Cure of souls

“ I have seen subjects of spiritualist healers, mesmeric and magnetic healers, Roman Catholic and Russo-Greek miracles, and of the most conspicuous "faith-healers" and "mind-curers" in this country, and find no reason to believe that one has been more or less successful than others.
A very important question is whether their limitations are the same. The limitations must have respect to what and how they heal, and the permanence of the cure. ”

“ If man is not victorious over them, they crush out happiness, health, and manhood. Here Christian Science is the sovereign panacea, giving, to the weakness of mortal mind, strength from the immortal and omnipotent Mind, lifting humanity above itself, into purer desires, — even into moral power and good-will to man.
Homœopathic remedies, sometimes not containing a particle of medicine, are known to relieve the symptoms of disease. What works the cure? It is the faith of mortal mind that changes its own self-inflicted sufferings, and produces a new effect upon the body. ”

“ Christian Science silences human will, quiets fear with Truth and Love, and illustrates the unlabored motion Divine energy of the divine energy in healing the sick. Self-seeking, envy, passion, pride, hatred, and revenge are cast out by the divine Mind which heals disease. The human will which maketh and worketh a lie, hiding the divine Principle of harmony, is destructive to health, and is the cause of disease rather than its cure. ”

“ It may also be applied to the spiritual cures which the Spirit of grace works in regeneration; he sends his word, and heals souls, convinces, converts, sanctifies them, and all by the word. In the common instances of recovery from sickness God in his providence does but speak, and it is done. ”

“ He smites the flesh to cure the mind, and from illnesses, which are the forerunners of the death of the body, He frames a good provision for the life of the soul.
All the holy Fathers teach us that illness is the school of Christian wisdom, the dawning of virtue whereby the mind is invigorated, and the grand means of grace, which redoubles its strength, through the weakness of the body. ”

“ All true healing comes from God! There are two causes for sickness, one is material, the other spiritual. If the sickness is of the body, a material remedy is needed, if of the soul, a spiritual remedy.
If the heavenly benediction be upon us while we are being healed then only can we be made whole, for medicine is but the outward and visible means through which we obtain the heavenly healing. Unless the spirit be healed, the cure of the body is worth nothing. All is in the hands of God, and without Him there can be no health in us! ”

“ The term "mental healing" is given the broadest possible use, and comprehends any cures which may be brought about by the effect of the mind over the body, regardless of whether the power back of the cure is supposed to be deity, demons, other human beings, or the individual mind of the patient. ”

“ The sick woman had spent all her fortune, and submitted to painful remedies in order to recover her health. She was not to blame, for health is a great treasure. But the health of the soul is of far more importance than the health of the body. Why do you take so little care of your immortal soul? If ever your soul is sick, i. e. in a state of sin, spare no effort, no labour, by doing penance and making a good confession, to obtain its cure. ”

“ Therefore He spoke to the conscience before He touched the bodily ailment, and met the sufferer's deepest and most deeply felt disease first. He goes to the bottom of the malady with His cure. These great words are not only closely adapted to the one case before Him, but contain a general truth, worthy to be pondered by all philanthropists. It is of little use to cure symptoms unless you cure diseases. The tap-root of all misery is sin; and, until it is grubbed up, hacking at the branches is sad waste of time. Cure sin, and you make the heart a temple and the world a paradise. ”

“ They need medicine, not only to assuage the disease, but to awake the sense. And if it be said that the cure of men’s minds belongeth to sacred divinity, it is most true; but yet moral philosophy may be preferred unto her as a wise servant and humble handmaid. ”

“ Christianity, but from a desire thoroughly to examine the facts, would say that even those who are engaged in the healing of numbers of sick persons, do not attain their object—the cure of the body—without divine help ”

“ In those cases of disease, the miracles are for the setting right of what has gone wrong, the restoration of the order of things,—namely, of the original condition of humanity. No doubt it is a law of nature that where there is sin there should be suffering; but even its cure helps to restore that righteousness which is highest nature; for the cure of suffering must not be confounded with the absence of suffering. ”

“ Of the two other kinds of healing which are spiritual—that is to say, where the means of cure is a spiritual power—one results from the entire concentration of the mind of a strong person upon a sick person, when the latter expects with all his concentrated faith that a cure will be effected from the spiritual power of the strong person, to such an extent that there will be a cordial connection between the strong person and the invalid. The strong person makes every effort to cure the sick patient, and the sick patient is then sure of receiving a cure. ”

“ I wish you could convince yourself that God is often (in some sense) nearer to us, and more effectually present with us, in sickness than in health. Rely upon no other physician; for, according to my apprehension, He reserves your cure to Himself. Put, then, all your trust in Him, and you will soon find the effects of it in your recovery, which we often retard by putting greater confidence in physic than in God.
Whatever remedies you make use of, they will succeed only so far as He permits. When pains come from God, He only can cure them. ”

“ Flinging herself on her knees before him she besought his prayers and blessing. In fact, stung by intolerable suffering she asked him to cure her. 'My dear child, you ask me what no mortal has power to do. The power to cure rests alone with God. ”

“ Faith cure, the other form of mental healing, has such a variety of forms that it is practically impossible to describe a typical one. Faith in some power, or, what amounts to the same thing, the uncritical reception of suggestions concerning the cure, is the common factor in all forms. ”

“ Again, to speak nothing of the Sin against the Holy Ghost, whose cure not onely, but whose nature is unknown; I can cure the Gout or Stone in some, sooner than Divinity Pride or Avarice in others. I can cure Vices by Physick, when they remain incurable by Divinity; and shall obey my Pills, when they contemn their precepts. I boast nothing, but plainly say, we all labour against our own cure; for death is the cure of all diseases. ”

“ XLIII. A Place of Healing for Souls
1.THERE is a wondrous fountain of health — a marvelous place of healing for souls, which derives its efficacy from the precious blood of Jesus Christ; it is the sacrament of Penance. May you ever be filled in an increasing degree with veneration, and, I had almost said, with holy enthusiasm, for this place of healing for souls.
Picture to yourself a man who, having committed a grievous sin, knows nothing of the sacrament of Penance. He looks into himself, is conscious of the magnitude of his transgression, and the wretched state into which he has fallen. ”

“ The soul which can feel and affirm in serene but jubilant confidence, as did the Nazarene: ‘I and my Father are one,’ has no further need of healer, or of healing. This is the whole truth in a nutshell, and other foundation for wholeness can no man lay than this fact of impregnable divine union. Disease can no longer attack one whose feet are planted on this rock, who feels hourly, momently, the influx of the Deific Breath. If one with Omnipotence, how can weariness enter the consciousness, how illness assail that indomitable spark? ”

“ Notwithstanding the extreme simplicity of their remedies, such as any common nurse would advise, yet such is the profound sanctity and mystery thrown around them by an unseen spirit, that some profess to have received "wonderful healing mercies." To believe that a medicine (however simple) is prescribed by a spirit from above, is enough to perform a cure in any case. ”

“ I cannot finish my little book of ideals without writing some things that are in my mind about cure by faith or by prayer. It is a subject that I approach with hesitation because of the danger of misunderstanding. No subject is more difficult and none is more important for the invalid to understand. We hear a great deal about the wonderful cures of Christian Science or of similar agencies, and we all know of people who have been restored to usefulness by such means. Has the healing of Christ again become possible on earth? ”

“ No ancient or modern philosophy gave her any distinct statement of the science of mind healing. She claims that no human reason has been equal to the question.
And she also defines carefully the difference in the theories between faith cure and Christian Science, dwelling particularly upon the terms belief and understanding, which are the key words respectively used in the definitions of these two healing arts. ”

“ Inner harmony was restored. They find the man ‘sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind.’ The bodily and the mental well-being are combined in the cure. The sufferer’s enfeebled will is braced up to respond to the Will of the Healer, that ease shall expel disease. Within the man’s being, as truly as without it, ‘imperavit ventis, et facta est tranquillitas magna.’65
(iii) An analysis of the miracles of Christ indicates His attitude towards the material and outward means, on which the physician still so largely relies. ”

“ He must be inspired and actuated by the faith that he CAN heal, by the positive will to heal, and by sympathy for the one he is trying to benefit.
Such an operator makes himself the instrument for the transmission of life force, which is healing force, from the Source of all life. "As he gives, so he receives" ”

“ But if each believer in taking the water thinks the effect morally conditioned, if he interprets the result, should it be favourable, as an answer to his faith and prayers, then the cure becomes miraculous because it becomes intelligible and manifests the obedience of nature to the exigencies of spirit. ”

“ Why, let us not speak of them; for though it is a great thing that their bodies should be healed, and they should go through the community singing the praises of Him who had restored them, there are better things to speak of—the healing of men's souls, the purifying of their spirits. ”

“ By jumbling with their healing art, an unintelligible species of mystic mummery, and by pretending to hold a direct intercourse with the Deity, the cure of their patients is attributed more to his immediate interference, than to any virtue of the medicines which they have received. ”

“ That older lesson—which we may for convenience call Divine’s Doctrine, since it is the general teaching of every Protestant theologian and moralist, may be summed up in the canon—
Bodily health may not be lawfully sacrificed to our desire of pleasure or fear of pain. It may and ought to be sacrificed to the health of our souls, to the service of our fellowmen, or to fidelity to God. ”

“ On such easy terms are spiritual cures offered by him, that he may truly be said to heal freely; so that if our souls die of their wounds, it is not owing to our Physician, it is not for want of skill or will in him ”

“ Teach the meekness and might of “Life hidden with Christ,” and there will be no desire for other healing methods. You render the divine law of healing obscure and void, when you weigh the human in the scale with the divine, or limit, in any direction of thought, the omnipresence and omnipotence of God. ”

“ Should we implore a corporeal God to heal the sick out of His personal volition, or should we understand the infinite divine Principle which heals? If we rise no higher than blind faith, the Science of healing is not attained, and Soul-existence, in the place of sense-existence, is not comprehended. We apprehend Life in divine Science only as we live above corporeal sense and correct it. Our proportionate admission of the claims of good or of evil determines the harmony of our existence, — our health, our longevity, and our Christianity. ”

“ Then they be suddenly delivered from sin and from pain, and taken up to bliss, and made even high saints.
By contrition we are made clean, by compassion we are made ready, and by true longing toward God we are made worthy. These are three means, as I understand, whereby that all souls come to heaven: that is to say, that have been sinners in earth and shall be saved: for by these three medicines it behoveth that every soul be healed. Though the soul be healed, his wounds are seen afore God,—not as wounds but as worships. ”

“ As we take the bitterest medicine to recover or preserve the health of the body, we should cheerfully endure sufferings, however repugnant to nature, and consider them efficacious remedies which God employs to purify the soul and conduct it to the perfection to which He called it. ”

“ But apparently the manner of cure gave more place to the faith of the sufferer, and to the effort which her faith in Christ's word and touch heartened her to put forth, than we find in other miracles. She 'could in no wise lift herself up,' not because of any malformation or deficiency in physical power, but because that malign influence laid a heavy hand on her will and body, and crushed her down. ”

“ On the other hand, mental cure is superior to all methods of physical cure because will, imagination, faith, etc., are the different phases of consciousness which actually and directtly act from within and are the motive powers that stimulate and direct the Life Energy to accomplish any definite task. ”