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AN EXPERIENCE

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 23, 1901

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 78, No. 17.

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AN EXPERIENCE

By Mrs. M. V. Erkenbeck

MRS. M. V. ERKENBECK
(Lawton, Mich.)
FROM the first, I have been greatly interested in the Woman's department of our good REVIEW AND HERALD. It is usually the first thing I look for after reading the last page.
Our dear Sister Henry's death was a shock to the women of our denomination, but I knew the work she had started among us was of the Lord, and that He would find some one to take her place, and He has not disappointed us.
I have been glad to see so many requests for prayer, and have rejoiced of late to see that so many can testify to answered prayers. I know by blessed experience that God answers prayer, and that He loves to answer prayer in healing the sick. Much is being said for and against “divine healing,” and I feel impressed to give my experience, though a part of it is so painful that I seldom mention it:—
Sixteen years ago I was raised up in answer to the prayer of faith, after an illness of two years. I had been treated by the best medical help at our command, and there seemed to be no help for me in man. Our daughter, eighteen years old, who had been an invalid for a year, was healed soon after. We received a most wonderful spiritual blessing, and I know it was of the Lord. The Bible was a new book to us, and we found it blessed to walk with God.
Soon after this the Sabbath of the Lord was brought to us, and to me especially it seemed so plain that, for a few days, I felt that to be obedient I must keep the seventh day instead of the first as the Sabbath; but I hesitated. It meant so much to us as a family, and I tried to walk by sight instead of by faith. Satan took advantage of this, and used the mistake of one of God's servants to turn us away from the Third Angel's Message entirely for a time. Oh, I wish I had power to cause every one to see, as I see, the danger of turning against one ray of light.
In the instruction we received on divine healing we were taught (and it looked reasonable), that if we were to take Jesus as our physician, we must discard all means. Jesus did not need any help, and it was denying our faith in Him to use means. This is a grievous error. I believe that much of the reproach upon true divine healing comes from this error.
The Lord healed and blessed us in our ignorance, and brought light to us, which, if we had walked in it, would have corrected this error, and have delivered us from the terrible trial that came to us.
We went on, using pork and unwholesome combinations, and after a short time our daughter was taken sick. We had no thought of using the simple remedies which our people are taught skillfully to use, but, remembering what the Lord had done for us, we said: “No; Jesus will take care of us. We can trust him to deliver us from all sickness.” But the difficulty, which might easily have been removed at first, became more and more serious. Still we refused all means, believing that victory was ours in the Lord. Though she was wonderfully sustained by her childish faith and trust in her Saviour, after a few years of suffering we laid her away to rest in Jesus till the first resurrection.
No one can ever know what I suffered, for I felt that the whole responsibility rested upon me, and yet I could not see how I could have done differently. But how long-suffering and full of mercy and love is our God. He did not leave us in the dark, but brought us again the Third Angel's Message, and, praise His name, we accepted it fully.
Again I was laid upon a bed of sickness, I used means, went to the Sanitarium, and had an operation, in which the Lord was preciously near, and restored me to comfortable health. After two years, through foolishly overdoing, I was brought to a condition where, even at the Sanitarium, nothing could be done for me.
The subject of divine healing was ever before me; for I knew that I had once been healed by a direct miracle from the Lord. It was very plain to me that we have no right to expect the Lord to keep us in health unless we are willing to obey all the laws of healthful living; but I still felt that if we took the Lord for our physician, we could not use means at the same time. I think Dr. Kress will remember how she labored with me, also Elder O. A. Olsen, to whom I owe much in the Lord for their patience in showing me that the rational means, such as water and electricity, are God in nature, hence are in perfect harmony with God in divine healing. It took me a week to see this after I thought I was ready to be healed. But I praise the Lord for the lesson. When I learned it, I was free. I could use any remedy or help that is in harmony with the Lord without any hindrance to my faith; for it is in the Lord.
Brethren Olsen, Durland, and Nicola prayed with me. The promise in Mark 11, “What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them,” was my promise. I believed it, and was instantly healed. The spiritual blessing I received at the time seemed even more blessed than the healing. This was four years ago. I have been in comfortable health and have worked hard ever since.
“Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end.”