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Godless Faith Healing

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 4, 1912

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 89, No. 27.

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Godless Faith Healing

By G. D. Ballou

THE ninth chapter of John contains the account of the healing of a man who had been born blind. In the thirty-fifth and thirty-sixth verses we notice a most remarkable phase of human credulity. Jesus had found the man after he had been cast out, and inquired of him, "Dost thou believe on the Son of God?" The answer came quickly, "Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him?" Here is a most eager readiness manifested to believe on anybody or in anything about whom his healer might tell him.
That characteristic in human nature is being exploited to-day by those who are working the law of rest to heal the sick. It is called Christian metaphysics or some such name. By playing upon the credulity of the healed ones, their adherence to the new doctrine is secured.
The extent to which these methods are employed was emphasized in an article in a popular magazine recently, in which it was shown that about a score of systems of mind-cure in the United States are exploiting, or attempting for money to exploit, devout, credulous humanity with their assured divine method of healing. The article was well-entitled "Trading in the Holy Spirit."
A large proportion of human ills is due to such adverse mental causes as doubt, fear, hatred, anger, wrath, evil surmising, envy, jealousy, malice, worry, care, anxiety, sorrow, despair, and mental agony. These wear out and exhaust the energies of the body, and it becomes a prey to a multitude of diseases that can be produced in no other way. Different organs fail in their functions because there is not energy enough left in the body to carry on its work properly. These adverse mental causes tend to produce anything but peace, rest, and life.
Now it is self-evident that if want of peace and rest will produce sickness and disease, any means that is conducive to peace and rest may be used with more or less success in the treatment of such diseases. Human assurances that bring confidence, hope, and courage will be sure to work curatively in these cases. Anything that humanity can conjure up to change mental moods and conditions will help, but all partial remedies can bring only partial healing. He who would have the highest success must surely appreciate the truth that the law of rest in its fulness should be applied by coming in right relation with the Author of life himself.
The blessed assurances of his Word are all-sufficient. This Word is the encyclopedia of assurance and comforting promises: "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Matt. 11:28-30. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee." Isa. 26:3. "Lord, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us." Verse 12. "Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass." Ps. 37:5. "Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you." 1 Peter 5:7. "I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the Lord; and I will heal him." Isa. 57:19. "O that thou hadst harkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea." Isa. 48:18. "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Rom. 5:1. This latter scripture furnishes the key to this whole question of peace and rest.
He who studies carefully these expressions we have quoted will be led far on the way toward confidence in God; and when the state of complete trust is reached, the man will have developed a love for God and his ways that will wean him from his own ways. This will bring forgiveness, full and free, and "perfect peace," or "the peace of God, which passeth all understanding." Phil. 4:7.
Such a state of mind may be enjoyed by every Christian, and this peace and the rest that accompanies it are the antidotes for every adverse mental poison. Hence this peace and rest are the cure for every malady due to adverse mental cause, except where the danger is so great that nature alone can not restore. Here is the heaven-sent remedy for earthly ills, so infinitely valuable, and yet so little appreciated. How few indeed have learned to "rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him." And here is where the godless systems of healing come in with human assurances and the workings of natural law, and produce a measure of natural mental peace and rest, and bring about a certain degree of healing, which in many cases seems very remarkable because no visible means are used to accomplish the results.
Systems of mental diversion of varying value are employed. Curiosity, expectation, and even occultism are made to serve the purpose of changing the mind from its old moods. Hope and cheerfulness are brought in through the abundant promises of cure, and many times bed-ridden invalids or those who have been prostrated by grief, disappointment, or anxiety, are made to forget their troubles, just through the human application of the natural law of rest. Music and mirthfulness may be used successfully, and in many cases the body rallies from its illness, and health returns.
The system of denial used by Christian Science interprets the Bible until it means all the way from nothing up to just the opposite of what it says, and denies the evidence of the senses and the validity of all the natural physical laws of life, until a muddled fascination seizes upon the fervent disciple, which ends in a state of mind so like the ancient enchantment that it is impossible to discern the difference. Of course, all the old frets and worries and anxieties and many of the other adverse mental conditions must be dissipated by such a complete revolution in the mind. The fear of a future judgment, which robs many a soul of all peace and comfort, is swept into the land of oblivion through the wonderful power of this new philosophy. How can the body help rallying when the burdens are removed that have cost it so much vital energy?
If this system were miraculous, as its advocates claim, why should they not conquer all disease? But they miserably fail when they step beyond the limits of simple mind-cure. Mental causes can suddenly prostrate the human body, and mental causes can suddenly remove the burdens and liberate the nervous system from its unnecessary load, and thus let the body go free from what seemed a serious disease. Of course, Christian Science denies all physical causation and the existence of disease. Diseases are only "errors of mortal mind," "old beliefs" which must pass away when attacked by this amplified system of negation. The things which cause unrest Christian Scientists attempt to sweep away with their great bosom of denial. They succeed quite well with a large share of ailments resulting from mental causes; but they are helpless in their failures to relieve blood-poisoning, and severe difficulties due to other than mental cause. They account for their lack of success on the ground that the patient failed to grasp the principles of healing.
It may be possible to get up enough excitement to cause one to forget a toothache for a time, or the pain of a bee sting; perhaps the cry, "The house is on fire!" would do it. But no amount of mental philosophy can divert the physical system from the consciousness that a cancer is gnawing at the vitals, or that blood-poison is raging through the system.
(To be concluded)