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T HE K I N G ’S B U S I N E S S instances Hans Egede, the pioneer mis sionary in Greenland, who, finding that his hearers, like many in the time of Christ, had a perception only for bodily relief, sought of God the gift of healing that he might so prove to them the power of the Redeemer whom he preached. With many sighs, tears and prayers he seeks a special anointing, and then ventures. in the name of Christ to lay his hands upon the sick and scores of them are made whole. Similar facts are witnessed in the lives of Moravian missioriaries, Spangenburg and Zeisberger, recorded in the Rhen ish Mission in South Africa in 1858, in the memoir of Kleinschmidt, and of Nommensen in Sumatra. , Luther wrestled in prayer at the bed side of the dying Melancthon, and with victorious faith took him by the hand saying, “Philip, be of good cheer: thou shalt not die,” and from' that hour Melancthon revived. Bengei, author of the “Gnomon,” left on record the case of a girl in Leon- berg, near Stuttgart, immediately healed by the prayer of faith, whose case was examined and publicly certi fied as genuine. Spurgeon is high authority among evangelical believers. Overwhelmed by the testimony to the working of sup ernatural power in the Christian insti tutions founded and conducted by Franke, Falke, Stilling, Gossner, Mul ler, Fleidner, Harms, Wichern, Doro thea Trudell, etc., he designates these believers as the “modern workers of miracles.” In man two natures are combined. He is at the same time spirit and mat ter, heaven and earth, soul and body. For this reason, on one side he is a son of God, and on the other he is doomed to destruction because of the fall; sin in his soul and sickness in his body bear witness to the right which death has over him. It is tlxe two-fold nature which has been redeemed by divine grace. “Bless the Lord, O my
where conditions similar-to those which prevailed when it was first preached seemed to justify the expectation that God would give ‘boldness’ to His ser vants in preaching by “stretching forth His hand to heal.” Indeed these state ments were not generally doubted or disputed by believers until the zeal to overthrow the “faith cure” delusion led to some rash attempt to prove that all supernatural signs long since an swered their purpose and entirely ceased. And so all such modern signs classed with miracles have been treated as impossible on whatever testimony supported. Do believers understand that such a position is almost identical with that of the Scotch deist, Hume, whose name is linked with Gibbon, Bolingbroke, Rousseau and Voltaire as deadly foes to our faith? 'This is not a matter to be demon strated by argument nor demolished by ridicule. It is a question first of Scripture and secondly of trustworthy evidence, and on such grounds and no other let the issue be tried. The Scrip ture certainly suggests and favors the healing of the body in answer to prayer; and as no hint is there found that such signs would cease, the burden of proof is with the opponent, not the advocate of such healing. From the word of God alone no one would gather that such supernatural signs any more than promises to prayer were confined to the. apostles or apostolic age. Since the Scriptures promise bodily healing and set no limit of time, the whole mat ter resolves itself into a question of fact and so of testimony. Who are the witnesses? Christlieb, a master mind of Germany, writes in his “Modern Infidelity,” p, 332, “In the history of modern missions we find many wonderful occurrences which un mistakably remind us of the apostolic age. In both periods there are similar hindrances to be overcome in the heathen world, and similar palpable confirmations of the word are needed to convince the dull sense of men.” He
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