HICKSON MISSION IN AUSTRALIA.

Shannon News, 4 May 1923, Page 4

HICKSON MISSION IN AUSTRALIA.

— ~ SPIRITUAL UPLIFT. FREEWILL OFFERINGS. A PARALYSED DOCTOR. ( “ Sydney Telegraph/' ) GOULBURN, April 14. Mi*. Hickson’s healing mission closed to-day. and the net result to the missioner and to the Anglican Church authorities is eminently satisfactory. Both say so. Numbers of instantaneous healings are not necessary for Mr. Hickson to claim a success. “We are only making a beginning,” he said in his address at the Cathedral to-day. “You must carry on th e work of prayer so that the cures may be completed. * In an interview to-day he explained that his cures —or Christ’s cures through him, for he claimed nothing of himself— might begin through the spirit and gradually work until the body was cured. Or the body might first be cured, and the soul and spirit improve later. In th e case of Goulburn most of the cures are presumably starting with the spirit. Many patients say they feel a spiritual uplift which, as Ml*. Hickson has told them, will go on working and will heal them both in soul and body—provided always they keep on praying in faith. ANCIENT MIRACLES COMPARED. Mr. Plickson was asked why his cures were not like those of our Lord —instantaneous ami comp etc.

“ Perhaps because the people’s faith is weak,” he answered. “ My own faith is weak at times, but the Master’s faith was absolute. And the people who came to Jesus had unbounded faith. They knew if only they could get to Him they would be healed. In modern times people are not like that. If only the faith of us ail was strong enough, sickness ana suffering would be swept out of the world. INSTANTANEOUS CURES.

“ But.” added the missioner, “ all the case of healing of our Lord are not recorded. Doubtless the most remarkable were placed on record, and I could write a book on the Instantaneous cures under my own mission. I have had hundreds of cases. In Africa, for instance, 34 blind natives obtained their sight in an instant, and in India I had the same results; I prayed with a lady Sunday School teacher in Boston, who had a polypus in her nose. She was healed on the spot, and was saved from undergoing an operation. “ But not all the cures of Jesus were instantaneous,” Mr. Hickson observed, and he quoted the case of the bllna man who. having had his eyes anointed with clay, was sent to wash in the pool; also the case of the blind'man whom Jesus blessed and who first said he could see men lilc e trees, and later that he could see perfectly. NO FEES, ONLY OFFERINGS.

Much d'seussion has taken place in Goulburn on the question: “ What is Hickson making out of it ? ” The missioner informed an interviewer that he receives no fee or salary , except the free-will thank offerings wh'ch are placed in boxes at the church doors by grateful patients. He pays thp travelling and living expenses of himself, his wife, and his secretary, as they journey up and down the world

“ And I have faith that my needs will be supplied,” Mr. Hickson said. “ If I had not that faith I could noicarry on, though in places lik e the East End of London, where I have my mission, so far from receiving any financial help, it is more often a case of giving away money to Keep life in the bodies of the poor people.” CHURCH LIFE ASSISTED. The spiritual life of the Church m Goulburn has quite obviously been quickened. In his address to-day, Mr. Hickson insisted that his work must only be considered a beginning—a sowing of the seed —and that prayer circles must be formed and meet regularly to pray for th e spiritually and bodily sick to be restored to health. Later at a meet'ng of the clergy and intercessors, the missioner gave more precise directions how to proceed, sician who attended Canon McDonDOCTOR PATIENT BENEFITS.

Though the doctors of Goulbourn declined to co-operate with Mr Hickson, they placed no obstacle in his way. On the contrary, the phyineffectual from the bodily point of nell readily agreed that Mr Hickson should see him, particularly as Canon McDonnell was one of the most active organisers of the mission. Mr Hickson’s ministrations, however proved reported that he can now hold up his view, and Canon McDonnell died.

A doctor came over 100 miles to receive spiritual healing. For ten years he has been partially paralysed in the neck and arm, but to-day it was to-day say they feel better spiritually head, and that he feels much better. Workers at the mission are triumphant regarding this “cure/’ as a fine set-off to the aloofness of the doctors of Goulburn city. Crowds of patients To-day he put his heel to the ground and most say they feel better physically; but the only case heard of that offered tangible and visible evidence was that of a boy of eighty who had had an affliction of the hand and foot, for the first time,, and could grip with the formerly powerless hand. A chaplain ! reports also the cure of a man from Holbrook. He was a great stammerer—now he speaks clearly.