I AVE called your attention to the discrediting which befell the Irvingite gifts. This discrediting was wrought not only by the course of history which confounded all the expectations based on them, but also by the confession which was made by one and another of the “gifted” persons that they had suffered from delusion. Let me remind you of this, and at the same time point out that all the gifts are involved in this discrediting. The characteristic Irvingite gift was the “tongues,” and the accompanying “prophecy.” Robert Baxter introduced a new manifestation of authoritative and predictive deliverances, which was assumed to belong to the “Apostolic” gift. But all the “prophets” committed themselves, when speaking in “the power,” to the genuineness of his inspiration. Their credit falls thus with his. But again, their gifts are inextricably bound up with the gift of “healing.” You will remember that Mary Campbell “spoke with tongues” before she was healed; and that the descent of the “power” on Margaret Macdonald was preliminary to its descent on James Macdonald, who by it was made the first faithhealer of the movement. By him both Margaret Mac-donald’s and Mary Campbells healing was performedthe initial steps of the restoration of the “gifts.”
It is impossible to separate these cases of healing from the other gifts with which they are historically connected. And in general the several “gifts” appear on the pages of the New Testament together, and form so clearly connected a body that it would be difficult to separate them from one another. Nevertheless many attempt their separation, and, discarding or at any rate neglecting the other gifts revived in the Irvingite movement, contend vigorously that the gift of healing the sick is a permanent endowment of the church, and has been illustrated by numerous cases essentially like those of Margaret Macdonald and Mary Campbell down to to-day. This assertion is very clearly made by a clergyman of the church of England, Joseph William Reynolds, in a book dealing with what he calls The Natural History of Immortality. Many facts, attested by honest, capable, painstaking witnesses,” he says,’ ‘““show the reality in our own days of healings which exceed the limits of all known natural and human means, so that no reasonable doubt ought to exist as to their being given of God in confirmation of our Christian faith. Clergy and laity of the English church, various non-conforming ministers, medical men, lawyers, and professors of physical science, with a large number of healed persons, present indisputable evidence that the Gift of Healing is now, as in the Apostolic Age, one of the signs which follow those who believe.” The claim is precise, and the belief which it expresses is somewhat wide-spread. Already thirty years ago (1887)? there were more than thirty “Faith-Homes” established in America, for the treatment of disease by prayer alone; and in England and on the European Continent there were many more. International conferences had already been held by its advocates, and conventions of narrower constituency beyond number. It counts adherents in every church, and, if for no other reason than its great diffusion, it demands careful attention.
I am a little embarrassed to know how to take up the subject so as to do it justice and to bring the full truth out clearly. On the whole, I fancy it will be fairest to select a representative book advocating this teaching, and to begin with an analysis of its argument. The way being thus opened, we shall probably be able to orient ourselves with reference to the problem itself in a comparatively brief space. The book I have selected for this purpose as, on
Lr GORDON’S METHOD 159 the whole, at once the most readable and the most rational presentation of the views of the Faith-Healers, is Doctor A. J. Gordon’s The Ministry of Healing, or Miracles of Cure in All Ages. The copy of this book at my disposal belongs to the second, revised edition, issued in 1883. Gordon writes in a straightforward, businesslike style, in excellent spirit, with great skill in arranging his matter and developing his subject, and with a very persuasive and even ingenious disposition of his argument, so as to present his case in the most attractive way. He expresses his purpose as “to let the history of the church of all ages answer to the teaching of the Scriptures on this question, without presuming to dogmatize on it himself.” Already we get the impression that he knows how to present his matter so as not only to please readers, but also to remove such prejudices against his cause as may be lurking in their minds, and to predispose them to follow his guidance. We do not lose this impression as we read on. After an introductory chapter on “The Question and Its Bearings,” we are at once given a series of chapters on “The Testimony of Scripture,” The Testimony of Reason,” “The Testimony of the Church,” “The Testimony of Theologians,” “The Testimony of Missions,” “The Testimony of the Adversary,” “The Testimony of Experience,” “The Testimony of the Healed.” You will observe the power of such a disposition of the matter; it almost convinces us to read over the mere titles of the chapters. At the end there come two chapters on the ““Verdict”’—called respectively the Verdict of Candor” and the Verdict of Cau-tion’—and finally the “Conclusion.” We must now look a little more closely into the contents of this full and admirably marshalled argument.