binges until the water is almost alive with di-ease germs from their very bodies, yet < laiming to be cured thereby; what are all these but instances of the same thing.' It i-. faith that cures, whether it he in a doctor’s medicine, a strange man's reputation. a. church relic, a mountain’s spring, or a good man’s prayers. The objects of faith differ with the nation and with the age. as well as with the stage of menial development of the sufferers. j

But the factor which operates everywhere is faith. And Professor .Tames sa.vs: "The faith-slate may hold a very minimum of intellectual content. It may be mere, vague enthusiasm, half spiritual, half-vital, a courage and a feeling that great and wondrous things are in the air." Mr Hickson wiid at Artnidale that little children had more laith. and healing was more successful with them; that in India the ignorant people put to shame the Christians by their great, simple, and natural faith, that did not question. These are significant words in the light of Professor James’ statement. And Mr Harry Brooks states that the most of Cone’s cures are effected upon children and peasant women. Very few. however, will deny the fact of mental or. as some would sa.v, spiritual cures, or that they are the result of some kind of trust in a great unseen Power or Powers. Are these cures, then, miraculous ■ In primitive times especially do we find a large subjective element in the interpretation of all phenomena. Preconceived opinions are never very far away. The people who regarded Christ’s works of healing as miracles were a mere handful compared to the multitude who clamoured for His crucifixion or dismissed His works with contempt. To-day it does not take much to excite the wonder of some, while others are not unduly impressed

by the same thing. But yet the fact remains that at the back of all we know there is a vast and unconrjuored something which may, for aught we know, be a million years ahead of science.

DEFINING A .MIRACLE. The Church lias generally defined a miracle as a special intervention of this inscrutable power at the back of things for the purpose of doing something that could not be done by ordinary means. It is on this point of “special intervention,” that this discussion turns. No sane person can deny that man controls a very small part of nature’s activities. lie may discover her ways of doing things, and call them laws. Hut still he is in the dark as to why laws exist and what makes them act. Vet lie knows what they do and sees that the laws of decay and disease are just as much divine laws as those of growth and wellbeing. Tie has discovered, among other things, that the mind acts upon the body; that the functioning of the heart, lungs, intestines, stomach, for instance, is as truly afi’ectc-d by too much introspection and worry, as a growth is retarded by hot winds. He lias also learned that when the mind itself is restored to norma! mental functioning these parts of the body are restored as well. This is just as much a law as the law of gravitation. And all these laws in the body and out of it are evidently under the control of the infinite or divine mind. In this sense, healing by faith is healing by the divine power. Hut does the Almighty specially intervene to cure a sick man for whom another man has prayed!' Has He withheld this turativc gift from Australia’s sick people until the arrival of M.r Hickson, when many of these folk have had great faith and have been praying for healing for many years!' If God specially intervenes to cure a sick man, then it is just as reasonable to believe that He works a miracle evorv time a doctor sets a broken hone, or a plumber solders one piece of tin 1,, another. The truth seems to he that the minds sets up barriers that keep divine laws from doing their work the same as the bands may

bttiltl up it wall that stops a stream in it.' flow. We remove the wall and the water obeys the law of gravitation, we remove worry, remorse, fear, or some other mental obstruction, and the bade obcvs the laws of health. True prayer is readjustment to the laws of life. "If any among you,” says St. ■fames, "is sick let him pray.” i’ut he also says that. “faith without works is dead.” in the last analysis the sick lean’' hope lies in himscll. Etnier the emotional storm of a healing mi'sion he may experience speedy recovery. Hut the testing time will rare when the storm lots passed and he must go alone, yet not alone, o.n the vast waste of the common-place.