IT seems evident that the boasted enlightenment and progress of the nineteenth century has done little if anything to free the minds of the masses of the people from superstition. For never, apparently, were there so many bogus “healers” in the country claiming to exercise divine power, as there are to-day; and all seem to be doing a thriving business.
The term “faith cure” is commonly applied to the work of these frauds, about which there is, in strict truth, neither faith nor cure. The only “faith” that is present in such cases is a blind confidence in the powers of the “healer,” and the only cure that follows is a product of the imagination or of the unseen spiritual agencies of evil.
There is a true faith cure; and its existence is argued by the presence of that which is counterfeit. Not only this, but that we have reached a time when it is to be especially manifested, is indicated unmistakably by the marked revival of superstition which is seen in the land to-day. It is the devil’s plan to flood the world with counterfeit imitations of that which is genuine, in order that people may be deceived and accept the false for the true.
What, then, is true faith cure? The answer is simple. It is the power of God manifested in the healing of disease through faith. And what is faith? Is it a mere blind confidence in somebody? Is it something devoid of reason? No; certainly not. There is nothing more reasonable than to believe in the power of God.
We see the manifestations of God’s power on every hand. What is it that causes life and growth in all the world around us? It is not our power; no, nor the power of any man nor of any government. Is it then power [564] that creates itself? To believe this requires the credulity of a “freethinker.” If power could create itself, the problem of a “perpetual motion” would have been solved long ago. If nothing could create something, could not man, who is much more than nothing, create something? Yet he cannot create the very lowest and simplest form of life.
Faith is the characteristic of the Christian. The Christian knows God, for he has experienced the power of God in making him a new being—giving him a new creation. He has experienced crucifixion and death of the “old man”—his former self—with Jesus Christ, and with Christ he has been raised up and exalted to heavenly places, and experiences the divine life working in him, which is Christ living in him. When Christ lives in an individual, that individual cannot be ignorant of him. He is in the closest companionship with Christ, and can only look with pitying amazement upon the one who would try to persuade him that Christ does not exist.
Thus knowing the Lord, knowing God’s companionship and power in his own experience daily, and seeing God’s power in all the forms of life and growth around him, is it unreasonable that he should believe in that power? Would anything be more unreasonable in him than that, knowing this, he should refuse to believe in that power?
The Christian believes that He who created all things and maintains them in life, can heal the sick of all diseases. This is only reasonable in the highest degree. He believes that God’s Word is true; and finding that Word full of gracious invitations to ask of his heavenly Father for that aid which it is beyond his own power to supply, for the healing of both body and soul, he simply takes God at his word, and thus experiences true faith cure. It is the same power, and the same faith, whether it be for the healing of the body, or of the soul. The soul of the unregenerate man is sick unto death; and that which is called conversion, is its healing,—a true instance of faith cure: for it must all come through faith.
Faith being thus in the highest degree reasonable, is the direct opposite of superstition. The two cannot go together. The superstitious person knows nothing of true faith, and the man of faith is never superstitious. And wherever faith is not, there superstition has access. Faith, not education, is the safeguard against superstition. Faith, indeed, is itself an avenue to the highest education,—the knowledge of God. But that education which is without God, prepares no one to detect spiritual error when it appears in the form of truth. And this is abundantly proven by the ease with which “educated” people fall victims to the “faith cure” “Christian science,” and kindred delusions of the times.
Faith cure—the genuine—is all right; it is the only salvation for the race, or for any individual. And therefore it is of the utmost importance to each individual that he should obtain the genuine faith cure, and no counterfeit; for it is something each one must obtain for himself.