FAITH HEALING

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2331, 20 September 1921, Page 1

FAITH HEALING

AND RATANA’S WORK

Returning to the subject of Katana’s healing, the Church Gazette says there appeal’s to be a good deal of haziness abroad as regards the meaning of faith-liealing. What do we .mean by it ? Do we mean healing by suggestion, lhat is, by the suggestive power of the prayer of faith acting on the mind of the patient, or do we mean healing by the direct action of God in answer to prayer? There is no doubt that

some functional disorders can be healed by suggestion, but not organic diseases or physical deformities. Has there been one scientifically nut hen tic tiled cure of an absolutely blind person by Ratana’s agency Can one cure of cancer or of some prysieal deformity ho produced? But whether the cures are the result of suggestion or other forms of medical skill, they arc all ultimately due to the Divine activity. It is a serious mistake to imagine that God's agency is more real in extraordinary events, such as miraculous cures, than in ordinary happenings, such as cures by suggestion, or by medicine, or surgery. In order that no one may mistake our attitude to the work of Riijana, we' want to make it quite clear that we do not deny that remarkable euros may have taken place. We think that Ratana’s work is worthy of thorough scientific'investigation, Hurt all the evidence should he carefully sifted and examined by experts; that the actual facts should he sorted out from the indefinite mass of rumours and report. Until the facts have been collected and classified, the task of explaining and interpreting them cannot he rationally undertaken.