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Pacific Press Publishing Company · New York · July 16, 1896

PRESS reports for July 8 announced a “miraculous” cure of diphtheria, in the case of a young girl living in this city, by means of a “holy relic,” consisting of what is alleged to be a fragment of a bone of “St. Ann.” While faith—as scripturally defined—is fast disappearing before the spreading worldliness and materialism of the age, superstition continues to thrive, as exemplified in occurrences like the above. Simultaneously with the departure of faith comes the revival of superstition. It could not be otherwise; for faith is the only means of knowledge in spiritual things. If our present day “civilization,” with its “higher” criticism and similar anti-biblical features, embodied any real advancement in religious knowledge, superstition would be dying out instead of flourishing.