Man of Curious Cures

NZ Truth, Issue 1202, 13 December 1928, Page 7

Man of Curious Cures

Precisely the same thing happened at Jeffreys' meeting. The evangelist, having laid on hands with his customary energy, held up his fingers, and the child declared that she could see them. "We can't positively say that she did 8«e," said Eileen's aunt. "She's such an artful little thing. She has left off her glasses now, but she still can't see to read with the affected eye, or to do anything really, and I don't know that leaving off the glasses is not a strain on her. "We've been very careful about talking of the cure. I suppose the time she takes to get really better will depend upon -her mother's faith. But we think we can see a tiny difference m the snap c of the eye. Of course, that may be imagination." It may. , At all events, Pastor Hewitt's imagina-

:ion was m first--lass working order when he extracted i miracle of blindless healed from the ;ase of a child who, n the first place, jave indications of >ight m a defective jye, and m the. sec>nd, is not now by my means cured. ■ Indeed, no specialist has been consulted since Eileen's visit to tho mission, so it is impossible to say whether the child's- vision is improved,, or whether, as is far more likely, it is being exposed to serious risk and strain owing to the use of the glasses" being di&x-ontinued. The most interesting "cure" with which "Truth's" representative came m contact is beyond doubt that of James Wilson, employed as a windowcleaner at the People's Palace Hotel/ Wellington. Wilson, a slight, brown-eyed man, with grizzled hair and the face of one who has been through mental strain and suffering, told his story m a quiet

has eaten the "chandhu" balls continuously for flve years. Sometimes, also, he has sought relief m the long pipe and sticky, treacly bubbles that open the "gates of a brief Paradise to the opium smoker.

Pie obtained the prohibited drugri without difficulty, from a Chinaman m Wellington. In November of last year, he became "converted" by the Pentecostal brotherhood, and struggled against the ravages which the -drug had perpetrated on his mind and body. But m the following January temptation became too much for him, and he resumed his old habits. Soon that shadow of the drug-takers' life, which he himself succinctly described as "the horrors" advanced upon him from out the dusk of an opium-tainted world. Insomnia, which can bring, many a physically perfect body to the verge of the grave or the asylum, seldom left him.

According to one of the maids working m the same building as Wilson everybody knew that "Jimmy" was ad - ' dieted to 1 drug a. He went about his work m a daze, and suffered from 'lapses of memory. A medical expert certifies that this is quite consistent with the condition m which an opium eater would soon find himself, and, indeed, m records taken during "Wilson's at-r tendance at the "Wellington Hospital 14 months ago, it is stated that he confessed to having taken opium for a long time.

"I went to the first meeting and was very disappointed," Wilson told "Truth." "But at the second, after the laying on of hands, I felt power go all through me. I went home, and went to sleep ten minutes after I got into bed. I have slept well ever since."

This occurred only about three weeks ago, and is the statement of a man who had once before broken loose from the chains of opium for a much longer period. Whether the glory of his improvement should be given to Jeffreys, or to Wilson's own dormant resolution and sincere desire to puil himself together, is a moot question. It is the opinion of a medical man interviewed by "Truth" that m this case, sudden mental stimulus, induced by the emotional atmosphere of the meetings, may really have helped Wil-

"But," said the doctor, "when these people talk of curing cancer and tuberculosis — any organic disease at all — they would be' laughable, if they were not contemptible.