Leves of Healing Series 1 1891 No 9-11wpd
Leves of Healing Series 1 1891 No 9-11wpd
Leves of Healing Series 1 1891 No 9-11wpd
A MONTHLY JOURNAL.
VOLUME 1.
A 24-Page Monthly
Subscription Price,
$1.00 a Year.
EDITORIAL NOTES.
NOS. 9,10,11,
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as much literature as we now do, if it were sent by
each one of those who have been healed in
Australasia and America. Is not the Lord saying,
Speak unto the people that they go forward?
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instrumental in reviving these long neglected
Truths.
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and breathe upon these slain that they may live.
With all our hearts we ask every member of
the Association throughout the many lands in
which they will read these words to join in this
prayer, and we ask the same of every Christian
reader. Brother Blaich closes his letter with the
simple words, Remember the Holy Land. Let us
all do it night and day before the Throne of Grace.
THE LORDS SEAL OR THE DEVILS
SEALWHICH? A QUESTION
FOR DR. SIMPSON.
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LEAVES OF HEALING
AN ESCAPED CRIMINAL.
Some time during the month of November,
from a State Penitentiary, where he was confined
under sentence of ten years imprisonment for the
crime of forgery, this man now calling himself
Charles H. Weeks, sawed his way out, to use his
own expression, with two other companions.
Whilst beating his way on a freight train from
Ohio, he fell from the cars at Toledo, and being
discovered by the train-men he cried out in
pretended agony, and declared that he was unable
to move his limbs, having seriously injured his
spine.
HIDES IN THE COOK COUNTY HOSPITAL.
He begged the train-men to have compassion
on him and take him to Chicago, which they did,
and upon December 1st., last, he was brought to
the Cook Co. Hospital. In the Chicago Tribune of
June 23rd, one of the physicians of the hospital is
reported to have said, that they could find no
indications of rail-road spine from which he was
supposed to be suffering. After experimenting upon
him to prove or disprove their belief they came to
the conclusion that he was suffering from an
exaggerated form of hysteria. There was no
disease of the nerve tissue, it was simply a disease
of the will.
THE PHYSICIANS ARE SUSPICIOUS.
That physician was more correct in his
diagnosis than he himself knew. The disease of the
will was undoubtedly there, for Charles H. Weeks
was simply hiding in the hospital and was every
moment, hour and day in fear of detection, which
would lead to his immediate return to the prison
from which he had escaped.
DECEIVES TWO HOSPITAL VISITORS.
During this period he was visited by two
ladies, well known to us, who were seriously
lacking, to say the least, in wisdom and good
judgment. These persons, after explaining to him
concerning Salvation and Divine Healing, began to
find at last that Weeks was interested. Being a
clever and accomplished scoundrel, amongst other
things a splendid penman, as the hospital records
show, he began to see that he could practice
without difficulty upon their credulity. Accordingly
he professed conversion and a willingness to be
healed through faith in Jesus.
THREATENED TO BE CAUTERIZED.
This willingness was wonderfully quickened
by the fact, given by the before mentioned
physician, namely that a specialist who examined
Weeks threatened to cauterize him. Weeks begged
and begged and finally left the hospital on June
16th.
PREPARES FOR THE MIRACLE.
Had the physician known, he would have
understood that Weeks was simply begging off
until all things were ripe for a "miracle" at the
Western Sprigs Convention, which had been
announced to open on Friday, June 19th. All things
were now ready; the Devil having fully prepared to
put his seal upon that Convention, and accordingly
Weeks continued his shamming, and at his own
request was carried out to Western Springs and
placed in a tent. Great interest was at once
manifested in this newly converted seeker for
healing. No investigation whatever was made of
his statements or antecedents, so far as can be
ascertained, and his loud professions of expected
healing, created intense interest, all being wrought
up to a point of expectation.
THE BOGUS SEAL, AND ATTENDANT
SCENES.
On the night of Saturday, June 20th, or rather
very early in the morning of the following day,
Weeks began to hypocritically shout and praise the
Lord in his tent, and swung himself off the bed,
calling upon all the people in the surrounding tents
to come. Clad only in scanty night attire they
flocked into the tent in considerable numbers and
continued to shout and sing and pray until the
dawn; the whole reason for their rejoicing being a
base fraud. In utter ignorance they were praising
God for the consummation of the Devils trick. Dr.
Simpson then came upon the scene and the
miracle was completed, as he says, by his
anointing Weeks, in the presence of a small
company, who immediately afterwards began to
walk. Money was then freely subscribed to help
this deceiver and cheat who had so easily
imposed upon all concerned, and he spent his
time principally, after the Convention closed, by
lazily alternating his visits between the homes of
the two ladies who had been tricked by him in the
county hospital.
THE SEAL IS A HYPOCRITE, A LIAR, A
THIEF AND A DRUNKARD.
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the clearest and most convincing teachers of divine healing now
before the world; he accompanies his ministry by definite prayer
for the sick, with laying on of hands, but claims no power in
himself; all is through Jesus Christ, he is only the instrument.
Christ alone can heal, as he alone can save. Thousands have
come to accept Jesus as their healer through his preaching. * *
*He teaches with a great power, fearless courage, and
undaunted assurance, that it is Gods will to freely forgive, wholly
sanctify, and perfectly heal every one who comes to Him in
perfect faith, complete surrender, and wholehearted obedience,
and he gives no quarters to any kind of sin or deception or
unbelief.
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LEAVES OF HEALING
Shes dead!
Your mother dead, I said, surely it can not
be, as I accompanied the weeping lad to his
home.
But it was too true. When I entered the silent
house, where many persons were gathered
together, I saw by their awe-stricken countenances
and noiseless movements, that the shadow of
death was indeed resting over a once happy
home. And, when I passed into the dimly lit room,
and was held by my hand in the convulsive grasp
of the heartbroken husband, I beheld the cold
white face of one who but the previous day had
spoken with me in my own home, and had
afterwards written me a kind letter which I now
possess. A flood of memories passed through my
mind, and, scarcely daring to speak, I asked in a
whisper, a dear friend who stood by, Did she die
? I never completed the question. I saw the
answer in every horror-stricken face around me; I
heard it in the now uncontrolled grief of the
motherless children and agonized husband; I smelt
it in the odor of alcohol which still polluted the
atmosphere of the chamber of death, and it
seemed to come from the yet open lips of the
pained face of the dead womanShe died drunk!
Can a shepherd stand beside the mangled
body of a sheep torn by the wolf from his fold, and
not wish the wolf lay there instead? And can you
wonder, if I, a shepherd of Christs flock, raised my
voice in that silent room, and cried to the Great
Shepherd above, that He would give His people
strength to slay the awful monster, who had
destroyed, body and soul, a once gentle, loving,
pure-hearted Christian lady, an earnest,
self-denying worker for the poor and the fallen, and
a wife and mother whose love and tenderness
were seldom equalled, when as yet the destroying
spirit of the intoxicating cup had no power over her
delicately moulded nature? There I vowed again
before God that, until I died, I would fight against
this awful drink destroyer of that, and of tens of
thousands of homes throughout this fair Australian
land, ay, and in every land on earth, beneath the
sun.
Yes, this is the story of ten thousand homes
to-day, which the Drink Fiend has entered and laid
desolate, with a desolation more awful than War or
Famine ever wrought.
Tis a year ago on Monday, said a widow to
me one day, since my husband carne home to
die; and you will remember, sir, twas a fortnight
later that you buried him.
Oh yes, I remembered it all. His was a wasted
life, and Drink was the waster which wore out the
once healthy frame, which palsied the hand of the
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by what looks like bundles of rags. A drunken
father staggers in, followed by a loud-voiced
half-intoxicated mother with a moaning infant in her
arms. They quarrel, fight, blaspheme and rave at
each other. The affrighted children wake, and with
a brutal oath and kick, the eldest girl is sent out to
get their only mantelpiece ornament, the Bottle,
refilled with the accursed poison which is the
cause of all this misery. This is the story of ten
thousand homes.
But no words can picture these stories.
Go to the gaols, the orphanages, the poor
asylums, the insane asylums, etc., and there you
may see the wrecks of ten thousand homes.
Go throughout all the land, and everywhere
you will find the Licensed Drink Demon at work
under the distinguished patronage of the
Legislature, and basking in the sunshine of
Government favor, whilst the clergy and the
churches, the rich and poor, the young and old,
the educated and the ignorant, dance in his train
and chant the praise of his high priests, who reap
the fruits of their devotion in the spoils of tens of
thousands of homes.
How long, O Lord, how long?
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Total
Total Imported
670,488,7,3232,276 gals. csting
$50,918,095
Total Domestic liquors 1,050,992,509 g'ls c'seg
$1,246,575,182
Total Imp. And Dom.
1,058,314,785 gs cst g
$1,297,575,182
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LEAVES OF HEALING
it was not thy faith which provided the moneyno,
it was thy kind friend, who had placed it there for
thee, it was his grace, so to speak, which
answered the demand of thy faith, which believed
his written word. So with thy God. Perishing soul,
loving cheques upon the Bank of Infinite Love and
Power are given thee, which cover all thy need, at
all times. Take this:Wherefore He is able to save
them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him,
seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for
them,Hebrews vii. 25. Present this now, this
very moment, at the Throne of Grace and thou
shalt be saved immediately, and to the uttermost.
The Gospels, and other portions of the inspired
word, are full of proofs that Christ saves sinners
IMMEDIATELY. All his acts of healing were
immediate, as they are still. The leper, who came
in fath, was immediately cleansed (see Mark i.
40-42); Peters wifes mother was immediately
healed when Jesus touched her (Luke iv. 39); the
woman who had spent all she had on doctors,
after twelve years of weary and increasing
suffering, was immediately healed when she
touched Him with faith (Luke viii. 43, 44); the man
who had lain for thirty-eight years, was
immediately made whole at the pool of
Betheseda (John v. 1-9); the man, above forty
years old, and lame from his birth, was healed
in the name of Jesus Christ, at the Beautiful Gate,
and immediately his feet and ankle bones
received strength (Acts iii. 1-11); and many others
were healed immediately of whom thou canst
read. And it was thus too that Christ forgave
penitent sinners, such as the fallen woman who
wept at his feet in the Pharisees house, to whom
He there said, Thy sins are forgiven (Luke vii. 48);
and, in the Pearl of Parables, He taught us that the
Eternal Father goes forth to meet the returning
sorrowing sinner, and saves him immediately
and for ever.
Oh decide now, lest the day of grace be gone,
and the day of judgment find thee doomed. He is
able, He is willing; and, if thou dost perish, it is
because thou wilt not be saved. How shalt THOU
escape, if THOU dost neglect so great salvation?
How? How? It is the one question which even God
cannot answer. How? How?
Oh, be earnest, do not stay,
Than mayest perish, e'en to-day;
Rise, thou lost one, rise and flee,
Lo, thy Saviour waits for thee.
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It tells you of a mother who died in the Lord. That inscription is
a lie. She died in a state of drunkenness. She was once a pure,
noble, abstaining woman. She married a husband who drank a
little, so he said. After years of persuasion, he got her to drink a
little too. Then more, and more, and more, until everything was
cast aside for strong drink. She came home one day drunk,
threw a full bottle of brandy at her affrighted children, drank from
another she held in her hand, fell down as she entered her
bed-room door, never rose again, and was shortly after found to
be dead. Who killed her? I reply, the hand that first made her
drink the mocking spirit, from which she had ever abstained.
Mind whom you marry. If you value your soul, never
marry the man who drinks a little. Heed not his words. Let him
be an abstainer first, and see that he gives you time to prove him
true to his pledge, or, at the last, wine may destroy you both.
Young man, let me entreat you, mind whom you marry.
Some time ago, a gentleman of good position in Sydney,
comparatively young, sat in my study, with his face buried in his
hands, sobbing as though his heart would burst with grief. A
Christian man, he had been deceived by a fascinating Delilah,
who, false as her of old, had disgraced and outraged him by her
shameless vices. But he had been warned. Yet he would not
heed. He thought his love and care would win her to be a
Christian too. But she fell deeper, until she could fall no lower.
Oh, young man, "mind whom you marry," else, it may be
thou shalt, like Samson, fall into the hands of a Delilah, who shall
betray thy love, destroy thy strength, deliver thee over to Satan,
and set thee grinding in the prison-house.
"Mind whom you marry," I say to all who are not yet
married. "A prudent wife is from the Lord." Seek her at His hand.
Then when thou hast found her, thou hast in her one whose
price is far above rubies. The heart of her husband doth safely
trust in her. Favor is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman
that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.
CHICAGO.
aware. Any man who has traveled widely could name a dozen
cities, which in each of these points could excel Chicago, but this
is the trash that is being given to the people instead of the bread
of life. Stones, serpents and scorpions would be less injurious
to the people than flattery of this kind. We could paint a picture
of Chicago that would strike terror into the heart of the nation if
it would only listen.
THINGS THAT WERE HAPPENING WHILST HE WAS
PREACHING.
The very same paper for instance, that recorded the
sermon at length, also recorded the following facts amongst the
daily news.
DROWNINGS, PICNICS, DEBAUCHERIES,
SHOOTINGS.
On its first page the record is given of Five persons
drowned in various parts of the lake who were out on Sunday
picnics, and at one of these a scene of debauchery, called a
Ideal Estate Picnic, a thief was fatally shot by a police officer
while trying to escape. There is also a report of a small vessel full
of excursionists which was seen in a blaze late at night (with
what result is not stated, since she drifted away out in the lake
and was lost in the darkness). These things were happening at
the very time this man was preaching the devils gospel of
vanity.
RACING, GAMBLING, PRIZE-FIGHTING AND BASE BALL
MATCHES.
The third page of the same paper tells of the opening of a
racecourse at Garfield Park, within the city limits, and gives the
exact menu of the gamblers dinner. The next column contains
the details of a conversation with a man who is manager of a
great prize fight, said conversation being given as having taken
place on Sunday night at a hotel in the city. The remaining two
columns of that page are given to a full report of the Sunday
base ball matches.
A SERMON BY A FLATTERER
CITY CRIMES, AND EDITORS HAVING A NOISY TIME.
The stupendous ignorance of the people in supposing this
city to have pre-eminence over all other cities would be intensely
amusing, were it not so serious; and a sermon, which was
reported fully in the Chicago Inter-0cean of July 13th, by Dr.
Bristol, a Methodist minister, is a fair specimen of the way in
which the pulpit caters to Chicagos vanity.
Taking for his text Chicago (where did he find it in the
Bible?) he told his delighted hearers that it was a greater city in
every respect than Athens, Troy, Carthage, Babylon, Tyre or
Jerusalem, and not only that, but he said it was greater than any
city of modern times. The following are his exact words: Nor is
there a city of equal size in the world to-day for whose
prosperity, healthfulness, general intelligence and morality,
Chicago could afford to exchange its own. For wholesale
ignorance or wilful lying, this is unparalleled so far as we are
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picture, only remarking these accounts are given in the best and
least sensational of all the daily newspapers, the Inter-Ocean.
FLATTERING THE NEWSPAPERS.
But Dr. Bristols flattering sermon out-does Barnum or any
other first-class American liar, in its contemptible pandering to the
most unclean and mendacious press that ever cursed any city.
He says: The most intellectual in Chicago is its daily press. It is
an education to read the daily papers. There is no press in the
world more in harmony with the intellectual and moral
advancement of their city than the daily press of Chicago, and
they lead for intelligence and good sense and moral character,
and at the same time are the newsiest newspapers in the world.
It would be difficult to compress more falsehoods into a few
lines. Even the newspaper men themselves would laugh at the
stupendous lie, for they are self-confessed liars, and the fact is
generally acknowledged that it is unsafe to trust to anything that
the press say, except as in the case of Dr. Bristols sermon,
where they are evidently printing from manuscript every word
being in inverted commas.
Norwegians....45, 000
British..............50,000
French.............12,000
Russian...........10,000
Danes..............10,000
Italians.............10,000
Belgians,
Greeks,
Spaniards,
Portuguese
Chinese and
Other nationalities.
About
3,000
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men, at least two, and probably three, are not fit to marry, so far
as we can judge, and the result is a puny people for the most
part, demoralized by drink and tobacco, and a ready prey to
diseases of every description.
SECRET SOCIETIES.
BY THE EDITOR.
One of the strangest features of the life in this city and the
United States in general, is the existence of large numbers of
secret societies, there being no less than 6,000 societies of
various kinds, most of them having secret aims and methods,
some of them of the most diabolical kind, and utterly unfit to
write concerning. Many of these secret societies are armed
associations of men who are regularly drilled, and who might be
of much danger to the body politic.
ARMED AND DRILLED.
These armed men comprise specially Roman Catholics,
Atheists and Anarchists, some of whom would take a sincere
pleasure in cutting the writers throat if they could do it without
danger to their own. The abominable order of Free Masons has
a most powerful hold here, and everywhere that we have been
in this country, and we feel certain that there is a secret
understanding between its leaders and Rome, despite the
appearances against it, and we speak from a special knowledge.
It seemed very strange to our eyes to see these plumed
knights of the commanderies going in procession through the
streets with drawn swords and in military array. Much of it is
doubtless the mere love of childish display and desire for titles of
some kind which characterizes this so-called democratic people,
but there is a more serious side to it, and that will be seen some
day in this country.
THE M. E. CHURCH AND FREE MASONRY.
The largest of all Protestant churches in this country is the
Methodist Episcopal and we know that it is controlled by Free
Masonry in many of the states. Proofs are in our possession, and
facts beyond dispute. So far as we can judge there are probably
over 5000 secret societies in Chicago at thus moment, while there
are only 317 churches of all denominations, only 200 of which
are Protestant and evangelical.
This is an appalling picture but it could be greatly added to
by a description of the theaters, dime museums, houses of ill
fame, and gambling holes of the vilest description.
THE HEALTH OF THE CITY.
The health, or rather the disease of the city is also
appalling. There were nearly 22,000 deaths in the city last year,
and for weeks in the first portion of this, there were nearly 1,000
per week who died. It is not to be wondered at if the health of
the people is very bad for the city government is execrable.
THREE AWFUL ITEMS.
We will close with a list of three items from last years
reports: 77 murders: 206 suicides; and 114 deaths from delirium
tremens; nearly 400 persons therefore died in this awful way in
one year in Chicago.
FAITHFUL FACTS VERSUS FLATTERING FICTIONS.
We place these facts against Dr. Bristols flatteries and ask:
Does it seem strange that we should consider this city to be one
of Satans Seats? It sometimes seems to us as if the Pit of Hell
were just beneath the great Cities of the world, and that from
each of them was a Great Gate thereto. Not the least of these
Gates is Chicago.
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regarding the press and the reports of public men, I at once
opened the conversation which continued without intermission
for the next two hours and a half, and of which I can only give a
brief outline in this article.
The personal description of Mr. Schweinfurth as he sat
before me may be here given. He is of short stature and slender
build, with hair of almost fiery red, short clipped beard, mustache
and whiskers. His face is small; his eye dull and without spiritual
expression, even when most animated.
Again and again his cool self-restraint, (which was only
maintained by a continuous effort) was broken up and the
tell-tale blood rushed to his face showing that he had been hard
hit, and as he wiped the perspiration from his brow it was
evident that the conversation had broken up his alleged habitual
composure. His attire and appearance in all respects was a
complete reversal of all conceptions of our incarnate Lord.
Dressed in a fashionable light summer suit, without waistcoat,
with a broad belt fastened by a large silver buckle around his
waist, with his feet encased in elegant shoes and silk stockings,
and with his bosom presenting several square feet of spotless
shirt front ornamented with three large diamond studs and his
neck encircled by a fashionable collar with a large fashionable
necktie spreading out upon the spotless linen, he seemed with
his carefully curled hair, to be a kind of human poodle dog petted
by a bevy of silly women, rather than an ideal man of sorrows
and sympathies, as the Christ of yore, and by no means a kingly
presentation of the Christ who comes to reign.
With the little girl perched upon his knee he began the
interview by asking me as to my opinions concerning the
condition of the church throughout the world, and it was evident
at many points that he was exceedingly eager to get information.
He is evidently as yet only practicing for a part that he hopes to
play upon a large scale, and he is being very carefully trained by
the intelligent Mrs. Tuttle who impressed me throughout the
whole interview as being, not only his equal, but by far his
superior in intelligence, and indeed as the presiding genius of the
whole blasphemous schemeJacob Schweinfurth being in her
hands (as he had been in those of the late Mrs. Beckman) only
as clay to the potter.
As the conversation grew serious the little girl was
dismissed and it was evident that they were both soon in deep
waters and swimming for their lives. Through partly opened
doors which surrounded the large reception room, we could see
flitting white robed forms and hear subdued voices which made
me think (and the ladies in my party confirmed my impression)
that we were being listened to by quite a number of the inhabitants of this heaven.
Having answered his questions I took the questioners place
and held the conversation from that time. Getting from him his
impressions of the church throughout the world I asked him how
far his personal knowledge, extended, and was informed (just as
I might have been by an ordinary human being) that it was
limited to ministration principally in the country districts in the
state of Illinois, and surrounding states; and it was quite evident
from his reply, that he had only the faintest conception of the
magnitude of the operations of the Church of God and of the
progress of the work of missions both at home and abroad. He
admitted this, and I pointed out to him at once how he had failed
to understand the real position in many points, but this portion of
the interview was evidently, on his part as it was on mine,
merely preparatory fencing, and he was evidently watching me
as to how I would open the graver matters connected with his
astounding claims. He showed no eagerness to discuss his
claims until the subject was forced upon him, and from this point
I think it will be better if I give the conversation in the form of a
dialogue, the accuracy of which I have taken pains to preserve.
Mr. Dowie. You will now pardon me, Mr. Schweinfurth, if I
at once ask you to enter upon the subject of yourself and your
claims, the public declaration of which has caused me to make
this visit to you to-day.
S. Certainly, Doctor, I am willing that you should ask me
any questions that you please.
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claim that all men should honor Him even as they honored the
Father. Now by what words or works do you justify your claims
to divinity?
Mrs. T. (Again bursting in for his protection and
gathering him under her wing metaphorically, as a frightened
mother hen would when she saw an ugly hawk or eagle near.)
Oh. Dr. Dowie, you do not begin to understand.
D. Then, madam, I am here to give you an opportunity to
make me understand. Is he indeed the Christ?
Mrs. T. You must first believe before you can understand.
Mr. S has opened to us the scriptures in such a way as to prove
his absolute knowledge of all that they contain, and his
interpretation of them as proved his divinity. I have seen in him
the man child spoken of in Revolution 12. I have seen the great
sign in the heaven: a woman arrayed with the sun and the
moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve
stars. I have seen this woman who was with child and she cried
out travailing in birth and in pain to be delivered. I have seen
her delivered of this man child who is to rule all the nations
with a rod of iron, and (pointing to Mr. S., she said
impressively, with the air of a tragedy queen) this is he.
D. Who was the woman? Was it Mrs. Beckman, the
founder of this sect?
T. She was the woman and he is the man child of whom
she was spiritually delivered.
(Let me in passing here say that Mrs. Beckman was the
founder of this sect and declared herself to be the woman
spoken of in Revelation 12. She was the wife of a
Congregational minister, and persuaded her weak, erring
husband to admit her divine claims. Subsequently she sent him
out on a mission and adopted this Jacob Schweinfurth, who was
then a probationer preacher of the Methodist Episcopal
church, living in the vicinity of Bryon, Illinois, not far from the
place where we were then speaking.
Some time ago she died, and this was a great blow to her
followers, but Mr. Schweinfurth declared that her spirit had
passed into him and that he was her re-incarnation. He had for
some time accompanied her on her journeyings, and their
relations to each other were unfavorable commented upon by
those who knew them best.)
S. (With an almost ludicrous solemnity.) I am he.
D. Well, Mr. Schweinfurth, if you are He and you are the
Eternal God manifest in the flesh, you will have no difficulty
whatever in satisfying me as to your claims if you can only
preset to me some adequate proofs, I will leave you to decide
on what nature these shall be only let them be manifestly
divine.
S. I witness not of myself.
D. O, that is utter nonsense. Christ manifested himself
before and after his resurrection by many infallible proofs. He
changed the water into wine; He miraculously increased the
loaves and fishes and fed the multitude; He calmed the stormy
sea and controlled the winds and waves; He healed the sick of
every kind; He raised the dead and He proclaimed the gospel
that drew all men unto Him, and that made even his enemies
to say: Never man spake like this man: that made Nicodemus
to say. Rabbi, we know that thou art a teach sent from God, for
no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be
with him.
S. (Sneeringly) Ha, Ha, you are in the kindergarten stage
of your conception of Christ. Healing and such things as you
speak of are of small account to me. These are the kindergarten
methods. Now there is a higher.
D. Suppose it to be so; then show me this higher. I have
asked you questions concerning my external life and you admit
your limited knowledge by your inability to answer them.
Speaking freely, do you not admit that you are a man of limited
knowledge?
S. I admit there are limits to my knowledge.
D. That fact at once proves you are not the Christ in
whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and of knowledge,
to whom all power is given in heaven and on earth, and no
creature is hidden from his sight.
S. (Wiping the perspiration from his brow.) You do not
understand.
Mrs. T. (Coming to the rescue.) He knew it not, I
proclaimed him to be the Christ.
D. But if you are the Christ you must know me, for from
a child, if you were the Christ, I should say to your face: You
know that I have loved you. You know that every day, despite
my short-comings, my thoughts have been of Thee, O Christ.
You know that I have consecrated my life to Thee and have
proclaimed this gospel to multitudes and in Thy name have laid
hands upon more than sixteen thousand sick persons. You
would know, O Christ, all who were healed in Thy name, and
would know that I am a faithful minister of Thine, looking for
Thy coming again; doing Thy will from my heart; one whose
daily delight it is to live as Thou wouldst have him live, guided
by the Holy Spirit. You would know me, and I say to your face
that you do not. That you cannot tell me what things have been
done in Christs name, and you can give me no proof that you
are the Christ. I must either believe on you as my Lord and
God, or proclaim you as an impostor and liar, and diabolical
representation,not of the Christ, but of some cruel devil who
is deluding not a few to deep depths of shame and misery here,
and to destruction hereafter.
(This rapidly and and earnestly delivered appeal caused
the false Christ great uneasiness, as I spoke the words with my
eyes steadfastly fixed upon him, having my chair closer and uttered them with intensity. Mrs. Tuttle seeing that he was again
greatly disconcerted, rushed to the rescue.)
Mrs. T. Dr. Dowie, Dr. Dowie, you do not understand.
D. Make me understand. If you have had the knowledge
that enabled you to reveal the Christ, and he has the
knowledge, he will not be perturbed by these questions and observations. I have a right to demand (if he be the Christ) proofs
that will enable me to recognize him as my Lord and my God.
I see sitting before me a man of weak limited knowledge in
many things. I have asked him to give me information
concerning myself, which could be given by persons externally
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acquainted with my life and requiring no divine power, and yet
he cannot tell me even these minor things.
S. (Recovering himself.) I admit limited knowledge, but
I am the Christ.
Mrs. T. (Making a rapid sign to Mr. S.) Permit me to
speak.
D. Are you not the wife of a Congregational minister?
Mrs. T. I was.
(Here let me say in passing that Mr. Tuttle still lives, but
not in the heavenwhere his wife dwells, an observation of
which it is not difficult to see the force, especially when there
are two children there who bear a remarkable, likeness to the
false Christ, and several have been born recently who are also
said to be like him, and whom their mothers blasphemously call
the offspring of the Holy Ghost.Mary Weldon, whose father,
gave him the property in which he lives, has lately become a
mother, and we heard an infants voice through the open door
while we were sitting there.)
D. Well, what proofs can you offer, since he can offer
none
(I may here say in passing that I had asked him many
questions concerning other matters which it is not necessary
here to give, one of which was as to his knowledge of the
original tonguesHebrew and Greekin which the scriptures
were written. He admitted that he knew nothing of either, or of
any modern language, and that he knew nothing of the
scriptures except in the English translation, being entirely
unacquainted with any other version. Both his quotations and
those of Mrs. Tuttle, were often incorrect, and I had occasion
frequently to supplement and correct them. Questions
concerning the interpretation of the parables-notably that of
the ten virginswere answered in a very ignorant manner,
even the quotation of the words of the parable being incorrect,
and requiring me to remind them of the omissions. It was by
this time evident that on the grounds of both wisdom and
knowledge they were conscious that they had failed to make
any impression whatever.
Mrs. Tuttle now broke out in a long rapturous testimony
as to his being; the Christ, and declared that nothing that I
could say would in the slightest degree shake the faith of his
people. From this point I resumed the dialogue. )
D. Who are his people?
Mrs. T. The church; the church militant.
S. Oh!
Mrs. T. Oh, I forgot. I should have said the church
triumphant.
D. Oh, (laughingly) you dont seem to be agreed. The
Church Triumphant. That is the name of another body which
meets on Cottage Grove Ave., Chicago, under the leadership of
one who also declares himself to be the incarnate son of God.
Are you associated with this man, Cyrus Teed, and his paper,
The Flaming Sword?
Both together. Oh, no, no. We are the church triumphant.
D. How many members do you suppose, Mr. S., that you
have in the church triumphant?
S. I cannot tell.
D. But the Lord knoweth them that are His. You ought
to be able to tell, if you are the Christ.
S. Oh, anywhere from five hundred to a thousand.
D. It seems strange indeed to me to hear a man
pronouncing himself the eternal God, who ought to know all
those who serve him truly, unable to tell the number, seeing
that the very hairs of our head could all be numbered in a
moment by Him and there are no limits to His knowledge.
S. You do not understand. You have many conceptions
regarding the Christ which are wrong. He never assumed
perfect knowledge as the Christ.
D. You are wrong. He said, I am the way, the truth and
life. He said, All things are delivered unto me of my Father,
and All power is given unto me in heaven and on earth. The
first of these expressions was uttered before His death and
resurrection; the second before His re-ascension. Christ is all
and in all, the Alpha and Omega.
Both. Oh, you do not understand.
Mrs. T. You would need to hear his teaching to know how
imperfectly you understand the scriptures. If you had time I
could tell you of the wonderful way in which he explains them.
D. Reverting to what you called the Kindergarten stage in
the preaching of the gospel of salvation and healing, and the
work of the Holy Ghost in cleansing from sin and sickness, and
delivering from the power of death and hell, what proofs have
you that you are in your body holy and without spot and
blemish, as the Christ must be?
(No answer being forthcoming, one of the ladiesMiss
B.asked:)
B. What would you do were you to become sick? Would
you call for a doctor?
S. (Much discomposed and wiping the perspiration from
his face. ) But I am not sick.
(This remark was a subterfuge and I did not care to take
much notice of it at the time, as I wanted to proceed and I saw
the interview might be suddenly brought to a close without
giving me the opportunity of closing it as I deemed best; but the
facts are that deaths have occurred through sickness in this
so-called heaven, and that this false Christ himself was sick
on more than one occasion, and within the last year became so
much alarmed concerning his health that I am informed he sent
for medical assistance. )
D. You have called divine healing the kindergarten age.
Do you not see that the world is full of sickness, and if you are
the Christ, that those who really love you and have given their
lives for your sake are sick, and that the healing of these sick
ones, who cannot minister as they would, would be eminently
beneficial to the spread of the gospel?
S. Oh, all these works, Dr. Dowie, that you have done
D. Pardon me, I have done nothing, There are two ladies
now present, both of whom have been healed through my
agency. Mrs. S. was dying in California, when her sister, Miss
B., asked me to see her. I went in Christs name, laid hands
upon her, and from a bed of agony she was instantly raised and
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LEAVES OF HEALING
within half an hour attended our meetings in Hamilton Church,
Oakland, Cal. Miss B. was also healed from dropsy, and as you
see presents no appearance of that disease. These works were
not mine, nor were any of the thousands who have been healed
through the laying on of my hands, and I have never claimed
power; for power belongeth unto God.
(Mrs. S. and Miss B. then very quietly witnessed to their
healing and said I was careful never to claim any power to
heal, and that they knew the power was of God, to whom I
always gave the glory. )
S. Well, never mind; the works you say were done
through you. These works could have have been done just as
well in any other name.
D. You might say the same regarding all the miracles of
our Lord himself and of all the apostles.
Mrs. T. Oh, you do not understand. Mr. S. has power, but
he does not exercise it. It would be needful for you to listen to
his teaching.
D. I think now we have got to an end of this, and it
becomes my duty, as a minister of Christ, to warn you
faithfully, and to declare my convictions concerning your
claims.
S. Oh, it does not matter what you say. (Sneeringly.) It
will not effect anything.
D. It will free my conscience from all guilt concerning
you, and it is my duty.
IN THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, I NOW WARN
YOU to repent of your great wickedness in making such
blasphemous claims, and in pursuing a course of deception and
demoralization, deluding many others and preparing for them
harvests of utter shame and misery. I declare that you are not
the Christ, but a blasphemer and a deceiver, and that through
your sinfulness you have become completely controlled by
Satan, and are now given over to a strong delusion to believe a
lieif indeed you do believe what you assert.
Mrs. T. Dr. Dowie, take care what you say. He is the
Christ; he is the Christ.
S. (Who had by this diversion been, enabled to recover
himself.)
I dreamed of you, Doctor, last night, and that you sat there
and said just the words that you have now spoken, and that I
said you lie.
D. And is it needful for the Christ to dream? and if you
dreamed that I was here and said these words, how came it that
you manifested so much surprise when you knew my name, and
did not recognize me at all?
S. (In apparent confusion.) O, the dream has only just
come to me.
D. You remind me of Joseph Smith, Mahomet and other
false prophets, who used to get revelations on the spot and had
dreams convenient for all emergencies.
S. You shall answer for your denunciation of me before
the judgment seat of God.
D. I will gladly do so and thank God as I stand before the
judgment seat of Christ that He permitted me to denounce you
SECOND ARTICLE.
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LEAVES OF HEALING
621 PULLMAN BUILDING
ADAMS STREET AND MICHIGAN AVE.,
CHICAGO, JUNE 3D, 1891.
Mr. John L. Atwater, and sixteen other persons
concerned:
DEAR BRETHREN AND SISTERS IN CHRIST:
Yesterday, June 1st, I received your communication, which reads as follows :
CHICAGO, ILL., APRIL 27TH, 1891.
DEAR BROTHER DOWIE:You will please pardon our
not having sooner responded to the request made
by you some time since, namely: That all
members of the Divine Healing Association who
attended the meeting formally held at 96 State
street, should with-draw from the Association.
Thus desiring to comply with your wishes in this
respect, we hereby ask that our respective names
be dropped from your membership roll, as we
have laid no claim to being members of said
Association since your declaration to the above
effect.
Very sincerely in His Name,
[Signed.]
D. A. Norton,
P. D. Smith,
Ellen T. Norton,
Mrs. E. V. Baker,
W. D. Smock,
Miss S. E. Porter,
Mrs. F. A. Bosworth,
J. R. Graves,
D. C. Peck,
John L. Atwater,
Mrs. D. C. Peck,
Mrs. J. L. Atwater,
Miss A. Blatherwick,
T. C. Rounds."
Mrs. J. H. Frees,
R. H. Trumbull,
Mrs. R. H. Trumbull,
Since you have been practically withdrawn
which time every possible effort seems to have
been made to obtain signatures to the above
document, its reception occasioned me no
surprise, and in the spirit of love and Christian
candor I feel it to be my duty to say that I will
comply with your request, and remove your
names from the roll of members.
But in doing so I desire to place on record the
fact that the ground upon which you have
withdrawn from the Association is utterly without
foundation. Upon no occasion, and under no
circumstances, did I ever make the request which
you have placed within inverted commas in your
letter, namely: That all members of the Divine
Healing Association who attended the meeting
formally (I presume you mean formerly) held at
96 State street, should withdraw from the Association.
Had I ever made such a request it would in
many who are now associated with us as loyal
and earnest helpers, and members of the
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LEAVES OF HEALING
finally closed, and you and all the members of the
Association agreed to support me in carrying on a
service of all-day meetings, every Thursday in the
Washington Hall, Chicago, during the months of
February, March and April, and until we could
make arrangements for a series of continuous
Missions, beginning sometime in May. To this the
principal signatories of the above letter were all
parties, cordially approving the step. Accordingly
the rooms were closed, the name of the
Association and notices of meetings were
removed from the doors, and the meetings were
transferred to Washington Hall.
Seventh. To my intense surprise during the first
few days of the month of February, I found that a
secret movement was on foot to resume, apart
from the Association, daily meetings in the rooms
at 96 State street, and after awhile Mr. John L.
Atwater, and another who is not a member of the
Association, waited upon me, and asked me to
announce that these daily meetings would be held.
Since Mr. Atwater had openly agreed to the
removal from 96 State street, and had cordially
endorsed my plans on the evening of January 26th,
I was naturally grieved and indignant at his
conduct.
Eighth. I at once refused to do so on the
following grounds: (1.) That it was a distinct breach
of faith with myself and with the Association, and
that I had neither the right nor the inclination to
reverse the decision which all parties had
unanimously arrived at. (2.) I stated that the
movement, in my opinion, was an unfriendly one
to myself and the Association, since those who
were promoting it were, for the most part,
disappointed malcontents who wanted to resume
the former disorderly teachings and practices
which had so grievously hindered the work
previous to my arrival here in July last. And (3.)
That I could not approve the meetings, nor be in
any sense responsible for them. One of the most
influential of your number openly stated to myself
and others that The movement was distinctly
disloyal to Mr. Dowie, and refused to approve it. It
is a surprise to see that name amongst your
signatures.
Ninth. A few days after this I found that a copy
of an anonymous typewritten circular was being
circulated amongst the members of the
Association, asking them to meet together at 96
State street, and resume the daily meetings. This
step, I at once considered, was in direct opposition
to both my own well known judgment and to the
resolution arrived at by the Association, and was,
in fact, an attempt to disorganize the Branch. I also
knew that there were a few disorderly persons,
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LEAVES OF HEALING
endorsed. This endorsement has been followed, I
am informed, by many of you subsequently, and
recently, receiving her teachings from her own lips
at Western Springs. The disorderly anointings,
against which I also protested, have, I understand,
been again resumed, and persons have anointed
who are manifestly not Elders, and who fail to
fulfill many of the sixteen qualifications demanded
by the Word of God, in Titus, 1st chapter, verses 5
to 9.
Twelfth. It is my joy to known that your
defection from our ranks has not interfered for a
moment with the onward progress of the work,
and that, indeed, it has rather been strengthened
and purified thereby. While I can not but regret that
even as many as seventeen have withdrawn from
our ranks, I at the same time rejoice in the fact that
we are receiving continual accessions, and that no
less than twenty-seven persons have openly
professed to find peace with God in our meetings
during the last three days, that over ninety
believers have at one recent meeting been led to
seek openly for entire sanctification of spirit, soul
and body, and that your numbers have been many
times over added to our Association since your
withdrawal. The Lord has also stretched forth His
hand to heal in a number of very remarkable
cases. These are Gods broad seals of approval to
my ministry, and to the course adopted by the
Association. We can well afford, therefore, to
disregard your implied censure, since God has
blessed us, in every way, more abundantly from
the time you went out from us, because you were
not of us: for, if you had been of us, no doubt you
would have continued with us; but you went out,
that you might be made manifest that you were not
all of us." 1 John 2: 19.
Thirteenth. It is my duty here and now to
protest against the assumption that the seventeen
persons signing this withdrawal have any right to
declare that they represent the friends in this city
who are associated with the doctrine and ministry
of Divine Healing, as has been recently done in the
invitation to the President of the Christian Alliance
to hold a a Convention this year at Western
Springs. The Christian Alliance has never had a
living Branch in, or near Chicago, and neither you,
nor the President can truly assume to represent the
believers and workers in Chicago, in connection
with the doctrine and ministry of Healing through
Faith in Jesus. You represent no one but
yourselves, a spiritually disorderly minority, and
any other pretension is a deception. It is also my
duty to solemnly warn you against the
consequences to yourselves personally, and to
others, of your disorderly proceedings, and to
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LEAVES OF HEALING
not stated, and we have never been able to find
any trace of it, or of any other healing at that
Convention. The other is given at length and has
been widely published throughout the country,
namely: the alleged healing of an impotent man
named Charles H. Weeks. Our article in another
column entitled: The Lord's Seal, or the Devils
Seal-Which? A Question for Dr. Simpson, will
show our readers that the seal was undoubtedly
the devils seal, as the case was a fraud, and one
of the most awful description, from beginning to
end; the impostor being an escaped criminal, who,
feigning sickness, hid himself away in the hospital
for months, pretended to be converted and healed,
and, having been paraded in the pages of the
Christian Alliance and in the daily papers
throughout the country, and in the Divine healing
home at Pittsburg, as a miracle of healing, is now
once more again in prison for crimes committed
since his alleged healing. We are sorry now to be
compelled to take this public stand against the
proceedings of Dr. Simpson and the Christian
Alliance. We have by private correspondence done
our utmost for a long time to reach a better
understanding, and have kept silence concerning
grave disorders both in doctrine and practice,
which have not only been countenanced by, but
have their origination in, the Christian Alliance. It
will now be our duty from henceforth, in the spirit
of love and faithfulness to our fellow men, and of
loyalty to our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, to
continue our protest until these disorders are
removed, as endeavors to effect a private
rectification have proved unavailing.
A NEW BATTLEFIELD.
Although it is very painful to be compelled to
take this position, it is at the same time better that
the real state of affairs should be made known. It
is, therefore, now abundantly clear that our
warnings were fully justified, and the triumphant
assertion of Dr. Simpson that the Lord had put His
seal on the Western Springs Convention is now
shown to be false, and instead of the Lords Seal,
it is in plain languagethe Devils. The present
position, therefore, in Chicago is, that in a most
marked and public manner, the Disorderly
Movement is now entirely divorced from ourselves
and the International Divine Healing Association.
For this we are thankful. Its further consideration
now becomes a part of the larger issue, namely:
the difference under-lying the doctrinal teaching
and practical workings of the Christian Alliance, as
represented by Dr. Simpson, and the International
Divine Healing Association, as represented by
ourselves.
In the name of the Lord we therefore transfer
the battle-field from the Position in Chicago, to a
series of articles beginning in this issue, entitled:
ERRORS OF THE CHRISTIAN ALLIANCE.
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State of Wisconsin, making a series of private visits
to sick ones in Darlington, Columbus, and
Milwaukee. Upon Lords day, July 5th, we
preached three sermons in the Congregational
Church, Columbus, at the request of our friend and
brother, the Rev. H. J. Ferris, The attendance was
very large and the interest deep. The following
evening we also had a meeting in the church, but
a very severe storm interfered with the attendance.
Our visits to the various parts of the State were
very interesting, and we returned to our home in
Evanston on Friday, July 10th.
A MISSION IN EVANSTON.
On Lords day, July 12th, we began a Mission
in Lyons Hall, Evanston. which continued until
Lords day, August 9th. This being the height of
summer and the great majority of the people being
away at the various summer resorts, the University
and schools being closed, and their more than
2,000 pupils and teachers being absent, we had a
very quiet time. The Mission was held principally
for the sake of a number of persons who wished
to come and see us from various parts of the
country, and our new temporary home was filled
with guests to overflowing. They came from the
States of Alabama, Tennessee, Wisconsin and
various parts of Illinois. The Mission closed with a
very interesting praise and testimony meeting, and
we have received several written testimonies since
its close. These, with report of the praise and
testimony meeting will appear in due course.
A VISIT TO THE EASTERN STATES.
After giving some attention to our correspondence, and to various pressing matters
connected with the general work of the Association, we accepted a pressing invitation to visit
the eastern States, and accordingly the editor,
unaccompanied by Mrs. Dowie for the first time in
all his journeys, undertook a tour of observation.
BALTIMORE
Leaving Chicago at 3:15 P. M. on Wednesday,
August 26th, we (that means he) arrived in
Baltimore, Md., on the evening of Thursday, the
27th, at 7 P. M., a distance of 802 miles, passing
through the States of Indiana, Ohio and
Pennsylvania and into the romantic State of
Maryland. Here we gave special attention to some
important cases, and held a series of meetings,
first in the house of our hostess, Mrs. Bingham and
Rev. M. D. Jewelson, which was crowded to its
utmost capacity.
WASHINGTON.
We continued in Baltimore until the afternoon
of Wednesday, September 2nd, when we left for
Washington, D. C., and spent several pleasant
days in that most interesting city, the Capital of this
great Nation. We were deeply impressed with the
city and its stately national buildings, and the view
from the top of the great Washington Monument,
555 feet high, was of intense interest. The historic
Potomac and Arlington Heights on the Virginia
shore, with the old-time mansion of the late
General Lee, now the center of the great National
Cemetery, where lie buried thousands of the slain,
were all spread out before us in a birds-eye-view
of matchless panoramic beauty. We investigated,
as far as possible, the spiritual condition of the city,
and had conferences with a number of Christian
friends addressing, at the request of our friend and
brother Mr. James Pugh, Secretary of the Y. M. C.
A., a very interesting meeting in the Foundry M. E.
Church.
ONCE MORE IN BALTIMORE.
On Saturday, September 5th, we returned to Baltimore,
and on the following day addressed very large audiences in the
Baker Street Mission Hall, a fine new stone building, where a
most successful evangelistic work is being carried on by a
devoted band of men and women belonging to all evangelical
churches. About seven or eight hundred Christians at one of
these meetings rose at the suggestion of the superintendent, to
invite us to hold a mission as speedily as possible in that city.
A number of persons professed to have received salvation and
healing through faith in Jesus during our visit, and on Tuesday,
September 8th, we left for Philadelphia, arriving there the same
evening.
PHILADELPHIA
After conferences with friends in that city we left
Philadelphia on the afternoon of Wednesday, September 9th,
and arrived in New York the same evening.
BROOKLYN AND NEW YORK.
Thursday and Friday were spent in conferences with
friends in Brooklyn and New York, specially with reference to
holding missions in these cities. These friends were exceedingly kind and pressed for our early visit, and with all of them
we had most pleasant conversations. Among the persons whom
we saw in Brooklyn, we remember with special pleasure the
courteous reception given us by the Rev. Dr. Talmage, with
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LEAVES OF HEALING
whom we had a very interesting conversation. Neither in
Philadelphia, Brooklyn nor New York did we conduct any
public services and only took part in one in the latter city.
PITTSBURG IN PENNSYLVANIA.
Leaving New York on the evening of Friday, September
11th, we journeyed to Pittsburg, Pa., a distance of 445 miles,
arriving there at noon on the following day.
During our stay in Pittsburg we were the guest of Miss
Mary Moorhead, at Bethany, and found that the city had been
greatly stirred concerning our visit by long articles in the
newspapers concerning our work for the Lord. On the
following morning, Lords day, September 13th, the chapel,
large dining room adjoining hall, stair-case and all the places
within hearing were occupied by crowds of deeply interested
hearers. In the afternoon and evening of that day we held
services in the Liberty Street M. E. Church, which had been
kindly placed at our disposal, and at the evening meeting fully
500 Christian friends rose to signify their desire that we should
hold a mission in that city. Largely attended meetings were
held the following day in Bethany in the morning, and in the
Liberty Street Church in the evening. Meanwhile a very kindly
expressed letter had reached us from Mr. J. W. McFarland,
President of the Board of Trustees, placing the Church at our
disposal for a months mission. This was handed to us by our
friend and brother, the Rev. Mr. McKee, and we felt that it was
our duty to accede to the request, conditionally upon prayerful
consultation, when we returned home, with our absent colleague, Mrs. Dowie.
HOME AGAIN.
At midnight on the following evening, Tuesday,
September 15th, we left for Chicago, a journey of 468 miles,
arriving there on the following day at 5 P. M., and within an
hour we were back at our home, and temporary headquarters,
at Evanston, a village just outside of the city limits and within
twelve miles of the center of Chicago.
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LEAVES OF HEALING
great distances from our headquarters. We have taken a lease
of our present home until May, 1894, and trust to be able to
devote much time in 1893 to the work here. The probabilities
are, however, that the work, if the Lord permit, during the
remainder of this year and the greater part of next, will lie
principally upon the Atlantic Coast, and in the states between.
We ask our friends in all parts of the world to remember
us earnestly in prayer for wisdom in the guidance of this work,
and we desire to record our unabated confidence in the
Unerring Wisdom of God who so graciously guides our way,
and enables us to say with ever increasing faith, and hope, and
love :
Where Jesus leads, well follow
Our trust in Him repose,
And every day in perfect peace,
Well sing, He knows, He knows.
We have no plans but those which He makes clear to us,
and we are willing at any moment to alter our plans when His
will is made clear, as has been the case within the last three
months.
Where my Captain bids me go,
Tis, not mine to murmur, No;
He that gives the sword and shield,
Chooses too the battlefield.
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LEAVES OF HEALING
connection with this ministry of divine healing.
Some say: While there is no doubt but there are
people healed, it is some peculiar power in Dr.
Dowie that does it. It is a perfectly natural thing,
you know; mostly nervous diseases, etc. Now I
will read you the testimonies concerning the
healing of a person who was dying, which I
received during this mission, although the prayer
was offered in the vicinity of Chicago, a few days
before I came here. I have never seen the person,
But I prayed, and here is the record of a perfect
healing without any human touch, when I was
many miles distant. Surely that is the Lords
healing. I will read you the case, prefacing it with
this, that on last Thursday, three weeks ago, I
closed the Western Springs convocation of
Christians, who came together from many parts of
the United States When delivering the closing
address of that convention, I had a request handed
up to me, just as some have been handed to me
since I came on the platform to-night, asking me to
pray for a lady who was at that very hour
supposed to be dying. She was supposed to be
dying when the person left the city to bring the
petition to me. Western Springs is about seventeen
miles from Chicago. I took the petition, saw its
nature, interrupted the proceedings, stated that I
had received it, and I prayed earnestly that the
Lord at that moment would answer prayer. Then
I said to the people, Now if the woman is as
faithful as we have, by the grace of God, been at
this moment, then she is healed. There were
scores of people looked up, but did not understand
it. Now since I came here I have received this
letter. It is written from the Simons Manufacturing
Co. Nos, 67 and 69 Lake street, Chicago, and is as
follows:
REV. JOHN ALEX. DOWIE, MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.:
MY DEAR BROTHER IN CHRIST:I fell led to write
you of a healing in answer to prayer, because it is
a remarkable healing, and the case is one that was
prayed for the last night you were in Western
Springs. The case is a lady about fifty years old.
She had an internal tumor, was so enlarged she
could not fasten her dresses by about six inches.
She had been to different hospitals. They had in
every case refused to operate on her, telling her it
was a hopeless case. Had been to all the
specialists, and they too had refused to operate on
her, saying nothing could save her. The
Wednesday (I think it was) before our meetings
closed on Thursday, the doctor told her she could
not live longer, her time had come. She was
suffering greatly. Thursday forenoon a friend of
hers, who had acquaintances at the Convocation,
came out to Western Springs, and a written
request for prayer for her was given you, and hers
was one of the cases prayed for that last night.
Remember, she was suffering terribly, and
expected by the doctor and friends to pass away
at any moment. About 10, or between 10 and 11
oclock, she spoke to her husband and said, The
Lord has healed me. She was free from pain,
rested well, and in two or three days was around
assisting in breaking up and moving into another
house, doing a hard days work. Praise the Lord!
Since then her husband, who for years was
a hard drinker,drinking up two or three
fortuneshas given himself to the Lord, erected a
family altar, and his wife says is such a changed
man. He is serving God up to his light. Praise God
for an uttermost salvation. A perfect one.
I thought it would rejoice your heart to know
this. May the dear Lord bless you and your dear
wife where you are and cause His face to shine
upon you continually, is my prayer.
Very kindest regards to both yourself and your
dear wife.
Very truly your brother in Christ,
JUSTIN R. GRAVES,
428 Oak Ave, Evanston, Ill.
Subsequently I received this letter from Mrs.
Straton, formerly of this city. I suppose many of
you remember Mrs. Stratton. Those who
remember Mrs. Stratton, hold up you hands. (Many
hands go up.) She sends additional particulars of
this healing in her letter.
NO. 368 NORTH MARKET ST., Aug. 25, 1890.
REV. JNO ALEX. DOWIE AND WIFE:
BELOVED OF OUR L ORD:Your very, very
welcome letter was received last week Tuesday.
I was so glad to hear from you for my friends in
Minneapolis had all been so busy listening to you
that I had not had a word from any one.
I am glad to hear of the intense interest there.
I knew it would be so, and now I want to
corroborate the story of Mrs. Jennie Paddocks
healing, that Bro. Graves wrote you about. She
gave her testimony last Wednesday for the glory of
God. She was given up by the doctors, and on that
Thursday night, your last meeting at Western
Springs, she sent a request to be prayed for. She
was entirely healed at that time. Her case was this:
A tumor which had become wound around the
womb, so the doctors said an operation could not
be performed, and she was given up to die. Her
side was dark colored and her dress could not be
got around her any nearer than eight or ten inches,
I should judge from what she said; and such
intense inflammation, caused by a doctors electric
treatment, that she was in great pain until at the
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time you were praying for her, when she told her
husband,My dear, my pain is all gone, and I am as
easy as though I never had any. Her husband was
frightened, thinking mortification had set in (as he
was looking for that), and he said, Oh, Im afraid
your time of death is near, for thats the way
mortification does, stops pain. Mrs. Paddock
said,No, I believe God has cured me, and in two
days she was perfectly well. The enlargement all
disappeared, and in a week she moved and
sewed a carpet, and has been doing her work ever
since. And better yet, her husband was a wicked,
drinking man, and now he is a Christian man
glorifying God, and their home is one of praise and
prayer. Her daughter was taken sick and wanted
the doctor, and Mrs. Paddock said, Why dear, God
cured mamma, and He will cure you. So she knelt
by her bed-side and laid her hands on the place of
pain. God honored her simple faith, and her
daughter was instantly healed. This is the way I
heard it last Wednesday at meeting, and Saturday
Mrs. P. Had her husband there with her. So,
beloved, we will praise God again and again, as
long as we live we will praise Him. Once more,
may God continue to bless you more and more
abundantly if that be possible.
Lovingly yours in Christ,
MRS. B.C. STRATTON
P.S.Ill send you Mrs. Paddocks address:
Mrs. Jennie Paddock, No 504 Albany Ave.,
Chicago, Ill.
This wonderful work of God will serve to
illustrate how He answers prayer without any
human touch, and heals perfectly even those who
are given up to die. Let us thank Him with all our
heart. Now I ask that the testimonies may be very
pointed, sharp, clear, crisp, and that each person
who rises will simply state what his name is, and
his address, so that these things shall not be
looked upon as mythical. We do not want Mr. A. or
B. of Blank street.
MANY WITNESS TO THEIR HEALING.
I Want the people who have been healed
through faith in Jesus without my agency, to stand,
(Quite a large number.) Thank you. Before I ask
any to testify, let me put the questions that I have
put on the Pacific coast and in Australia.
HUNDREDS AFFIRM THEIR FAITH.
I want to know, before any testimony is given,
how many believe the blessed doctrine that Jesus
Christ is the present healer of His people. Stand.
(About all rise.) Bless the Lord for that. Let us sing,
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people that I was sick any more. I gave out the
hymn, preached two sermons that day and told
them the Lord had healed me. I told my Presiding
Elder. He told me to tell this with fear and
trembling. I told him I would not. Now this was six
years ago, and now there are many here that
know me. I think as a minister I supply as much
and preach as much as many in this city. I gave
the Lord all the glory.
Dr. Dowie:May I ask, are not you the
Presiding Elder of the Minneapolis district of the
German M.E. church?
My district is west of this city, includes all of
Minnesota, all of Dakota and Montana.
Dr. Dowie:I thank God for this testimony tonight. It is good Methodist theology.
Perhaps his wife will tell about her old and
new healing.
HIS WIFE ALSO WITNESSES TO HEALING.
About ten years ago I was very sick. My
husband was gone away from home; he was
presiding elder. Our minister then wrote him that
he should look after me. I could not work any
more. My husband went to Jesus about it, as he
could not come home. He wrote in a letter, By the
time you receive this letter I am sure you are well
When I read it the power of God came over me
and I could sleep. But my throat was not well. I
lost my voice about fourteen years ago, in
teaching, I suppose, my good husband to sing.
The doctors could not help me. The last doctor I
had was one in this city. He said, There is no help
for you unless you have an operation. I had
always had faith, but never in this
VOICED RESTORED AFTER 14 YEARS.
way until I came to these meetings. Now I have
my voice again. I thank God and give him a the
glory.
Dr. Dowie:I had the pleasure of laying hand
on our sister about a week ago, and the healing
was instantaneous. She sang immediately.
Mrs. Berner, tell what the Lord did for you.
A LADY HEALED OF SEVERE INWARD
TROUBLE.
Mrs. G.A. Berner, 3201 Lindley Ave.,Two
years ago the Lord healed me. I was very sick with
an ulcerated sore face, and alone in my chamber
I gave myself to the Lord, and give Him all the
glory to-night that he healed me. During Brother
Dowies mission I thank God that He has healed
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to it. In the first place, I have been all my life a
sufferer from great nervous debility and prostration.
I have not told any one and probably no one has
guessed it. They do not seem to have guessed it.
I always thought all my life that it was the Lords
doings, and all the ministers I talked to about it said
I must put up with it; that the Lord was sending it
to me to keep down my pride and my temper. I
became very much discouraged as you may
suppose, and gradually I lost faith in all sermons,
all the teaching I heard, and all churches. I heard
my own father preach for twenty years, and my
father made a miserable wreck. I know he would
have been alive to-day if he had known this
doctrine. I lost faith in churches and minister, and
finally I did not attend church for many years. It
was almost a curse to me every time I heard the
name of a church mentioned. We have had a great
deal of sickness in our family to contend with, and
one thing or another has discouraged us in our
union in church matters. Now in the midst of this
discouragement I was right on the eve of having
an operation performed on my wife that I knew
would kill her, but public opinion would tell me I
must have it done. Right in the midst of this she
was praying constantly. I was not praying much.
I had lost all faith. I could not see how God could
love us and afflict us all these years. Well, right on
the eve of that I made an appointment with a
doctor here to have this operation performed. He is
not an allopath; he is not a homeopath. He is a
Thompsonian. I was so disgusted with the others
that I spent two years learning this method of
healing. My wife was getting worse every day and
this doctor did not give me any hope. Well, I made
an appointment with this doctor. He knew I had
spent a good deal of money in Chicago, and he
knew I meant business. I made an appointment
with him and brought my wife down to see him.
She was just barely able, with me holding her up,
to walk to the street car and from the street car
down to his office on Hennpin Ave. I dragged her
up there and she literally sank down in the hall.
Fortunately, thank God, the doctor was not there.
He did not touch her. He did not examine her. I
went immediately to her there after my work, and
she was sitting on the stairs waiting for me.
Almost dead. I dragged her home and said, What
will we do next? This very friend had failed me. I
had told him all about it. He knew the condition
she was in, but he failed me. Now it was the next
morning and I was down in the hotel taking my
dinner. I was praying night and day for something
to happen for us. We had already lost one child. I
took up the newspaper. I did not feel like reading,
but I saw, in reading along, a short paragraph
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troubles. Now I was troubled with this trouble for
more than eight years.
Dr. Dowie:And you are perfectly healed?
Mrs. Williamson:Yes.
Dr. Dowie:I may say here that this case
cannot be told in detail, as though this were a
ladies meeting and ladies were talking with ladies,
but the seriousness of this sisters trouble could
not be exaggerated. An operation in ninety-nine
cases out of a hundred is fatal.
A YOUNG LADYS HEALING.
Here is a young lady who has had a
wonderful healing.
Miss Lindquist, 1404 Nineteenth St. S:Christ
has taken all my pain away, but best of all I have
found my Saviour, and all my friends who have
not found Him, please do go and find Him.
Dr Dowie:I would like to have her father
Brother Lindquist, pastor of the Swedish
Tabernacle, say a few words.
CONFIRMED BY HER FATHER.
The Rev. Mr. Lindquist, a Swedish minister,
said: I wish to have a voice in the meeting. I am
a minister and have preached the gospel for thirtyfive years. I already knew Christ as a Saviour and
had made prayer for the healing of our sick bodies,
but I thought that the church had left that out, and
I thought the church had control of the healing
power, but there I was mistaken. By Brother
Dowies lectures I see that the Holy Ghost controls
all the spiritual gifts. The Holy Spirit Himself has
control over them. So I thought if we could believe
Christ and have a little more of the Holy Spirit, we
could expect the Spirit and be healed. I had
employed four doctors. My daughter has been
suffering several months with inward pain. All
these four doctors failed. I made up my mind not
to employ any more physicians, but to employ the
Lord. I thought it was shame for me to go by Him
and not trust Him by trusting mans knowledge
and the physicians. So she has been with me here
for the whole of last week, and she said to me that
Brother Dowie laid his hands upon her and the
pain ceased. Every day last week I asked her if she
did not feel some pain, but she does not feel any
pain at all. It is the work of the Spirit of God. There
are some consequences from that sickness that
she suffers from that the Lord will heal even these
consequences. Another thing. I have been
convinced of the doctrine of healing for about thirty
years, but I have left it out and never preached it
entire, but I see now from Isaiah, fifty-third chapter,
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Two letters have been received from Mr.
Graves since his miraculous healing of epilepsy in
August, 1890. They are both dated from Bieglow,
Minnesota, where he is pursuing his very
successful work as an evangelist. On June 30th of
this year he writes: I have been in evangelist work
ever since my healing last August, or rather, in the
Sunday school work which is largely evangelistic.
This has been the happiest year of my life. When
Jesus healed me last August of course he did a
complete work.
We have held meetings a week or so in a
place all winter, and I have given one night of the
services to the subject of Divine Healing in nearly
every case. I felt it laid on me to do so. It is no
cross for me to speak of it. I care not how large the
audience, it is a truth taught in the Book, and, of
course, my testimony has some weight among the
people where I am quite well known, and have
been for thirteen years years. You can guess how
overjoyed I was when the Lord healed a lady of a
similar disease to mine (epilepsy) of ten years
standing, given up by the doctors in Chicago. She
also threw away her glasses which she had worn
some time for defective sight, and in a few days
her sight came back to her perfectly. It was
wonderful, and that God should use me to bring
her to the light. . . . I thank God for all you did for
me: for under Him you were the instrument in
leading me into the precious truth.
Again, under date of August 25th last, he
says:God is sweetly blessing me since he
healed me of epilepsy one year ago in Minneapolis.
Praise the Lord, and thank you.
HEALING OF A DOCTORS WIFE.
Mrs. Fishblatt, 910 Sixth Ave S., said:Five
years ago I came to this town, having been for
twenty-two years an invalid, as many of you know
who have heard me tell the story many times. Dr.
Davis, of Chicago, said I could not live perhaps
longer than a few months. It was here that I
learned that the Lord could heal, for the first time in
my life, and I took my Bible and for four days
studied it until I learned that it was His will to heal.
Then one day when I was about my work, the
power of God came over me and I was perfectly
healed. I had certificates from different physicians
that I had seven diseases; consumptive parents
and was generally broken down, but the Lord
healed me perfectly, and of three years I have
never had a return of one of those diseases. I had
a little trouble with rheumatism, but the Lord has
healed me every one of these times; glory to His
name. The Lord has been very precious to me and
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fanaticism and all association with Christian
Science and things of the that kind. That is all of
the devil. I believe that this is of the Lord. I believe
that the Lord is in it, and I think the best thing for
men to do is to keep hands off.
GOOD EVIDENCE FOR HONEST MINDS.
Dr. Dowie:Now, brethren, you see that a
divine healing testimony meeting is a very quiet
thing, there is no nonsense or excitement about it.
You are bound to believe the testimonies; for you
can not deny these things. They are facts and
these people have reason here to praise the Lord.
The evidence is overwhelming and convinces
every honest mind. Now we will have the
testimony of a brother who was healed half a
century agoFather Price.
A CHRISTIAN PATRIARCHS TESTIMONY.
My name is Geo. B. Price and my home is in
Illinois, at Carrolton, Greene Co. I am in
Minneapolis on a visit to some of my children who
are in this house to-night. I have been a servant of
God for nearly sixty years. I have never looked
back since I commenced. Upwards of fifty years
ago I was afflicted with hemorrhages of the lungs.
I expected to die, but lying on my bed one
morning, I believed that Jesus Christ, the Saviour
of the world, who had healed in days of old, was
just the same now as then, and was just as able to
do it. I got out of bed and said, Lord, heal me,
and I was healed, the hemorrhages of the lungs
stopping instantly. I put on my coat I was very
weak. It was in the city of New York. Since that
time I have been sound in my lungs and have
never had the least return of that disease and I
have been examined by physicians. Brethren, I am
a living witness that the Lord Jesus Christ is the
healer of His people. I have no need of coming
here for this doctrine, for I knew it before Brother
Dowie was born. I know the Lord sanctifies spirit,
soul and body. I know that Jesus does heal the
sick, for I have prayed for others and seen them
rise from beds of death, where the doctors said
they could not live five minutes. I have said, That
man will live, and more than that, you doctors
cant kill him, and I have lived to see that man rise
from his death-bed. That man is living, so far as I
know, now. I saw one man healed of epileptic fits
instantly. That man is now a laborer in the church
of God, glory to His name.
ELDER PRICES ORDINATION.
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further study, and perhaps I shall get more and
more interested in the work; howbeit this is not my
first knowledge of this good work. I have not had
any real personal experience, except in the way
that John Wesley had. I read during the past week
that when he was troubled with any throat difficulty
or had anything that hindered him from preaching,
he went to the Lord with it and received instant
healing, and I suppose if he were in some of our
modern conferences, he might be told the same as
we have read in a religious paper here this past
week.
AN ANSWER TO THREATS.
I do not want to say anything against the
discipline of the Conference and I shall not make
any boasts. There are men in conferences who
might make boasts. There are some men who are
larger than conferences, and they do with them
just as they want them to do, but it would not do
for me to say anything of that sort at all. So I take
a very humble position, but I do say that what my
Master gives me to preach, I will preach,
conference or no conference. I have taken that
stand before and I have stood by it for about four
years, and they have not put me out. I have been
true to God, and I will stand by it, God being my
helper, for I have consecrated myself to God and
what He calls me to preach I will preach, and if I
see the doctrine of healing of the body as Dr.
Dowie does, I will preach it just as he does. God
teach me how to keep well. I believe in the power
of prayer. I believe that the Lord is able to help us.
There is a dear sister, a servant of the Lord,
moving a few days ago, and I helped her husband
carry her on a couch for nearly a mile. She could
not bear the motion of the springs of the wagon,
so we took her on this couch. I want all these
people who believe in God and believe in His
power to heal, to pray for her, and I will report to
her that I have asked you to pray for her. She lies
in St. Pauls Park.
DR. DOWIES OWN TESTIMONY.
Dr. Dowie said: It is now a quarter of eleven
oclock, and as we have been told by a brother
here that sleep is a good thing, we will let you go
home at this early hour. I just want to say that in
this mission, as in all missions, I have not only had
this mission to take care of, but a pressure of
correspondence from all parts of the world, and I
just want to glorify God to-night for what He has
done for me. Twenty-six years ago, when I was a
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following When He sent out His disciples to preach
the word, He told them to preach the Gospel, heal
the sick, and He said, These signs shall follow
them that believe. In My Name they shall lay hands
on the sick and they shall recover. When Mr.
Dowie and I stared out on this world-wide mission,
some two years and a half ago, and left our own
people and our own Australian land, we came to
America and landed at San Francisco on the Pacific
coast. We did not know a single person in this
country, but we came in the Name of the Lord.
WE KNEW GOD HAD SENT US.
Our friends said to us, What are you going to
do? Going to a place where you do not know
anybody, and leaving this place where you know
everybody? I told them and Mr. Dowie said also,
We have the message for us to take, and we
know the Lord will hear and answer. We knew
that we had something to give the people that they
had not. We knew that the people were sick and
suffering throughout this land and throughout the
world. We knew that Christ had died to save them
from their sin and their sickness, and was the
Healer of the body as well as the Saviour of the
spirit; and it was this that bought us.
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everywhere, forever. Amen.
YE ARE MY WITNESSES.
WESTERN SPRINGS MEETINGS.
Before commencing the proceedings Dr.
Dowie stepped in front of the platform and said:
I would like to ask if there are any persons who
have been healed by faith in Jesus Christ that are
still in the body of the hall. It is your privilege to
witness for Christ. Will such person stand? (Quite
a number arose.) Well, (continued Dr. Dowie, in a
very emphatic tone) your place is there! (Pointing
to the platform) It is written concerning this very
matter, Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord.
In addition to the large number on the platform
many others arose, and took the additional seats
provided, until every foot of space was fully
occupied, on and around the platform. Many were
compelled to find seats in the pews near it.
The proceedings were opened by the singing
of the hymn, What a Friend we have in Jesus,
which was followed by the reading of the 67th
Psalm by Mrs. Dowie.
Prayer was then offered, no less than seventy
written requests having been sent in for
presentation in prayer at that meeting.
Announcements as to the formation of a
Branch of the Divine Healing Association in
Chicago on the following evening, and other
business being attended to, the Testimony Meeting
was introduced as follows:
INTRODUCING THE TESTIMONIES.
Dr. Dowie said: Beloved friends, it is our joy
to lay our testimony before the Lord, in the
presence of His people. We thank our God for all
His mighty works, and give Him all the praise.
Those present are here, not to glorify man, but
God, and to testify to what the Lord has done for
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will to heal them that they came to Him by faith
and asked for healing. That had been my thought
about it.
For about ten years I have been ill. As far
back as ten years ago I began to observe some of
the disease in my system. It didnt give me much
anxiety until the last two or three years. My health
was not good for three or four years previous to
last spring.
Last Spring in an acute attack of sickness I
had my physicianhe was my old physician at
Riversidecalled into the case when my sickness
was very severe, to ascertain what was the matter.
He insisted upon an examination that would reveal
the whole matter, and the result was that of
proving that I had the diabetes. I was placed under
the care of a specialist of that disease in that city
and was placed upon a very rigid diet. I excluded
from my food everything that contained any sugar
or starch. I was on that diet about three months.
During that month Dr. Dowie came to Western
Springs and I heard him preach the doctrine of
Divine Healing. The first thing that impressed me
had helped me to the belief that it was my privilege
to be healed was the very plain and clear teaching
he gave; that the Lord will heal all persons who are
sick; that all disease is directly or indirectly from
Satan. When I hear him preach that doctrine it was
like a new revelation to me; and after I had read
my Bible and prayed over the matter, and listened
to him a number of times, I became convinced that
it was my privilege to go to the Lord for healing
just as I went to him for salvation.
I thought the matter over very carefully and
very prayerfully, and very thankfully, and was fully
convinced that I had to take the step and seek the
Lord for healing. I sat down, and had a
conversation with Dr. Dowie and the result of that
conversation was that he prayed with me and laid
his hands upon me. That was on the first day of
August. That day when I went to my meal I asked
the host, where my wife and I were boarding, to
help me to the ordinary diet. I laid aside my dieting
and made that a testimony unto the family that I
had accepted the doctrine of Divine Healing and
had given myself to the Lord for that. I laid aside
my diet and I began to eat the food that other
ordinary people did. For several daysnearly a
weekafter that I was not so well as I had been
before. I found there was work to do in my own
spiritual character before I was where the Lord
would do for me all that I asked. I heard Dr. Dowie
make an allusion to James 5:16; in the spirit of
that, and had a conversation with him more
pointed than before with reference to my life.
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Thursday, August 7th, when I offered in solemn
prayer before God a petition on behalf of a dying
woman in Chicago? How many of you heard me
offer that petition? Will you stand as His witnesses?
(Counting) Twelve of those who are now present.
Now the subject of that prayer so offered is
just behind me. She was dying All hope had been
abandoned. She will tell you what the Lord did in
answer to that prayer.
A NOTABLE MIRACLE, THE
INSTANTANEOUS HEALING IN ANSWER TO
THE PRAYER OF FAITH ONLY, OF A DYING
LADY, FIFTEEN MILES DISTANT, AND THE
DISAPPEARANCE OF A LARGE TUMOR.
Mrs Jennie Paddock, 504 Albany Ave, Chicago
(now of 491 Kedsie Ave.), said:I praise the Lord
for the blessed privilege that I have of testifying as
to what He has done for me, for my spirit, soul and
body. I feel that I owe my life to Him, for when He
healed me everyone thought my time had come to
die. I was afflicted with a tumor for over a year. I
was first treated by Dr. Byford and then by Dr.
Lawrence and then by Dr. Watkins and then by Dr.
Martin, and the last physician was Dr. Ulfinger. He
was the physician that gave me up. When he gave
me up he said there was no chance for me. When
he gave me up mortification had set in. My head
was drawn back with the pain and I could not bear
to move. I could not bear for any one to come into
the room. My neighbors all thought that I was
going to die and the doctors also thought I
wouldnt live. When my last doctor told me he
couldnt do anything more for me, then I said I was
going to trust to the Lord. I didnt believe the Lord
was going to let me die. Then Sister Byrne came
in, I asked her to pray for me and I sent a request
for prayer to Western Springs, and about eight
oclock that night I fell asleep. I dont know how
long I slept, but when I woke up I was well. Praise
the Lord and I said to my husband, Praise the
Lord, He has heard my prayers and has answered
them. For I am well. To-day I bless His holy name
that He has healed me and kept me in spirit, soul
and body. I give Him the glory. I am perfectly well.
Dr. Dowie:How large was that tumor Mrs.
Paddock?
Mrs. Paddock:It was very large, I should say
as large as that (indicating a protuberance of about
12 inches.)
Q. You were discolored, I understand, upon
the right side?
A. Yes, sir.
Dr. Dowie:I wish those present to
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anything for me, I was so far gone. I was pretty
downhearted I can tell you, but I went straight to
the Lord and offered myself to him and I said, You
do as you want with me, Well, time passed and
then I had a voice two times from God, They said,
You must have faith in God,Well, after the first two
or three weeks I heard about a camp meeting to
Western Springs, and a friend came to see me and
she said, Dr. Dowie is there and he is teaching
and she liked it very well, and she said she
thought it would do me good to go there. Well I
made up my mind to go. I stopped there ten days
and the teaching done me lots of good. I got it in
my mind the first day that I should be healed. I
knew that God would hear my prayer and the last
day before I left He helped me, and I can say from
that time I have grown in strength and feel as
strong as ever and the cancer is all gone and my
breast is all right. I was suffering from bronchitis
and disease of the lungs also, and I spit blood And
on the day before I was healed I think I spit up a
couple of handkerchiefs full. I am now fully healed.
I was ill for a long time, and very ill for two years.
HER HUSBAND CONFIRMS HER
TESTIMONY.
Mr. Swenson:I am her husband. When I
came upon the camp-meeting ground on the last
day I found my wife there. I did not know about
Western Springs or the camp meeting. I asked my
way out there from the depot, and came out there
and met my wife. On the last day in the morning
she had a hemorrhage. I had seen her spit blood
time after time and I looked at her and I said to her,
What is that you are doing now? I had seen her
in our own home throw up blood; but she has
never spit any blood since her healing, and her
lungs are perfectly well. There were six cancers
under the right arm. These cancers are gone, and
to-day I felt under the arm, but the skin is as
smooth as mine.
HUNDREDS BELIEVE JESUS IS THE HEALER.
Dr. Dowie said:I now want to ask all who
believe that Christ is the Healer of His people to
stand
(Almost the whole of the large congregation
stood, and the hymn, All Hail the Power of Jesus
Name. was sung with great spirit.)
THERE ARE NONE WHO DENY.
Dr. Dowie:Will those of you who do not
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LEAVES OF HEALING
bless God that I am now healed and well.
AN 8-YEAR-OLD LITTLE GIRL TELLS HOW
JESUS HEALED HER OF ASTHMA.
Dr. Dowie:Here is a little child; we will hear
what she has to say.
Evelyn Snyder said:The Lord has made me
well now and grandma is better now. I am 8 years
old, and live at 1325 Halsted street. Dr. Dowie
prayed for me when I was very sick with asthma.
It went right away at once, and I am well. I helped
mamma the next day in taking care of the baby.
Grandma was healed too. She is at home.
Dr. Dowie:Mr. Hahn, please tell us about
this case.
Champlin,
of
Commercial
street,
235
LEAVES OF HEALING
AN AGED MAN HEALED OF MANY YERAS
RHEUMATISM.
Mr. John Keck said:I live in Earl, Illinois. It is
in the neighborhood of forty years since I
commenced to have trouble in my leg. I got a cold
foot in the hot summer day so I couldnt keep my
foot warm sometime for two or three days, and
after that, I think it was a year or two after, I got the
gout in the foot and fell off the sidewalk. My foot
and ankle goes that way (indicating), No, I suffer in
the neighborhood of forty years,52 I commence
the gout. In the last ten years if anybody met me
on the street and stop me for a minute or two, I
have to look around to see if I find something as I
can sit down for I couldnt stand of the pain in the
foot. Then for the last three or four years my foot
was so cold that I wake up in the night with cramp
.The only thing that could stop it was by an
instrument of twenty-five or thirty needles, and I get
the instrument, push a spring and put the needles
to go into the place where the cold foot was and
that would stop it for the time. About three
monthsin JulyI got sick again and I have to go
in the house,in the room I get a crick. About
two weeks ago I come to Chicago. and I have the
hope I have left all my pain here and I go home
sound and well. The Lord gave me good salvation
and I am thankful that he has healed my body.
Dr. Dowie:Can you walk about now? A.
You can see it. (Stamping with his foot.)
Q. You can kneel now? Let us see you. A.
Yes. (Kneels)
Q. How many years since you could do so? A.
About ten years.
Q. That is occular demonstration. How old are
you, brother? A. Seventy-seven and a half.
HEALED OF CHOLERA MORBUS
Mrs. Dawson, 191 Congress Street, Chicago,
said:I was out at Western Springs and attended
the services last summer when Dr. Dowie spoke.
I enjoyed it so much it took all my time. One day I
took sick and sister Trumbull was with me. I was
took with the cholera morbus. I lay there as if I was
dying. They all thought I was. They laid hands on
me and prayed with me, and the Lord healed me.
The Lord saved my life and now I am here healed
to testify that the Lord is good and has healed me
many times.
A YOUNG MAN SAVED AND HEALED.
Daniel O;Connell said:I have given my heart
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LEAVES OF HEALING
again and no medicine could help the sickness I
had, the nerves were so weak. I then started to
take hold of God, but did start as many others had
done, the wrong way. I was anointed four times,
according to the words of God. Some one told me
to testify and said they, I would be all right then,
but I could not testify simply because the sickness
was there still. The last time I was anointed was
out at Western Springs but I got still worse than
ever after that, my arms got almost lame. I finally
asked God for strength and then went out to hear
Dr. Dowie preach about soul, body and spirit. I got
wonderfully blessed, but I could not understand
much about the healing power. One day a sister
came in to see me. I was nearly dying then and
she told me much about Dr. Dowies teaching, but
I thought that there was not hope for me, but
thanks be unto our God for time and eternity, the
seventh of September last I was healed through
faith by the power of God and I then got rid of all
disease. Glory be to our God! I used to suffer every
day from morning to night, but now I am free,
glory to God. I can now do all my house work and
walk ever so far, praise God. I am thankful for the
wonderful light which He has given me through Dr.
Dowies teachings. I have gone stronger and
stronger and more blessed ever since. Thanks be
to God of the sanctification of soul, body and spirit.
Pray for me that I may be able to keep my faith
and I then know I shall be able to keep sickness of
any kind out of my whole family.
Yours truly,
Anna Norrgren
HEALED OF FOUR YEARS HEMORRHAGES,
ETC.
Mrs. Carson, 3403 Parnell Ave., Chicago,
handed in the following written testimony:
I have been suffering from hemorrhages for
nearly five years and have been treated by several
doctors during that time to no effect and for the last
two years I have been laboring under general
debility. I have been in the Wesley Hospital in this
city nearly seven months. I had to undergo two
operations and was no better by it. I left the
hospital the 16th of August, 1889, still needing the
doctors care. A dear friend called to see me that
had received the blessing of Divine healing. I was
encouraged to go over to 96 State St., where these
meetings were being held. In one week of the
teaching I was enabled on the 16h of September,
this year to take the Lord for my healer. Bless the
Lord, I am well, I have not been better for the last
eighteen years.
237
LEAVES OF HEALING
until I went to Jesus and He made me well. At the
time I was suffering so much that my head spun
and hurt terribly; but instantly I was made whole
and the pain and everything left me, and I was
filled with praise to God. I praise God night and
day, and now I have no other physician and
havent had any other for seven years but Him. I
praise God for His mercy
HEALED OF VARICOSE VEINS AND
ULCERATED LEG.
Mr. F.L. Hahn:From my fifteenthI am now
in my fifty-third yearI have been afflicted with
varicose veins and an ulcerated leg. I have never
had very much faith in physicians. I heard that the
Lord was the healer of His people, and after five or
six months of suffering I applied to the Lord and
was anointed by the elders. Or ten days after that
my healing had not yet come, but I prayed to God
for it and learned to trust Him and I said to him,
Lord, this foot is thine. I went to sleep that night
and the next day I went about my business, and in
three or four days I took the bandages off my leg
and it was healed, ad is perfectly whole
A Gentleman:I saw his leg before that, and
a worse looking leg I never saw.
HEALED WHEN GIVEN UP BY DOCTORS.
Miss Minnie Shute, 557 Wells street:I was
sick for two and a half years and was all the time
getting worse, but I was about my work, but I was
getting worse and worse all the time, until I had to
go to bed, and then they told me that before I
could get well I would have to be examined to find
out what was the reason I didnt get any better, so
I went to the German Hospital and was examined
by the surgeons over there, and one of the best
doctors examined me and he told me I had a
severe falling disease and he couldnt cure me for
three months, and he said I would have to be
treated right there, and so he attended to me all
summer. He found out I would have to have an
operation, if I didnt there I would have to have it in
my house, so I went to the hospital and when I got
there I grew worse still all the time, and they said
I was a hopeless case. At times he said he
couldnt do anything for me and inflammation of
the bowels might set in, and inflamation all over,
and while I was there I sent for Brother Hahn and
he came and I got salvation through the blood of
Christ and after thatthe doctors had give me up
entirely, they said that I wasnt able to go through
an operation. One Saturday he said to the nurses,
APPENDIX.
238
LEAVES OF HEALING
THE INTER-OCEAN AND THE HEALINGS IN
CHICAGO.
Great interest has been awakened through
many of the healings recorded in the foregoing
reports; but the principal daily papers have done
their utmost to prevent the facts being made
public. This is specially the case with the Tribune
and Herald, both of which papers took pains to
ascertain the facts, their own reporters fully wrote
them up, and then the editors, in a rage, consigned
them to the waste basket, the editor of the Herald
swearing at his own religious report, as he
himself told us. But the Chicago Inter-Ocean which
is generally looked upon as the most careful, and
cleanest of all the dailies is an exception. It has
never attacked the work and recently, it has taken
pains to make an investigation with the following
results. We reprint the article, without alteration,
although there were a few inaccuracies in it. The
remarks of the doctors on the case require no
comment. The feeble attempts to belittle the
healing, or to account for its happening by a
natural process at the exact moment of prayer,
carry with them their own refutation. The article
appears in the Inter-Ocean of Saturday, August
29th, and, head lines and all, is as follows:
PRAYER HEALED THEM
239
LEAVES OF HEALING
him by these ladies to pray for me.
It was about 9 oclock in the evening when
they reached Western Springs, and Dr Dowie was
in the midst of his service He asked his
congregation to join him in offering up a prayer for
me, although he had never seen me. Shortly after
9 oclockit must have been about the time he
closed his prayerthe pain suddenly abated and I
fell asleep. Awakening about two hours later, I felt
that I had been healed. The swelling in the region
of the tumor was greatly reduced and the pain was
gone. I rose up in bed and told my husband that I
was well. He was startled, and, thinking that I was
dying, called in my daughter. In a little while I was
up and dressed, and within a week I was perfectly
well.
AND HARD AT WORK.
Do you consider yourself entirely cured?
So far as I am able to tell, I am. I have
enjoyed the best of health ever since, and I can not
feel the slightest trace of the tumor.
And you firmly believe that your health
was restored in answer to prayer?
I know it! How could I believe otherwise?
Mrs. Paddock also told of another
transformation which, to her, was of still greater
moment. Her husband, who is a contractor, had
owned considerable property at one time, but had
taken to drinking so hard that, between his
dissipation and her sickness, it had dwindled away
to nothing. Excessive drink had affected his mind
to such an extent that on two occasions it was
necessary to send him to an asylum. Since the day
of her recovery he has totally abstained from drink,
and is as enthusiastic a disciple of divine healing
as is his wife. Neighbors and friends of Mrs.
Paddock, who saw her almost daily during the last
days of her illness, fully substantiate her statement
of her remarkable recovery.
Mrs. Paddocks trouble, said Dr. T J. Wilkins,
of No. 1355 Wabash avenue, one of those who
treated her, was a fibroid tumor. It had forced in
the pelvic cavity, choking the blood-vessels in its
vicinity. This is what produced such intense pain
and caused the enormous swelling in the pelvic
region. If the tumor has entirely disappeared I
should consider it very remarkable, but I think an
examination would show that it still exists there. It
may remain there for years without giving her any
trouble, but it is liable to become troublesome at
any time.
DR. FRANKLIN MARTIN.
240
LEAVES OF HEALING
of healing where the trouble was organic. Mrs.
Svenson had six cancers in her breast, it is said,
and the doctors told her she also had
consumption. She determined to give herself up to
divine healing, prayers were offered for her, and
within two weeks the cancer had disappeared, so
say those who were at the meetings. Mrs.
Svenson is now apparently in excellent health.
The members of the Divine Healing
Association do not believe in faith cure or Christian
Science. They claim that their doctrine is founded
entirely on the teachings of the Scriptures.
Dr. Dowie was a Congregational minister in
Australia for some years, but left his pulpit to
preach divine healing After working in that country
for a time he went to California. He came to
Chicago about a year ago, and, assisted by his
wife, has held several series of meetings in the city
and many more in the suburbs. Many of those
who make up his band of followers who had
embraced divine healing or doctrines akin to it
before his arrival here.
Dr Dowie insists upon those who would
receive the benefits of the divine healing
renouncing physicians and medicines entire. His
theory is, that if a sufferer is unwilling to give up
medicines and doctors his faith is too weak to
merit a cure.
The members of the association invariably
declare that they have had neither doctors nor
medicine in their homes since they devoted
themselves to the cause of divine healing.
241
LEAVES OF HEALING
his report, and bespoke a good collection to aid Mr.
Dowie in prosecuting his noble work.
In this connection Mr Dowie said:I do not
think, beloved friends, it is necessary that I should
say anything about money matters, but I want to
thank Mr. Pearson for his kind words. As he says,
I made no stipulation about money. I paid all my
own expenses, and gladly and gratuitously as I
always doministered. It is a great joy to me. I
want to say that I cast myself entirely upon the
Lord, and upon His people. Convinced that He will
enable you to do what is right in His sight. Before
we have the collection, friends, I want to read this
letter from Dr. Wild, the pastor of this church. He
called upon me this morning, and handed me the
note, and at his suggestion I read it:
A LETTER FROM THE REV. DR. WILD
DEAR FRIENDS:I gave out in the church your
meeting for this evening, and I am sorry I cannot
be with you. I do hope you will have a very
successful meeting. For myself, I am very thankful
that you visited Toronto, and I am sure your
mission will result in much good, helping us to a
higher life and stronger faith. The Lord be with you
and go with you. Come back again.
Yours fraternally,
JOSEPH WILD
I want to thank Dr. Wild, and many others
also, who have sent me kind notes.
While the collection was being taken up, the
noble hymn, Jesus, Lover of my Soul, was sung,
and the business proper of the meeting was then
proceeded with.
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED PERSONS DECLARE
JESUS IS HEALER.
It is my custom, said Mr. Dowie, before I
read any written testimonies, or call upon the
many around me who have come here prepared
to testify to the Lord as their Healer, to ask several
questions, and the first question I ask is in
connection with the doctrinal teaching. I never ask
you what you think about the matter until you have
thoroughly weighed it. You have now had twentyone days of continuous teachingto you, and to
all, I put a question and make a request:
ALL WHO IN THIS LARGE AUDIENCE NOW
BELIEVE THAT THE LORD JESUS CHRIST IS THE
HEALER OF HIS PEOPLE, AND THAT THE HOLY
SCRIPTURES DO DECLARE HIM TO BE THE SAME
TO-DAY AS HE WAS NINETEEN HUNDRED YEARS
242
LEAVES OF HEALING
243
LEAVES OF HEALING
Mr. Dowie:Where were you living when you
were healed? A. On Maitland street, in this city.
Q. Did any one anoint you? A. Yes, the Rev.
Mr. Johnson. I was anointed by him some time
ago, but was not healed then.
Q. Were you healed without human touch? A.
I was healed alone, there were no people with me.
I was perfectly healed and I testify to that here today.
HEALED OF MANY DISEASES.
Mr. William Henderson, of No. 19 Homewood
avenue, Toronto then said: I was brought to
Christ four years ago, and when I first entered the
Kingdom of God, I gave to the Lord a body filled
with disease. I had been hearing of Divine Healing.
I believed the Lord could and would heal me, and
about the end of January, 1889, I wrote to Miss
Judd, of Buffalo, and told her my case, and asked
for her prayers, and on the 1st of February, 1889,
I had faith enough to take the Lord as my Healer,
and I threw off an instrument I had been wearing
for hernia, and was healed. I had also suffered
from dyspepsia, chronic rheumatism,all chronic,
I had tried innumerable physicians, and had tried
all the patent medicines of the day. From that day
(Feb 1st, 1889) to this (Dec. 8th, 1890) I have not
spent a cent in remedies of any description,
because I have learned that He is the Lord that
healeth me. If Christ has borne my diseases and
sicknesses why should I have to bear them? Bless
the Lord, O my soul, bless His holy name, I am
wonderfully well and strong, praise the Lord for all
His mercies.
A WITNESS WHO WAS HEALED IN
CALIFORNIA.
Mr. Dowie:Now I will take one healed upon
the Pacific Coast, upon the 9th of August, 1888. It
is sometimes good, you know, to get testimony
from afar (cheers and laughter), and this is a case
of healing under our own ministry upon the Pacific
Coast, and it appears in detail in a little pamphlet of
ours entitled American First Fruits, a record of the
first year of our work upon the Pacific Coast, pp.
28-9.
Miss Emma Hudson, of Peterborough,
Canada, was healed of fifteen years rheumatic
gout. She was brought down for Peterborough to
the beautiful city of San Jose, in California, and,
when we first saw her, she had been sick for
fifteen yearssuffering from rheumatic gout. She
had been listening to the teaching day after day,
and I had the joy of laying hands upon her and she
instantly rose up, and walked, in the Name of the
Lord, leaving her crutches, which are in California
still. You will kindly all be very still, because the
ladies are not accustomed to speak before such
large audiences. Speak right out, Miss Hudson, you
have had some practice in this.
I rejoice to testify, said Miss Hudson to my
Blessed Saviour, Who undertook for me, after I had
suffered under disease and doctors for so many
weary, long years. At the last I was taken down to
California and just at that time I heard of Dr. Dowie
and his preaching of the glorious Gospel of Divine
Healing. I wanted to go, but the trouble was, I was
so weak I could not get to the church I would
have to get there on crutches, I thought, and I
asked God to give me strength to reach that
church, and He did. I listened to what he said, and
said to myself, If it is the Word of God, I will
believe it, but if it is of man, I will have nothing to
do with it, But when he delivered that beautiful
address on Spirit. Soul and Body, I saw in it the
Atonement, and I saw then, if I did accept Jesus as
my Healer, I would get out of that place that night.
I got our dear brother to pray with me and ask the
good Lord to purify my blood and to loosen my
joints, and I thought as he was praying it was the
most simple prayer I had ever hard, and I was sure
it was going to be heard, and there I waited it
was only for a second, and then the glorious
answer came, and I knew that I was delivered
from the dreadful disease, and since that I have
been free, I have never lost one nights sleep,
praise His Name, and I do thank God that I ever
heard Mr. Dowie and Mrs. Dowie tell those
beautiful words, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday,
to-day and for ever, and I beseech you to accept
Christ as your Healer, to accept him fully, and be
healed from the dreadful suffering that pain puts
upon you.
Q. Miss Hudson, you live in Petersborough,
Ont.?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. You have live there how many years?
A. I have lived there all my life.
Q. Are there any person present who knows
Miss Hudson?
In reply to this question some three of four
persons rose.
Q. Thank you, Miss Hudson. I want to ask you
a few more questions. Are you acquainted with
this little volume, American First Fruits?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Do you know about the healings recorded
in it as occurring at San Jose?
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LEAVES OF HEALING
A. Yes, I know all about the healings at San
Jose, and every word in the book is truth.
Q. Including those cases of healing of cancer?
A. Yes sir.
Miss Hudson resumed her seat, and Mr.
Dowie, after explaining that there were many cases
of healing, the particulars of which could never be
mentioned in a public meeting, introduced some
further testimony, as follows:
HEALED OF TWENTY YEARS INTERNAL
TROUBLE.
Mrs. Oliver Grainger, of Deer Park, Toronto,
(Corner of Yonge street and Olive avenue) said:
Rather strange that I should be called before this
large audiencenot expecting it this morning. I
thought probably I might be one sitting down
below. I praise God because I am here to-night,
and I can testify to healing through faith in Jesus. I
have been afflicted for a great many years, about
twenty years, with an internal troubletwo, I might
say. I have had several doctors attending
methree of them are dead. During the last three
years I have had a doctor whom I would highly
recommend to all of you, and he is Dr.
Sparrowas far as medicines are concerned, he
does not give poisonous medicines, and I have
said to him. Doctor, you are the one I would send
for, if I had not taken the Lord as my Healer. . I
praise him for His healing power, and for the
strength that I have to-night through the ministry of
our dear Mr. Dowie and Mrs. Dowie. I have
attended the afternoon and evening meetings, and
besides healing in body I have been strengthened
spiritually, and see light where I never saw it
before. How many times I have laid on my bed,
suffering extreme pain, and all the time something
seemed to say it was not right accusing God of
afflicting me; now I see it was not God that afflicted
me, it was the devils work.
Mr. Dowie:Thats one for the devil (laugher),
and if you knew the details of that case you would
say it was one of the most remarkable healings of
the mission.
HEALING OF REHUMATISM, ETC.
Mr. W.H. Pearson, Manager of the Consumers
Gas Company, Toronto, next spoke, giving his
testimony in a most effective manner, his clear
voice and pointed expression evidently carrying
conviction and even arousing enthusiasm, as he
warmed to his subject. He said:Since I was
converted to Gd thirty-nine years ago, I have very
245
LEAVES OF HEALING
and was healed of a complication of diseases, and
have never touched medicine since that time. I
have been always very deaf in one ear, though I
could hear very well with the other. Since I have
been attending the teaching I went into Brother
Dowies room, and told him of my complaint. He
touched my deaf ear, asking the Lord to heal it,
and I now hear perfectly well.
Here Mr. Dowie, after asking the lady to close
the ear that had not been affected, and turn away
from him, whispered: God is Love, and Miss
Shaut instantly repeated,God is Love.
HEAING OF EFFECTS OF APOPLEXY.
Mr. W.G. Fenton, of 77 Adelaide St., East,
Toronto, said:On the 13th of November, 1886,
now four years ago, I suddenly fell over in my
daughters house, where I was residing at the
time, and was picked up unconscious. Dr. Hall
was sent for, and said that the nature of the attack
was apoplexy. I was told to remain in bed for
several days and then I might try to move about
the best I could. After recovery from that I was
troubled with congestion of the brain. It became so
severe that I was scarcely able to write my name,
and when in that condition I was advised to go to
New York. On my way there, in the sleeper, I had
a very violent attack, and while that was before
me, these verses in the fifth chapter of James were
brought clearly before my mind by the Holy Ghost,
as clearly as if I had seen them in print:
14 Is any sick among you? let him call for the
elders of the church; and let them pray over him,
anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:
15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick,
and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have
committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.
I thought, how wonderfully plain that isit is
just as clear as the Way of Salvation itself. God
says what he will do if I will do what He
commands me; but then came the next
thoughtwhere shall I find any one in Canada who
will do that? I did not know of any one, but had
seen paragraphs in the papers from time to time
about the work of Dr. Simpson in New York,
speaking of people being anointed for healing in his
church, and most wonderful manifestations of
Divine power, people being healed by the power of
God, through their doing what God commanded
the to do. I decided to see him. The subject had to
been brought before me by any one whatever,
until God the Holy Ghost brought it before my
mind, by bringing before me that Scripture. When
I got to New York, I found Mr. Simpson, the Lord
246
LEAVES OF HEALING
can tell you how I suffered when I came down, but
I came down believing that Jesus would heal me,
and went into Mr. Dowies room believing that He
would. I trusted Him, I knew He would not
disappoint me, and He did not. (Praise His Name.)
I was perfectly healed, as far as I know, and I
think, if I was not healed I would know it. When I
came down I was not able to walk by myself, but
since, I have walked from the Bethany Home to
the Hall three times each day, most all the days,
and walked down from there to this place to-night.
I am perfectly healed from those two inward
troubles, blessed be His Holy Name.
Mr. Dowie:I might say if the doctors knew
what those troubles were, it would just simply
beheld as one of the miracles of this mission.
When I knew it, and laid my hand upon the awful
tumor!fatal! if not removed, I confess I was
somewhat staggered myself.
Mrs. Brownridge;I may say that Dr. Scott, of
Maxwell Ont. Told me it was out of the power of
any doctor to reach it or cure it.
Mr. Dowie:Of course it was, and must soon
have proved fatal.
HEALING OF NEURALGIA, AND DEFECTIVE
SIGHT.
Mr.Coulter, of Barrie, said:I suffered from
neuralgia in my head for sixteen years, and I have
been to five doctors. Have also been troubled with
my eyes for five years. Now my neuralgia is gone,
and I have received my sight, and am not wearing
gasses. I can do without them. To God I give the
glory. Mr. Dowie laid hands upon me last week.
HEALED OF HEART DISEASE.
Mrs. Hostetter, of 10 Gerrard St.: I was
troubled with heart disease, and with my head. I
am now quite better, I thank God.
PERFECTLY HEALED OF NEURALGIA, ETC.
Miss Dale, of 143 Jarvis St, said:I suffered
from nervous neuralgia, and was so weak I was
only able to drive to the mission meetings. While
there I was perfectly healed, and I praise God for it.
I have been sick since last February, but am now
perfectly healed.
THE REV. J. SALMONS TESTIMONY.
Re. John Salmon, B.A., said:Five years ago
(in October) I had been troubled a good deal with
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Papa, I have already done it then, I said, you
and I together will ask the Lord to remove that
fever instantly, and He will do it. I put my hands
on the little body, and there and then asked the
Lord to remove the fever, and give him perfect
deliverance, and in two minutes or less than that
he was fast asleep, the perspiration coming from
his bodythe fever had instantly left him, and the
next morning he was out as usual, playing. The
other two were delivered, but not quite so quickly
as that. They were attacked about the same day,
and in less than forty-eight hours were perfectly
restore, in direct answer to prayer. The other
members of my family were not attacked with the
Grip at all for I claimed the promise; There shall
no plague come nigh thy dwelling. and the plague
thereafter did not come, and where the devil did
get in in those instances I have named, as also in
the case of my son, about fifteen years of age,
who met with the accident, he did not have very
much show! (Amens, and laughter) and he was
soon in the name of the Lord Jesus commanded
to loose his hold, and deliverance was given. I
thank the Lord, I bless the Lord, that I can stand
up and testify to Him, as being my Healer, and also
in addition that I have been wonderfully blessed in
attending the meetings of this mission, in that I
have received new light and truth, and have had
my faith, if I may use that expression, increased
and confirmed by the teaching of Brother Dowie. I
am thankful that he ever came to the city, and that
I had such a grand opportunity. I have been down
as many times as I could possibly get from my
business, and have been wonderfully blessed and
wonderfully instructed, especially on the difference
between body, soul and spirit. The second time I
heard it was worth to me twice as much as the
first time, and I shall take notes of it, God willing,
the next time. I praise God that I am here to-night
to say these few words to you on behalf of the
Master.(Amen.)
HEALING OF A LADY AND HER FAMILY.
Mrs. H.C. Dixon, wife of Mr. Halliard Cameron
Dixon, so well known in business and religious
circles in Toronto as the head of the Cottage
meetings, free breakfast, and numberless other
charitable institutions for spread the Gospel among
the poor, than gave her testimony. Mrs. Dixon
says: Nearly five years ago, in a Mission held in
St. Pauls Church, Bloor St. By the Rev. Mr.
Haslam, I was first able to say: Bless the Lord, O
my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who
forgiveth all thine iniquities, I thought I had been a
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LEAVES OF HEALING
of God, and the Fellowship of the Holy Ghost be
with you all. Amen.
APPENDIXA
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good and virtuous people astray through
Spiritualism.
This, which was originally intended to be very
short, has been so lengthened out that I must lose
with detailing the matters which led up to the
severance of any connection with infidel
associations and literature. My Spiritualist friends
used their utmost endeavors to convert me to their
views and after much cajolery and flattery
announced that they had determined to secure the
service of my mind and pen for their cause and
that I only had to name my own price for the work.
I was sorely tempted to close with them, but a
small, still voice whispered to me.You will be
unable to do justice to your employers if you do
not understand their philosophy. and I suggested
to the gentleman who conducted the negotiations
that before I closed I would like to peruse and
study some of their philosophical works. Shortly
afterwards he handed me Whatever Is, Is Right,
ten minutes reading of which settled my
determination not to involve myself in the
advocacy of such heinous dogmas. For some little
time before this I had been dissatisfied with the
course of some of the outrageous attacks on
Christians, and I determined that to avoid any
unpleasantness it would be wisest to withdraw
from active work, and I again entered daily
journalism. On my return to Toronto I attended one
or two meetings of the Secular Society, and until
your coming I usually spent Sunday at home or in
communion with nature.
I do not deem it necessary to here rehearse
the facts of my conversion, with which you are so
familiar, but in conclusion let me say that I am now
happy all the day longveryI should say
extremely happy and that if the Lord opens up the
way, I purpose going to Central Africa as a
missionary, relying wholly upon Him for support
and health for the work.
You son in our Risen Lord,
FREDERICK A. FENTON.
P.S. You may think that like a ladys P.S.
mine is the best part of my letter. Through the
carelessness of the nurse our infant daughter
contracted a severe cold which had settled on her
chest by the time I returned from Hamilton. My
dear wife in the meantime had grown quite
anxious about the childs condition and sent word
for me to hasten home, which I did. When I got
there we both waited on the Lord in prayer and
while on our knees the child vomited all the
phlegm and five minutes afterward there was not
APPENDIXB
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Divine Healing Association takes its stand upon the
Word of God, and, in the words of its president,
will stand or fall thereby, and, he pointedly adds,
it will not fall.
APPENDIXC
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LEAVES OF HEALING
answers it in their way and you have not liked the
answer, have you got one yourself. Are the
promises and potency of the Gospel sufficient to
produce such a result? I believe they are. This is a
fact we cannot truthfully deny, that Christianity in
its first practice and experience was socializing,
equalizing and sin-forgiving and body-healing; there
is no man who
READS THE SCRIPTURES CAN DENY
that statement. It is said of our Saviour, as I have
read you in my text, how he went about leading
people to him as a Saviour, healing their infirmities
and their sicknesses; it was prophesied that he
should do so, and he applies the prophecy of
Isaiah to himself to show that he was the true
Messiah, not only being able to say unto a man,
Thy sins be forgiven thee But Arise, take up thy
bed and walk.
Another important question comes right in
there. Is that Christ the same to-night as he was
then? This power he gave also to His apostles, and
to the seventy disciples, whom He sent abroad,
and they carried out this power, as you may read
in Luke x, 19th verse: This power He gave also
unto every believer. That is a precious point
where it comes to you and me. In John xiv. 12th
verse, He also says: Verily verily I say unto you,
he that believeth on me these works that I do shall
he do also, and greater works than these shall he
do, because I go unto my Father. I suppose there
are a great many Christian who do not believe in
passage like these; the moment the church and
Christian community are able to exercise faith fully
on the literally positive expression of Gods Word,
the millennium would be here in a very few years,
and the world would be revolutionized from pole to
pole. We are very deficient in faith; if you will
remember these passages, and take them to your
Christian friends, they will wriggle out by saying
Well, they dont apply to our time, you know; I
think its a sort of a spiritual meaning you ought to
give such passages; you ought not to trouble
yourself about sickness, but talk to men about their
sins I think that would be about the general
method of interpretation you would get from them
it is not true, and whenever expressed indicates
we are far from being perfect Christians, and we
acknowledge by such an interpretation
OUR OWN IGNORANCE AND FICKLENESS.
Some in our day proudly boast of their
apostolic succession; well and good if they can
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ridicule. I sometime wonder why God Almighty
does not paralyze the tongue and wither the hand
of any man that will utter such a sentence or write
such ideas. (Applause.) It is most marvelous. The
mighty power and authority of anti-Christ, who is
in a short time to appear, and the personality and
influence of the devil are quite reconcilable in the
presence of some of the Popes. By whatever rule
of Divine permission God permits one he can allow
the other; there is no more unreasonableness in
the Divine economy of Providence for the
EXISTENCE OF A DEVIL
than there is for the existence of a man claiming
that kind of authority, and one is just as reasonable
as the other; and if I ever argue with anyone who
believes in the Pope and not in a personal devil, I
think I can give him a satisfactory answer. It is very
important in the presence of such claims, and in
the presence of sin and disease, that we make a
clear and actual distinction between Divine
permission and Divine commission. God permits
sin and the diseases coming therefrom, but why it
is hard to say. But it is clear to every Christian that
God is not the author of sin; this being so, it is
equally true that God is not the responsible author
of disease, these are the points that have been
unwisely brought against the Rev. Mr. Dowie by
some of my brethren and others. The logic is as
correct as twice two make four; you have either
got to take that statement or believe that
GOD IS THE AUTHOR OF SIN,
and all disease comes from sin. He is not its
author; He does not commit sin: he permits it; that
is the point to keep clear on, my friends, and
where Id have you to be orthodox all around,
keeping a clear distinction between Divine
commission and permission, there is no difficulty
in connection with the Divine healing theory, but
the moment you lost sight of that distinction you
are in the dark. God permitted Job to be tempted
by the evil one, and as we read God permitted Paul
to be afflicted by the thorn in the flesh, and we
know that he prayed earnestly and repeatedly that
that thorn might be taken from him, and yet it was
the will of God to let it remain. He did not make the
thorn; it was the messenger of Satan sent to buffet
him. But our Lord could have taken the thorn
away, and Paul knew that, but God left it with him
to deal with as he would by the super-added grace
given unto him.
I am glad that the Rev. Mr. And Mrs. Dowie
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LEAVES OF HEALING
I thank God he has. Nor shall I ever put one iota of
a stumbling block in the way of men who have
mightier faith and greater trust and a stronger hold
on the Divine arm than I have. I am struggling and
laboring, and I believe it is before you and I to
come in possession of those greater gifts that God
has in reserve for us all.
In a progressive age it is not unreasonable for
a person to change his ideas, letting go some and
accepting others; we find this to be the case in
science, mechanics, governments, social reforms,
it is in fact the order of the day signalizing the
nobility of improvement and progress, leaving
some things alone, taking hold of new things better
adapted to the
AGE IN WHICH WE LIVE
Principles are facts unchangeable and universal;
their applications are experimental and varying, but
some people want the application to be as
unvarying and as permanent as the principle.
Where would we have been in mechanics, in
chemistry, in government had that law prevailed?
Many so-called new things of this day are merely
the revival and application of old things ;the
Damascus blade or sword with its sharp edge,
elasticity and tenacity, has not been excelled by all
the present improvements in steel, either in
Sheffield or anywhere else. The very knowledge
that we have gained with regard to steel has not
yet put us beyond this people what their secret
was we know not, but they could make a sword
of this quality that no man own this earth can
make at the present time. Men will doubtless go on
until we can again make a Damascus blade. There
are not as many things new under the sun as
people think If we should discover how to make
glass malleable, and so save our glassware from
brittleness and easy breaking, that would only be
restoring one of the lost arts. Once on a time men
hurled tumblers at each others head and against
the wall without breaking them but the secret is
gone. Some day I hope it will be discovered and
re-applied. With all our chemical knowledge and
adapted skill of the undertaker, we are not able yet
to embalm, in any true sense of the word; but
those old Egyptians could wrap up the mortal body
in linen bands and preserve it through a thousand
years, even to our time. The farthest we can go
now is, I believe, fifty years, so that we have great
improvements to make, and if some man should
discover the ancient secret of embalming he will
only be restoring that which had once been before.
Divine healing is but the restoring of a long
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LEAVES OF HEALING
being done. Praise the good Lord if
BY DIVINE HEALING CANCERS ARE
REMOVED,
and paralyzed limbs are restore, sight give to the
blind, healing to the deaf, and strong, perfect lungs
to the consumptive I am perfectly willing for it to be
so, whether I understand it or not, and I shall never
by argument or anything else obstruct the way of
men who are making themselves useful amongst
us, conscious as I am by my repeated visitations
to the sick that there is room for such persons, and
if a man or a woman whose heart shall be all for
men, and whose faith shall be as the mountains
that tower on high, and whose arms shall be like
those of a Goliath, and he shall lay hold of God and
draw from Him Divine power and give it unto the
weak and afflicted, I am satisfied, and I am
conscious of this, that there is a mighty power in
faith and prayer that has not yet been exhausted
and that it is for you and me, for these gifts are to
us all to live a purer life under a great spirit of
consecration, if we may be fit temples of God to
dwell in, that we may exercise that faith that others
shall profit by.
The Lord bless. Amen.
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from what the president has said, that the
only correct name for this Association is
International, and there can be no real
objection to the part of any to the change.
The name however, Divine Healing
Association, has I know, been criticized
by pastors and members of churches
generally; they say You are a people for
one idea, you are on a low plane, It has
been criticized too by another class of
people who profess to believe in Divine
Healing and who believe in holiness and
the higher life, who think this is too
exclusive a name. Well now dear friends,
I do not look at it in that light. Take the
case that was presented last evening; the
experience for our good sister, Mrs. Jennie
Paddock, who was healed for that terrible
tumor. The doctors had all given her up to
die and her sister had been sent for to
come and see her die. Her request for
prayer was taken to our president, our
good brother Dowie, when he was closing
the convention last year at Western
Springs, and she was instantaneously and
perfectly healed. But the healing had other
consequences than these, and so has the
work generally. Her husband at the time
was an ungodly and wicked man. Worse
than that he was a drunkard and the Spirit
for God got hold for him on account for the
way in which his wife was healed and
wrought a complete reformation in this
man. From that moment he never drank
any more, from that moment he never
used any bad language, but became a
praying man and is now a sincere
Christian. Is it a low plane to get right
down, raise up the dying and through
these get hold of sinners and raise them
up? This is the continuous effect for this
work and we all know that Dr Dowie puts
salvation first in all his missions. The fact
that there have been twenty-six persons
baptized within a few days in this mission
is a proof for that. The Lord Jesus Christ
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address reviewing the work for the
Association. Remarks were made by
various delegates. There was a large
attendance and much interest was
displayed. Many new acquisitions to this
Association were received during the latter
days of the mission and during the day for
the convention.
The doxology being sung the Second
Annual Convention was closed by the
president pronouncing the following
benediction:
Beloved, abstain from all appearance
for evil, and the very God for peace Himself
sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your
whole spirit, and soul and body be
preserved entire, without blame, until the
coming for our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful
is He that calleth you, Who also will do it.
The Grace for our Lord Jesus Christ, the
Love for God our Eternal Father, and the
fellowship and communion for the Holy
Spirit, the Eternal Comforter, abide in you,
bless you, keep you and all the Israel for
God, everywhere, forever. Amen.
that,
if
there has been
any
misunderstanding on their part as to the
real nature for our work, it has not been
out fault. We take this opportunity for again
asking our friends everywhere to pray for
the new series of missions which begins
with this at Pittsburg:
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LEAVES OF HEALING
ever permitted.
The second fact is, that we have no desire to
interfere with the Christian brethren and sisters
who may become associated with us, as to their
connection with the particular Evangelical
Churches of which they may be members. The
Association of which I have the honor to be the
founder and the first president expressly states this
in the third article of its Constitution, which is as
follows:
That the affairs of the Association shall be
conducted in such a way as not to infringe upon
the individual convictions of the members as to
doctrines or Church practices or with any purpose
or tendency to form a new denomination of
believers.
The third fact is, that we earnestly impress
upon all those who are converted under our
ministry the necessity of at once entering into
fellowship with some portion of the Church of God,
leaving each one free in all respects as to what
particular gathering he may enter. Hence, we are
desirous of being on fraternal terms with the
ministers and officers of all Evangelical Churches,
so that we may commend to their kind care and
attention those who have just entered into peace
with God.
The fourth fact I desire to express in the
plainest language that I can employ. It is that we
are ENTIRELY OPPOSED, AND WITHOUT ANY
QUALIFICATION whatever, to Christian Science,
which is falsely so-called, since it is neither
Christian nor Scientific. This opposition extends
also to what is known as Spiritualism, in all its
forms, among which I specifically name, Esoteric
Buddhism, and Theosophy. We also repudiate and
oppose to the uttermost Mind-Healing,
Metaphysical-Healing and many other forms of
Diabolical Imposture, among these being what we
have termed Trance-Evangelism, as cunningly
devised counterfeits, which, under other names,
have in past ages opposed, and still oppose, Gods
truth.
The Divine Healing which we teach is the
work of the Holy Spirit, in accordance with the
Eternal Fathers will, and in the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ, I claim no power to heal (I would just
as soon claim power to save) for power belongeth
unto God, But I do rejoice that God has graciously
used me to the salvation and healing of large
numbers. To Him alone be the glory.
At the meeting to which I now invite your
attendance, we shall take pleasure in giving you
the fullest information concerning ourselves
personally, our antecedents, and our plans and
BY THE EDITOR.
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15:19)
These words set before the prophet (1.)
A difficult task attended with great danger.
(2.) A glorious promise which inspired him
with assurance of ultimate victory; and (3.)
A solemn injunction concerning his course
toward those from whom he separated. It
is the prayer of the writer that all these
three thoughts may be kept in mind and
influence every line he writes in this series
of articles. Above all may the result bring
glory to God, blessing to His people and
hope to multitudes in this sin-smitten and
disease-stricken world.
THE SORROWS OF A PROPHET.
The role of prophet has been a
thankless and a dangerous one ever since
the world began. Jeremiah found it so and
cried out in his agony, Woe is me, my
mother, that thou hast borne me a man of
strife and a man of contention to the whole
earth. (Jer.15:10.) The writer has found it
so in his little degree. The ministry which
he exercises is one which brings
contention as well as peace. Many are
wounded in listening to the message of
Divine Healing and True Holiness. The
offence of the Cross has not ceased. Any
one who proclaims and lives these
doctrines, will quickly find it so. The
preaching of a true and full Gospel involves
the declaration of the whole counsel of
God. It demands faithfulness, not only
toward those that are without, but above
all to those that are within.
THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT.
The Sword of the Spirit must be sternly
exercised, and
Montogomery, the
Christian poet, well says of that Sword:
It was a two-edge Sword,
Of heavenly temper keen,
And greivous were the wounds it made,
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with them openly, in the spirit of love to all
concerned, and of loyalty to Christ, our
King.
THE CHRISTIAN ALLIANCE AND ITS
PRESIDENT.
The Christian Alliance was organized in
the city of New York about five years ago
under the presidency of the Rev. A. B.
Simpson, who still retains that position and
who is the Editor of the weekly paper
entitled, The Christian Alliance and
Missionary Weekly. and is therefore
directly responsible for the definition of its
doctrinal teaching and practical working.
Mr. Simpson also directs the operations of
Berachah. the Divine Healing home in
New York, and the International Missionary
Alliance with which a college for the
training of students is connected.
Outwardly there is an appearance of much
prosperity. Suitable buildings have been
erected for the work, and it is stated by
man that much blessing has resulted for
Mr. Simpsons labors. We are personally in
no position to confirm these statements,
since it is our simply duty to declare that at
every point where we have been able to
test the work of the Alliance, it has broken
down upon examination. If the testimony
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LEAVES OF HEALING
who knows the heart, that we are in no
considerations. We believe that we simply
obey the leadings of the Spirit, and we
leave all the consequences of our action to
God.
A CATALOGUE OF DOCTRINAL AND
PRACTICAL ERRORS.
The Errors are numerous and will
require careful statement and lengthy
treatment. They are of two classes,
namely, (1) Doctrinal, (2) Practical.
Under the Doctrinal Errors may be
enumerated:
(1) The limitation of the Gospel to four aspects.
(2) The disorderly arrangement of this Four-Fold
Gospel.
(3) False teachings as to the Christians relation
to sin.
(4) Direct instruction to bear false witness in
regard to Divine Healing.
(5) Misleading teachings as to many practical
matters: amongst these may be specially named:
a, The use of human means and medlcal poisons.
(b) The unwillingness of God to heal in are falsely
proclaimed to be the result of their certain cases even
where perfect union with Christ as the Bridegroom.
faith exists and all conditions are fulfilled.
(6) Sensuous, and even sansual, teachings
concerning Christs fleshly nature, and His relations to
His Bride on that plane.
(7) Omissions of great importance in doctrinal
teaching.
There are also other doctrinal errors which at
present we will not specify, but as these articles are
continued, we may require to deal with them.
Under the heading of the Practical Errors and
their consequences, may be placed:
(1) Disorderly anointings, in which persons
utterly unqualified as elders are permitted to anoint.
(2) The anointing of persons who are wholly
unprepared by previous teaching, and the acceptance
of their profession without any investigation whatever.
(3) The fact, ascertained by careful inquiry and
from the published records, that less than five out of
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our Sanctifier; our Healer and our Coming Lord.
Since the Alliance is practically becoming a new
denomination, with a College for the training of
students, and sending out missionaries to preach as
they are therein taught, and since also there are a
number of churches formed, similar to that of which
Dr. Simpson is pastor, and practically under his
episcopal oversight, it is time that the question was
asked if these four aspects fo teh gospel sufficiently
express all tis scope and meaing to mankin. Is our
Lor, in short, limited to these four names and offices,
or is it not a serious limitation of His nature and His
Gospel? There can be no question as to what the
answer is. It would be easy to multiply the names and
titles and offices of Christ under The Everlasting
Gospel, which is in reality illimitable as its author.
These titles could be added in scores, as revealed in
the Bible. Let us take a few. Christ our Keeper. Christ
our Intercessor. Christ our INSTRUCTOR. Christ our
LEADER. Christ our PROVIDER, etc., etc.
Is there really, any possibility of limiting His
names to four, or His Gospel to four aspects? With
reference to the first of these titles which we have
suggested, is it not beyond all question true that we
need to keep ever in view the fact that Christ is our
Keeper by the Holy Ghost?
But is there not a greater lack inasmuch as He has
revealed to us, through the Word which He spoke, the
Triune Nature of our God? Is not the Gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ the revelation of the Eternal
Fathers love and nature, and is it not also the revelation of the Holy Spirits personality and power? While
we glorify the Son, is there not a danger that we may
fail to do that which He ever directed, that we should
glorify the Father and the Holy Ghost, and thus still
more glorify the Son? Is not the Fatherhood of God
and the union and communion of all believers by the
Holy Ghost, as needful to proclaim, as the Son-ship
and Brotherhood of Christ? We think that there can be
no question as to the answer. The limitation therefore,
of the gospel to the glorious, yet narrow, limit of the
four names, titles, and offices of our Lord given in this
Four-fold Gospel is an imperfect definition of that
Gospel. Christ and His Gospel embrace Time and
Eternity, and reveal the whole Triune Nature of God,
and each person in the God-head as concerned in the
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LEAVES OF HEALING
During His three years earthly ministry, even the
apostles and the seventy disciples whom He sent
forth, were unsanctified; the proof of which is not far
to find. The fact that the Holy Ghost was not yet
given because that Jesus was not yet glorified, John.
7: 39, is proof sufficient. The additional fact that Jesus
said to His apostles, speaking of the Holy Spirit, He
dwelleth with you and shall be in you indicates that
the sanctifying power had yet to come; and the prayer
of our Lord in John 17: 17-19 confirms this beyond all
dispute. This is not an unimportant and merely
theoretical objection, but an intensely practical one.
We must preach the gospel in the same order as that
in which it is given, namely, (1) Repentance; (2)
Salvation; (3) Consecration; (4) Healing; (5)
Sanctification: (6) Progression; but replace Healing as
the consequence of Sanctification, and to teach Gods
people that they cannot be healed until they are
sanctified, is to place a practically impassable barrier
before them. It is just as if we demanded that a man
should go with us the third mile of a journey before he
had gone the second, or any other similarly absurd
thing. The practical consequences of the disorder
caused by this improper arrangement, have been, and
are, very many.
Multitudes of those whom Jesus healed had not
the slightest conception of a sanctified life; many of
them doubtless found salvation and healing almost in
the same moment.
This has been our constant experience in His
work, and if we had required of those who have been
saved under our ministry, that they should be
sanctified before they could be healed, we should have
asked an impossibility. We unhesitatingly declare that
to our definite knowledge thousands of unsanctified
persons have been healed, some of them amongst the
mightiest miracles that God has wrought through our
agency. The subjects of these healings knew nothing
whatever of a holy life; they had but entered within
the Door of salvation, and they left their sicknesses
close by the gate. We rejoice to know that many of
them have gone on in the Kings Highway of
Holiness. The whole divine arrangement in connection
with Salvation and Healing and Holiness, is most
beautifully set forth in the prophecy concerning
Christs ministry contained in the 35th chapter of Isai-
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witnessing to an experience of perfect deliverance
which it was impossible for them to possess, burdened
as they were with the defilements and miseries of
disease. True Holiness in all its fullness must,
therefore, be preceded by Divine Healing.
Consequently the reverse order adopted, and taught,
by the Christian Alliance, is erroneous and most
injurious.
In our next article we shall proceed with the
consideration of the Third Doctrinal Error of the
Christian Alliance, namely, 'FALSE TEACHING AS TO
THE CHRISTIAN'S RELATION TO SIN.
HEALER.
I want to know how many there are here to-night
who now believe with all their hearts the doctrine that
we have been teaching, that the Lord Jesus Christ is
the present healer of His people; that He has not
changed; that He is still the same, and the present
healer of His people? All who believe that, please
stand to your feet? (Nearly all present stood.)
NONE REJECT.
May I ask if there are any who reject the doctrine
that the Lord is the healer of Iris people; if so, hold up
your hands I do not see any hand. So we call just
suppose there are none who reject; although a very
few are sitting upon the fence, and will come down
on the right side before meeting is out.
FIFTY-TWO WITNESS TO THEIR
HEALING.
I would like to know how marry of you have
been healed through faith in Jesus? Will you please to
stand. Thank you. Praise God. I am sorry we have not
got you all here on the platform, who have been
healed. Please stand until I count you. Thirty-one and
we have twenty-one here on the platform, which
makes fifty-two in all who can witness to their Lord
as their healer.
OVER FIFTY SAVED-TWENTY-SIX
BAPTIZED.
Will all those who have been saved and given
their hearts to the Lord, and found salvation in this
Mission, please stand? Thank you. There are about
fifty altogether. I have baptized twenty-six in this
place.
HUNDREDS WITNESS TO SPIRITUAL,
BLESSING.
One other question. Will all who have received
spiritual blessing in this Mission do me the favor to
stand. (Nearly all stood up.) I thank God for that that
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LEAVES OF HEALING
is very encouraging.
RIGHT AND LEFT HAND SUPPORTERS.
Now my part is done. I will now ask the Rev.
Lyman Palmer, who has been fifty years a minister of
Christ, and is my left-hand supporter, because this is
my right-hand supporter, (pointing to Mrs. Dovvie).
Certainly he makes a splendid left hand. His pure
and stainless life, his simple and unaffected piety, his
real wisdom, and cool, calm, confident faith have
been, ever since coining to this city, a real blessing to
me.
A VENERABLE MINISTERS TESTIMONY
Rev. Lyman Palmer, 240 La Salle avenue.
Chicago, said:I am greatly obliged to my dear
brother for his kind words. I fully reciprocate all that
he has said. I knew of Brother Dowie and his work in
Australia, I think before the London International
Conference on Divine Healing and True Holiness
which was held six years ago. I read in the report of
that Conference of those marvellous healings there in
that Australian land, and I read of them with wonder.
Why, I said, that is just like the Apostles days. Is that
all true? I could not doubt it, and yet it seemed as if it
was very far away, unreal. As our brother perhaps
knows, evil reports reached this country that were not
so favorable to Brother Dowie as a teacher, and I
stood in doubt for a while. But after a time Brother
Dowie, in the providence of God, carne here to
America, and I had a little correspondence with him
before I met him, and my confidence in him was fully
assured. I have known him for several months past
since he has been in Chicago, and I consider it one of
the crowning glories of my life that I have met this
brother of whom I read with so much great interest
years ago. I had often wondered why I had left the fair
State of Minnesota to come to Chicago. I regarded it
for a time as a sort of calamity to come away from all
the friends and associations that were so very dear and
pleasing to me; where I had labored with the Lord for
so many years. But I just begin to find out why the
Lord in His providence sent me here to be a weak
left-hand supporter in this work. I have been
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LEAVES OF HEALING
minister, and is still a minister of Christ in the best
sense of the word, and has studied very deeply in
connection with this matter.
F. L. Hahn, 622 Wells Street, Chicago:It
gives me pleasure to be able to add to the words
which my enerable Brother Palmer has said. They will
he words to the same effect. My spiritual enjoyment
and happiness has been deepened week by week while
sitting under the teaching that our brother Dowie has
brought. The life of the Holy Spirit in us has become
more of a reality to me. My access to the Throne of
Grace in the Blessed name of Jesus has been more
free, and been attended with more results, more
practical results than heretofore.
DELIVERED FROM SATANIC POWERS
CONSEQUENT UPON FALSE TEACHING.
"It is true, I believed this doctrine ere our brother
came to Chicago. God used me to some extent to the
sick and the distressed, and owned the messages I
brought in His clear name. But through connection
with teachers who were not clear by any means, some
of whom taught falsely, there had come into my spirit
a condition of oppression which had to be removed,
ere I had this free access to the Throne of Grace. To
this end our brother has been used of God.
I will not multiply words, but I will say this, that,
owing to my laying on of hands, and in the ordinance
of anointing, people unprepared to receive, and some
times not being in a condition myself to be used in the
ministry of healing, there had come upon me attacks
of Satan in various forms; which I will not detail,
serious attacks upon my spirit and body. I
communicated the facts in connection with that matter
to our brother, and he laid hands upon me in the name
of our Master, praying silently. I know not what he
prayed, but I am so glad that from that hour, from that
very moment, these powerful attacks of Satan upon
my spirit vanished, not to return again. I have been
free from that hour.
ANOTHER HEALING.
At a former testimony meeting at the First M. E.
Church, I testified to Healing through faith in my Lord
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LEAVES OF HEALING
Dowie. I have known he was Gods man, and it has
not moved me a particle, and I rejoice in the friendship
of himself and his beloved wife.
HEALED OF PARALYSIS, ETC.
Last winter on the 23rd of January I was taken
suddenly helpless. As I got out of my bed in the morning I found that I could not stand, but fell back again
on the bed. I called my husband, who was making the
fire. He told me I had better lie still and he would call
sister Sweet, which he did. I was suffering great pain.
Of course I did not know what it was. The Lord had
been my Healer since 1883, and I made the vow to
Him that I would never again call upon an earthly
physician, or take medicine of any kind. I could not go
hack on that vow. I called upon God and failed to get
the healing, and we sent for Brother Dowie, and he
came and prayed with me.
I was in great pain, and as he prayed with me all
the pain left me instantly. He and his beloved wife
came again and prayed with me, and I walked. I
cannot enter into detail, it would take too long. I did
not get full healing immediately That was my fault; but
how blessedly the Lord has strengthened and helped
me. To-night I am every whit whole. I do not know of
one particle of disease in my body. I can run as well as
walk and when I first started to walk I had to have
help. You do not know how precious my Jesus is to
me. And you do not know how dear these dear friends
of His are to me. I praise God for Brother and Sister
Dowie; and I am so thankful to night that I have been
healed of the Lord, because I never knew Jesus as a
living daily portion until He healed my body. I do not
believe any one can until their body is given up and
healed of Him.
INSTANTANEOUS HEALING.
After I was well, and about the time this Mission
was about to begin, I was taken with a severe pain in
my left foot, so I could scarcely walk. Several of us
went to Brother Dowies office to get the circulars to
distribute. While there he asked me how I was, and I
told him. He said we will have to take that to the
Lord. I was relieved instantly, and walked miles that
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LEAVES OF HEALING
INSTANTANEOUS AND PERMANENT
HEALING WHEN DYING.
Mrs. Jennie Paddock, 491 Kidsie avenue,
Chicago: I praise the Lord that I have this
privilege to witness fear our clear Saviour for what He
has done for me. I praise Him for the Spiritual
blessing I have received in these meetings; for His
healing power, and keeping power. The Lord is
wonderfully keeping me; and I do praise Him for the
healing of my body, and for all the blessings I daily
enjoy. This time a year ago I was not expected to live
at all. The doctors had given me up, and said they
could not do anything for me. I was afflicted for about
a year with a tumor in my side. (Mrs. Paddock then
narrated the miracle of Healing already fully
reported in the pages of this magazine p. 233and in
closing she said:)
Praise the Lord I have had good health ever
since, with the exception of a little spell of La Grippe,
but was delivered from that right away. One week
from the time of my healing we removed. My husband
got a new carpet for the bedroom, and I made it up
and he helped me put it down, and I was not tired. I
did not get up out of that sickness with any weakness.
and have had perfect strength ever since.
Mr. Dowie: At the hour of prayer you fell asleep?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. And out of that sleep you waked healed?
A. Yes, sir.
Mr. Dowie: That was the hour of prayer at
Western Springs.
O. How long was it before the tumor entirely disappeared?
A. A weeks time.
O. How large was it?
A. I could not tell you how large it was. It was
very large; when I sat down the tumor would be down
on my limbs, and I would have to lean back when I sat
up.
HOW HER HEALING BROUGHT
SALVATION TO HER HOME.
Q. What has been the spiritual result in your
family, and what effect did it have upon your
husband?
A. We have all received a great blessing. Before
that my husband was a terrible drinker. We hardly
knew what it was to have him come home sober. But
since that time he has never touched a drop. He has
never given me a short word. Before that he never
liked me to go to church: since that time he wants me
to go to church. He is now trusting in the Lord for his
salvation and healing, and I do praise the Lord for all
He has done for us.
A CANCER HEALING AFTER A YEAR.
Mr. Dowie:We have here another case of last
year.
The sister was brought out to Western Springs in
a dying condition with Hemorrhage of the lungs and
cancer in the breast and under the arm. In this case it
was through our agency, by the laying on of hands
and the prayer of faith.
Mrs. Svenson, Box 175, Jefferson Park,
Illinois:I am thankful to God I am here. A year
ago I had cancer in my breast, and something wrong
with my lungs, and two doctors gave me up. Dr.
Steinhouse attended me first. Dr. Davis then attended
me. They said there was no help for me; no one could
help me.
I went home and told my family. We have got a
big family. My husband said we had better take my
sickness to God. After three weeks I heard about Dr.
Dowie. A lady came and told me about him and we
went down to Western Springs and I told him about
my case. He prayed for me and laid hands upon me,
and I have been all right ever since.
Q. (Mr. Dowie) It will be twelve months next
month since you were healed, will it not?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. And the Lord has given you a baby since
then?
A. Yes, sir.
O. And you got along all right?
A. Yes, sir.
Mr. Dowie.We examined this sister to-day
and do not find a single vestige of any cancer left. Mr.
Svenson will tell you about it. He is more used to
talking in public than Mrs. Svenson.
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LEAVES OF HEALING
CONFIRMED BY HEAR HUSBAND.
Mr. Svenson then testified to his wifes healing as
follows:
I bless the Lord for what he has done for me and
my family. For my own part I have had the Lord for
my healer far 9 years, but I could not take Him for
healer so fully for my family. Some way or another
some Christian friends got into my home and pulled
my wife out to the doctors. I want to tell you this
case; how my wife was when she went out to Western
Springs. She had some affection of the lungs in the fall
of the year. Her sister was with her and she worked a
little too hard and got inflammation of the lungs. She
went to Dr. Steinhouse, a German doctor. He treated
her for some time for that lung trouble. During this
time she had a baby, and while it was nursing she
noticed a little lump on her breast, and she told the
servant girl about it. It grew worse and worse, and
finally she told the doctor about it. He put some
instrument on it and pricked it all over, and she
suffered terribly with it. During the time she had that
she commenced to spit up blood. She tried to keep it
from me, but I saw it a couple of times. But finally the
doctor told her what it was, and that he could not do
anything more for her. My wife took it very hard, and
I cannot tell you how I took it. She went out to Des
Plaines Camp Meeting and there met a sister from
Western Springs, who told her about Brother Dowie
and his teachings. My wife came home and told me
about it and said she had the witness of God in her
heart that she was going to be healed.
Her sister promised to take her out to Western
Springs, and I told her to go if she thought she was
able to.
She went on Wednesday, and promised me she
would be home on Friday night. But she did not come,
and on Lords Day morning I went out there. When I
saw my wife she looked as though she was dying then.
I think the devil got hold of my head that time.
Three of the children at home were sick, and I was
foolish enough to tell her about them. But after all it
was a good thing, for they were prayed for and all got
well.
She was out there ten days, and Brother Dowie
spoke to her day by day. The day before the meetings
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LEAVES OF HEALING
for men only. About the close of the meeting he said,
perhaps there are some here who have been ruptured.
I had never thought of being healed of rupture. It had
never come into my mind that I would be healed. That
was on Friday night. I went home and thought about
it. When I arose from my bed on Monday morning,
two weeks ago, as my custom is, I knelt down to
thank God for keeping me, and to ask His protecting
care for the day. As I was about to put on my old
truss something said to me, Why do you wear
that'?Can not you lay it down in the name of Jesus?
and I said Yes, in Jesus name I can lay it down, and
bless God I have not had occasion to use it since. On
the following day my son called around, and we had
occasion to move a heating stove, a heavy one. My
son who weighs 200 pounds, took one side and I took
the other and we moved that stove to where we
wanted to put it, and bless God I have not felt the
worse for it. And I have been attending to my work
ever since. To God I give all the glory. Shortly after
I commenced my work, my wife, who is now in this
meeting, said to me, Have you forgotten your belt
this morning? No, I replied, I have not forgotten it,
but it is terrible for a man who is a child of God to
wear as much steel as would put a hoop around a tub
all the time. I will be very happy to show that old
truss to any who will call at my house. I do not want
any of you to think for a moment that I do not believe
in the laying on of hands. I believe that is taught in
this book; and I believe that was through Brother
Dowies agency I received my healing, because I
would never have thought of going to God for
healing, had I not listened to his teaching, because I
have heard so much about this trouble being incurable.
To God I give all the glory.
O. (Mr. Dowie) . Your occupation is that of a
carpet weaver
A. Yes, Sir, and in my business I have to continally use my legs, and it would be impossible for me to
continue my business and not have the rupture come
back again if I was not healed.
ANOTHER CANCER DESTROYED.
Mr. Dowie then introduced Mrs. S. J. Ellison
1330 Michigan Boulevard, who testified as follows:
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LEAVES OF HEALING
face, which had the strained and agonizing look
always seen in cases of cancer. It was a cancer in the
right breast.
LET HER TELL HER OWN STORY.
Mrs. Wellcome, Palmer, Illinois: I esteem it a
great privilege to speak for my dear Saviour, and especially to-night that He has so delivered me from a
cancer that I have been much afflicted with. A little
over a year ago I first discovered a lump on my right
breast, and I consulted a physician, Dr. Wellcome. of
Minnesota. He said it might be scrofula, and so I let it
rest for a time. Last November, while passing through
Chicago, on my way from Minnesota,
I consulted a physician here. He said he thought
it was a tumor, and it might be cancer, and he told me
that if it troubled me he would advise me to have it
removed. I rested throughout the winter with it, and
it seemed to come to a standstill, but I believe it was
deepening all the time. This spring, about seven weeks
ago, I left my home for a visit with my son, and I was
taken down with La Grippe, which reduced my spirits
very much, and increased the cancer, and I became
somewhat alarmed. I went to a lady physician and she
pronounced it a cancer, and advised me to have it
removed immediately. I was not able to come home,
and wrote to my folks to come for me. They came and
helped me home. I could not lay on my right side.
Much of my time I had to sit up in my bed to get
breath. My son came to Chicago to see what could be
done for me. After visiting different hospitals he went
to Brother Dowie. He then came home and reported
what he had done. We then came to Chicago, when I
decided to come here.
My decision was not fully made up until we
reached Chicago. Last Tuesday afternoon I presented
my case to Mr. Dowie. He laid hands upon me, and I
immediately found relief. The cancer was reduced in
inflammation, size and pain. I have trusted in the
Lord, and prayed to him without ceasing for deliverance, and to-day I feel as though I had got it; and I
praise the Lord for it.
Mr. Dowie:An examination of the cancer
to-day shows it to be only one-quarter the size of a
week ago, and it is rapidly diminishing. All the pain
has gone, and our sister has been able to eat and
sleep, and been running around like a young lady.
CONFIRMED BY HER SON, A MINISTER
OF THE GOSPEL.
Rev. George Wellcome, of Palmer, Illinois, then
spoke as follows:
I am happy to speak in the praise of Jesus.
There is nothing in this world that gives me so much
pleasure and joy. It gives me pleasure to add
additional testimony to the facts just related before
you, It is a case that comes very near home. The
other cases I have heard reported this evening have
given me joy as well to think what has been done in
the name of Jesus, and what has been brought to light
in his word and through the instrumentality of His
servants. As regards this case, the statements my
mother has given to you are perfectly true. As to her
weakness when I went back to Carlinville to get her,
it was a sad sight to see such a change in my mother
during the five weeks I had been absent from her, and
to note the rapid growth of this cancer. I took her
home, and she was then nearly prostrated with weakness and exhaustion; scarcely able to breathe, and
suffering great pain. Since Tuesday evening last I
have been in one sense of the word surprised, not to
say I am surprised at the wonderful works of Jesus,
but in an ordinary sense of view it is surprising to see
what wonders He will do. That evening in returning
from the house I noticed a change in her movements.
I noticed her freedom of step going to and from the
car. On Monday evening, going along the same street
to the place where we were stopping while in the city,
it was all she could do to get there. On Tuesday
evening she stepped as sprightly as could be expected
of any woman of her age, and since that time she has
been a regular attendant here nearly all the time, and
has been over the parks of the city, and has endured
more than I supposed she could have endured had she
been in ordinary health at her age, being now 73. I
join in praising Jesus for what He has done for us. I
am glad to say also for myself that I have received
great blessing since coming here. It is no new faith to
me, but I bear testimony that I have received new
strength in the faith. The teachings I have heard upon
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LEAVES OF HEALING
the work of Divine Healing have wonderfully
increased my faith and knowledge of the workings of
God with man. I am glad to rejoice with those who
have learned this also, that it is a blessed thing to
know that Jesus is truly ready and willing to heal His
people.
Mr. Dowie:Our brother's wife will now say a
few words.
CONFIRMED BY HER DAUGHTER.
Mrs. Welcome said:My dear brothers and sisters, I feel to-night that I have great reason to praise
our blessed Saviour, for He has done so much for us.
The things you have just heard are true, every word is
true. And I can say for myself I have been greatly
blessed. Four years ago I was a great sufferer, being
afflicted with Brights Disease, and the Lord healed
me. From that time I have not suffered any more from
that disease. But I thought the other things I was
suffering perhaps the Lord put upon me. I did not
think of going to the Lord with my little troubles. I
have listened to the teachings of Brother Dowie, and
have understood that the Lord does not put these
afflictions upon us, and I praise God for what he has
done for me, that He has opened my eyes in this direction, and I do praise Him from the bottom of my
heart, and I do want to be a faithful witness for Jesus.
He has kept us while we in our sickness did not
understand what His will was concerning us. I bless
Him that He has filled me with the Spirit and I want to
be a living witness for Jesus.
RHEUMATISM HEALED.
Mrs. Osmond, 687 Madison street, Chicago:I
praise the Lord for what He has done for me. I am so
thankful that I have been able to attend these
meetings. Praise His name for His healing power. I
had some trouble with my limbs. I suffered a great
deal, but for two weeks, since I took the Lord for my
healer, I have not felt a particle of pain I give all the
glory to God, through brother Dowies
instrumentality. I am not worthy of the least of His
mercies, but hereafter I mean to follow Christ in all
things. My eyes were poor, and I had to wear glasses
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LEAVES OF HEALING
there over to Washington hall, and while there her
mouth was filled with stuff, and she has not suffered
any pain from it since.
DELIVERED FROM 22 YEARS SLAVERY.
I thank God for the great spiritual blessing I
have received since Brother Dowie came here. For
twenty-two years I have been a slave to the tobacco
habit. It was smoke, smoke, and chew, chew all the
time. And I thank God Brother Dowie called me a
Stink pot I said to myself, God has said, Present
your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, and acceptable,
And I took my pipe and pitched it out of the window,
and I have not used it since.
INSTANTLY HEALED OF LA GRIPPE.
Mrs. F.T. Sweet, 480 West Indiana street,
Chicago:I praise God for this privilege of being a
witness for Him. To the salvation and healing through
faith in Jesus. For 24 years Jesus has been my Saviour,
and more than seven years my healer. Last January, by
over-work and failing to trust Jesus, I was taken very
sick an suffered intense pain for 24 hours. I prayed to
God, but I did not get the answer. I sent for Brother
Dowie, I was too ill to sit up without fainting. He
asked me if I believe Jesus would heal me. He then
prayed with me, and instantly the pain went away. He
touched my eyes, and I was instantly and perfectly
healed. The fever all went away, and the cool
perspiration come out all over me. My friends could
see that I was healed. I have not had any sickness
since that time. I heard Brother Dowie speaking on
the 91st Psalm. Although that Psalm has alway been
precious to me for many years, it has been more
precious since then, and I have taken it for my daily
reading. In April I moved into a new flat. And
everything was so damp, my clothes moulded. I just
rested on that 91st Psalm. I read the Psalm over and
said, now Lord, that word says no plague shall come
nigh thy dwelling. And I said, now Lord this is true,
sickness cannot come into my home any more, and
from that time I have never had a minutes sickness.
Mr. Dowie:It is now past eleven oclock, and
we still have a number who wish to testify. We will
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LEAVES OF HEALING
274
LEAVES OF HEALING
HEALING THROUGH FAITH IN JESUS
The Closing Week of their Mission will be Held by the
When many who habe been Healed will witness for Jesus
as their Healer, as well as their Saviour.
At 7:30 P.M.
MR. DOWIELeaves of Healing from the Tree of
Life.
Illustrated by a diagram.
Lessons
from
Difficulties Considered
and Answered; including remarks on Evil and its Original, the
Egyptian
Plagues, Drama of Job, the Mystery of Suffering, and the
At 2:30 P.M.
MR. DOWIEThe Covenant of
Jehovahrophi.
At 7:30 P.M.
FAREWELL ADDRESSES BY MR. AND
MRS. DOWIE AND CLOSING PRAISE AND
TESTIMONY MEETING. when many who have been
Healed will witness for Jesus as their Healer, as well as their
saviour.
CHRIST IS ALL.
A Meeting of all Christians who desire to co-operate in the formation of a Branch of the
International Divine Healing Association, will be held in the Liberty Street M.E. Church,
Pittsburgh, on Tuesday, November 10th, at 7:30 P.M. The President of the Association, the
Rev. John Alex. Dowie, will preside.
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LEAVES OF HEALING
HEALING THROUGH FAITH IN JESUS
A Months Mission will be Conducted, God Willing, by the
BALTIMORE MD.
Daily, (Saturdays Excepted) Beginning on Lords Day, Nov. 15,1891.
At 7:30 P.M.
MR. DOWIEThe Opening of the Beautiful
Gate of Divine Healing.
MRS. DOWIESome Miracles I have seen.
Monday, November 16th.
MR. DOWIEThe Gospel of Healing and How I came
to Preach it.
At 7:30 P.M.
MR. DOWIELeaves of Healing from the Tree of Life.
MRS. DOWIEBlessed are They that Wash Their
Robes.
Illustrated by a diagram.
Thursday, November 19 .
MR. DOWIEOld Testament
Difficulties Considered
and Answered. Lecture first: Evil and its Origin, the Egyptian
Plagues. Etc.
MRS. DOWIEAn
At 2:30 P.M.
MR. DOWIEThe Covenant of Jehovahrophi.
At 7:30 P.M.
FAREWELL ADDRESSES BY MR. AND MRS.
DOWIE AND CLOSING PRAISE AND TESTIMONY
MEETING. when many who have been Healed will witness for
Difficulties Considered
and Answered; including remarks on Evil and its Original, the
Egyptian
CHRIST IS ALL.
a Meeting of all Christians who desire to co-operate in the formation of a Branch of the International Divine
Healing Association, will be held in the Liberty Street M.E. Church, Pittsburgh, on Tuesday, November 10th,
at 7:30 P.M. The President of the Association, the Rev. John Alex. Dowie, will preside.