Divine intervention

“ 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. ”

“ Then, like blind Bartimeus, the doubting heart looks up through faith, and your patient rejoices in the gospel of health.
Thus, you see, it is easier to heal the physical than the moral ailment. When divine Truth and Love heal, of sin, the sinner who is at ease in sin, how much more should these heal, of sickness, the sick who are dis-eased, dis-comforted, and who long for relief! ”

“ By interpreting God as a corporeal Saviour but not as the saving Principle, or divine Love, we shall continue Salvation is through reform to seek salvation through pardon and not through reform, and resort to matter instead of Spirit for the cure of the sick. ”

“ 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 ”

“ They do not relax our obligations to watchfulness—to prayer—to an avoidance of evil—and to the cultivation of the spirit and habits of devotion, but increase them; and the reciprocal influence of our exertions, and of the concurrence of Divine strength, is so nicely balanced in the purpose of grace, that while we are compelled to ascribe to God the honour of our preservation and final salvation, yet we are made responsible for every act of transgression and disobedience. ”

“ If a person is in trouble, or in want, he should seek unto the Lord by prayer, and obtain from Him aid, assistance, and light, and by that Divine Spirit he may overcome his weakness, break through the cloud of darkness, and walk in the light of the Lord. ”

“ Apparently it does not matter how debased the form of religion may be, whether it is exercised by the medicine man of a savage tribe with methods that appeal only to barbarous instincts, or by a highly cultured priest of a form of religion appealing to the loftiest feeling and the profoundest intellectuality, cures take place whenever devotees have complete and absolute faith in the possibility of divine or supernatural interference in their behalf. ”

“ The glorious Bible doctrine of divine [pg 198] healing has many times been disgraced by mere presumption. Many when they are anointed presume they are healed because God has promised it in his Word when they have failed to sit in the valley of humiliation to learn of God their faults that need correction. They find in a short time that their presumption does not prove effectual and witnesses are made to scorn the idea of divine healing. We hear of no relapsing in a few days of those who were healed by the Lord and his church in the morning light. ”

“ A Christian, or a Christian Scientist, assumes no more when claiming to work with God in healing the sick, than in converting the sinner. Divine help is as necessary in the one case as in the other. The scientific Principle of healing demands such cooperation; but this unison and its power would be arrested if one were to mix material methods with the spiritual, — were to mingle hygienic rules, drugs, and prayers in the same process, — and thus serve “other gods.” ”

“ How are we to heal others? First, by keeping in good spiritual health ourselves, lest we be told: ^Physician, heal thyself! ' By lives of regularity, by regular prayer, and regular sacraments; by lives that keep ever in touch with God, that look to God, that are spent in His presence, and are filled with work done for His cause. Thus shall we spread the light of truth, and make the force of good example felt: thus shall we make a protest against the disease of sin, and reparation to the Sacred Heart. ”

“ In that Divine fellowship we shall be able to pray for the true health and recovery of our sick people. ‘The prayer of faith shall save the sick,’ for faith implies a whole-hearted acceptance of the Will of God195 for the uncertain future. This gives a man the tranquillity of soul which is no less needed for prayer than for action. ”

“ That God would still give them power to work miracles for the confirmation of the doctrine they preached, which, by the cure of the lame man, they found to contribute very much to their success, and would contribute abundantly to their further progress: Lord, grant us boldness, by stretching forth thy hand to heal. Note, Nothing emboldens faithful ministers more in their work than the tokens of God's presence with them, and a divine power going along with them. They pray, [1.] That God would stretch forth his hand to heal both the bodies and souls of men ”

“ When their fears are alarmed, they set about correcting some flagrant sins, and it may be, become outwardly moral, and even attentive to religious duties; but the renewal of the heart, through grace, and the dedication of its affections to God, are never thought of; and yet they are satisfied with this condition. Such persons are only to be roused by preaching conversion or condemnation. They must be taught to pray, with repentant David, “Make me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. ”

“ God, therefore, ordained these remedies for the weak and unbelieving, not willing to destroy utterly the sinful race of men, because of His great loving-kindness, but gave medicine to the men of the world, and to all who are without, for solace, and healing, and care of the body, and permitted them to be used by those who could not yet entrust themselves wholly to God. ”

“ It is plain, at the outset, that our Lord set certain limits to the exercise of His healing activity. What has often been said of miracles in general17 may be said of the miracles of healing. There is a severe economy in the exercise of such supernatural, or extranatural, powers. This is illustrated by our Lord’s apparent reluctance to work miracles when it is not certain that a true faith asks for it.18 In178 other words, the receptivity of men is necessary to the Divine transaction with the sufferer. ”

“ Take away the heavy burden of my sins, for Thou takest away the sins of the world, Thou healest the infirmities of mankind, Thou callest to Thyself and givest rest to those who labor and are heavy laden.
Thou hast not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Cleanse me from every stain of flesh and spirit. Teach me to fulfill holiness in fear of Thee, that having the testimony of my own conscience clean, and having communion of Thy holy things, I may be united with Thy Body and Blood and may have Thee to dwell and abide in me, with the Father and Thy Holy Spirit. ”

“ If, then, we do not fly from the external occasions, how can we resist temptation and avoid sin? Let us, therefore, place before our eyes the general remedy which Jesus has prescribed for conquering temptations and saving our souls. ”

“ They that believe shall in Him find the healing power. Their faith leads them to Him, where the healing power is applied, as the look brought the Israelites to the healing power of God. Our obedience that brings us to Christ is the outgrowth of our faith, just as their look was the outgrowth of theirs. There is no healing virtue in the one nor the other, but they were and are necessary to bring the believer where the healing virtue is. ”

“ Such a petition would be, for instance, to obtain the necessary and effective aid of divine grace for overcoming an existing transient temptation, or the conversion of a certain sinner approaching death. To the second class belongs the avoidance of temporal evils, or of continuous temptations, or the conversion of a certain sinner now in good health. To the third class belong such benefits which can be granted only for a later period, perhaps at the hour of death. The grace of final perseverance is the foremost among these. ”

“ Under such circumstances some might want to administer an emetic to the sick, which might be very well if they lacked faith; but if we have faith to feel that the issues of life and death are in our power, we can say to disease, "Be ye rebuked in the name of Jesus, and let life and health come into the system of this individual, from God, to counteract this disease;" and our faith will bring this by the laying on of hands by administering the ordinances of the holy Gospel. ”

“ There is a knowledge essential to them as Ministers, and this is not human learning, though that is not to be despised, but it is the influence of the Spirit upon the mind, giving them to see, clearer than others, the plan of salvation, the depravity of human nature, the exceeding sinfulness of sin, the nature of the law, the glories of the Saviour, the danger of a form of godliness, without the power ”

“ Faith healing still played a large part in the cure of Middle Age maladies, and so deeply-rooted was the idea that prayer and intercession, combined with a concoction of herbs from the monastery gardens, would heal the sick, that it was deemed a want of faith to employ other remedies. "It is better," they said, "to fall into the hands of God than into the hands of men," a beneficial reflection, when one considers for a moment what the "hands of men" meant. ”

“ The gospel of healing demonstrates the law of Love. Justice uncovers sin of every sort; and mercy demands that if you see the danger menacing others, you shall, Deo volente, inform them thereof. Only thus is the right practice of Mind-healing achieved, and the wrong practice discerned, disarmed, and destroyed. ”

“ Do you believe, then, that your soul is receiving healing at Christ’s hand from the eternal wounds which with men are incurable, the wounds of the passions of sin, for the sake of which healing the Lord also came hither, that He might now cure the souls of the faithful of those incurable wounds, and cleanse them from the foulness of the leprosy of evil,—He, the only true physician and healer? ”

“ And so we must now be guided in all things by the law of Christ made man, and by that of His Church, and of His ministers, in a human and a visible manner, and by these means we must remedy our spiritual weaknesses and ignorances, since in these means we shall find abundant medicine for them all. ”

“ In this matter of healing, then, as in all the miracles, we find Jesus doing the works of the Father. God is our Saviour: the Son of God comes healing the sick—doing that, I repeat, before our eyes, which the Father, for his own reasons, some of which I think I can see well enough, does from behind the veil of his creation and its laws. The cure comes by law, comes by the physician who brings the law to bear upon us ”

“ I reply, assistance is of two kinds; it is either affording us proper means, such as the holy scriptures, the ministry of the word, ordinances of religion, and precious promises by way of encouragement;—or, it is actually to influence the mind by supernatural agency. If this latter assistance be afforded, the event is secured; for nothing is requisite to secure the volitions, and all the exercises of the will, in faith, repentance, love, hope, and even perseverance therein unto the end, but this kind of influence to a certain degree. ”

“ There is a remedy revealed for man’s need, as wide and broad and deep as man’s disease. We need not be afraid to look at sin and study its nature, origin, power, extent and vileness, if we only look at the same time at the almighty medicine provided for us in the salvation that is in Jesus Christ. Though sin has abounded, grace has much more abounded. ”

“ Let them, therefore, with fasting and with prayer make their adjurations, and not with the elegant and well-arranged and fitly-ordered words of learning, but as men who have received the gift of healing from God, confidently, to the glory of God. By [6] your fastings and prayers and perpetual watching, together with your other good works, mortify the works of the flesh by the power of the Holy Spirit. He who acts thus “is a temple of the Holy Spirit of God.” [7] Let this man cast out demons, and God will help him. For it is good that a man help those that are sick. ”

“ Hence the need of personal religion in those who watch for the diseased; hence the need of the Spirit’s teaching, that he who is a guardian of the body’s health may know how to promote the soul’s; and that no physician will know till the Saviour be a Saviour to him, and the great question, “What must I do to be saved?” ”

“ This plan may be despised by some, ridiculed by others, and considered insufficient by a third class of persons; but, under every trial and difficulty, we find prayer and faith to be our universal remedy; and, after having experienced for half a century their efficacy, we purpose, by God's help, to continue waiting upon Him, in order to show to an ungodly world, and to a doubting Church, that the Living God is still able and willing to answer prayer, and that it is the joy of His heart to listen to the supplications of His children. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In short, care depends upon charity which is linked with prayers that bring health and healing to the body and produces a rare clarity of mind and enhances moral and spiritual power, therefore, it is said that prayers keep away all sorts of suffering and troubles. ”