FAITH AND PRAYER AND "SCIENCE" HEALING.
By E. W. Webster
[The following article was originally a paper read before the Pastors' Union of La Crosse, Wis., March 13, 1893, and very severely criticised—especially that part pertaining to faith and its use, and creation in redemption. These ideas were denounced as "credulity," "superstition," "narrow-mindedness," etc. It is really marvelous how men of learning can be so blinded, but the fact that such is the case accounts for the spiritual weakness of the churches in these last days.] THIS is really a misnomer. Strictly speaking, there is no such thing. The common use of these expressions shows either thoughtlessness or a sad misunderstanding of the meaning and use of faith and prayer and the science of the Bible. A proper understanding and discussion of the subject will lead us to study what is faith, what is prayer, what is Bible science, and their relation to each other and to healing. To start with, faith has so largely died out of the Christian church, and genuine faith is such a rare article, that but few, comparatively, know what it is, or how to use it. It is something that must be possessed and exercised to know what it is. He who does not know whether he has faith or not, or does not constantly and almost unconsciously use it, really does not have it. If he has it, he will know that he has it; for he will use it, for "faith worketh by love," and purifies the soul. Now faith is so simple that it is hard for men to grasp it, merely because it is not easy to become as little children and take things without questionings and reasonings. "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." Rom. 10: 17. We cannot have faith in that of which we have never heard. To illustrate: I have a thought in my mind. Do you believe the truth of that thought?—No. If I should tell it to you, you would then have some ground for faith to rest upon. It is a "gift of God," but the one who will not take the word of God as the word of God—he who will not hear—how can he have faith? How can God give it to him? Faith not only believes God's word, but believes that word as it is written. It knows that God is able to say what he wants to say, as he wants to say it; that he did not say or allow to be said what he did not want said; that what is said is just what he wanted said, in just the way he wanted it said. If the Lord has spoken to us, it is in the Bible. Faith believes that he was able, and did give us the Bible just as he wanted us to have it, with just that in it which he wanted us to have, in just the way he wanted us to have it. That is exactly what he wants us to believe, in exactly the way he wants us to believe it. Nothing short of this is faith. It is candid receiving and satisfied, contented resting upon what God says, as if being spoken exclusively to me. It will know and acknowledge that what we appear to know we do not know if it is contrary to God's word. Faith will enable us to say that the wisdom of the world, of every man in the world, and especially our own, is foolishness, and will cause us to esteem and use God's word before any man's word. Faith is the most reasonable thing on earth when we reason as God reasons. I might add right here that the reason for so little faith, and consequently so little power, among the professed followers of Christ, and especially among his servants, is that man's words are read, talked about, preached about, and dwelt upon more than God's word, and to the shameful neglect of the Bible. What some great divine has said—and he is only a man—is often taken in preference to the Bible. This, to my mind, is the reason of so many various and conflicting ideas in regard to the Lord's word. As many men saw only the man side of Christ's life, as often God flashed through his human flesh, so many men to-day see only the human side of the Bible; but so does God flash through it. If any part of it is taken as man's word, why may not any other part of it be taken so? And if one man may take one part of the Bible as only man's writing, another man may take any or all other parts as the same, and we would thus have only a man-made Bible. In fact, if we set up our reason against the word, or any part of it, we have sat in judgment against God, and dared to dictate, in that thing, what he ought to have written and how. That is not faith, but unbelief; for faith takes it simply as it is said. Faith believes what the word says about the power of God, and opens the way for that power to work; and here, as we shall see, lies the secret of the subject before us. I have spoken thus of faith because the exercise of this opens the way for God to work in "healing," as also in every other thing, for the power to heal lies in the word. Prayer is the sincere desire of the soul breathed in the presence of a holy God. It is not a mechanical repetition of words, but the drawing of the cords of the heart to God. Faith cannot be separated from true prayer; and we had better not attempt to pray if we do not know that we are asking in harmony with God's will, or do not believe we receive what we ask. In relation to healing, prayer is only the expression to God of the faith we have that he will do the work. The "science" of the Bible is salvation through faith in Christ Jesus; also that the power of God as seen in creation is that used in redemption. Bible science is contrary and unreasonable to human reason, because human reason is so far perverted from God and its original in Adam. The wisdom of the world is foolishness with God, and the wisdom also of God is foolishness to the unconverted mind. So the only safe way for man to do is to let God declare a thing and then take it as declared, believe it, act upon it, and rejoice in it, even though it might seem unreasonable and even absurd to him. Bible "science" will kindle a fire in a bush and not consume it; will send men through the fire and not burn even their clothes—all of which is quite contrary to human reasoning and science. It will call "the things which be not as though they were."