368 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 1. 



tobacco was burned up. Mr. Imler was a 

 good business man. His promise to make a 

 public bonfire of his stock in trade, and re- 

 nounce the use of the traffic in tobacco for 

 ever was sufficient. Mr. Imler considered the 

 matter, perhaps as a drowning man catches at 

 a straw, and then he began to have faith.* 

 No doubt his good sense told him it was a 

 sensible thing for a professing Christian to do, 

 whether he got well or not. He gave the 

 promise; and, as you have already been told, 

 the cancer dropped out in the night. 



Now, at the same time his cancer dropped 

 out we are told in a general way that he lost 

 the appetite for both tobacco and morphine ; 

 but there was someting more than that I 

 found out in regard to this transaction that 

 was extremely interesting to me, inasmuch as 

 it strongly corroborates the truth of this most 

 remarkable occurrence. The night the can- 

 cer dropped out was one of acute and intense 

 suffering. He was almost crazed with pain. 

 He had to have watchers, as I take it, to pre- 

 vent him from getting away and procuring 

 morphine. At times he knew so little what 

 he was doing that he was hardly responsible. 



Now forgive me if I am guessing at some 

 parts of the matter. When he found his suf- 

 ferings from a lack of morphine almost un- 

 endurable, I think he went to Dr. Dowie 

 again — perhaps several times. Dr. Dowie 

 prayed for him as perhaps few men but him- 

 self could pray. Mr. Imler prayed also. The 

 night after the cancer was taken away he 

 slept soundly; and in the morning he said his 

 appetite for morphine was gone; and for more 

 than a year after this occurrence, as nearly as 

 I can gather, Mr. Imler was a walking and 

 talking evidence, not only that God coiitd but 

 that he would save us from the effects of our 

 sins. Mr. Imler was a new man. He had 

 really been born again, even in his old age ; 

 and he had got a very bright and vivid view 

 of God's kingdom and of his righteousness. 

 He was a new man in "righteousness and 

 true holiness." Many people laugh at this. 

 Why, one of the very best women in the world 

 (I will not tell you her name) told me she did 

 not believe it. I replied that this was no 

 story of a " seance " in a dark room. The 

 healing was in the presence of a great multi- 

 tude. It reminds me somewhat of the miracle 

 of the loaves and fishes. More than a thou- 

 sand people heard Mr. Imler speak, and hun- 

 dreds have listened to him since he got home. 

 Nobody who has taken pains to investigate 

 disputes the main facts in the case. I have 



* I can imagine that Imler's situation at this point 

 would remind one of that grand old hymn : 



Jesus, I my cross have taken, 

 All to leave and follow thee. 



Few of us can comprehend the cross that Mr. Imler 

 had to bear. Both tobacco and morphine had to be 

 broken off at one "swoop," and, furthermore, he 

 would have to go home and make that public bonfire. 

 People who felt sorry for him because he had gone 

 crazy would probably say as Judas did, "This two 

 hundred dollars' worth of tobacco might have been 

 sold, and the money given to the poor." Dear me ! 

 how thoughtful people are at times for the poor ! 

 They were going to start an open saloon here once in 

 Medina, and use the money that it would bring into 

 the town, to relieve the poor, fix up the streets, etc.! 



heard it intimated somewhere that physicians 

 explain a part of it by saying that tobacco 

 cancers do sometimes drop out. If a man 

 were to keep right on using tobacco "all the 

 same," I do not know whether they would 

 stay out or not. 



Now, I know this whole paper has very 

 much the appearance that I am putting in a 

 plea for Dr. Dowie, but I am not. God is no 

 respecter of persons. He is just as willing to 

 hear our prayers as Dr. Dowie's. The doctor, 

 after his long experience, has probably gained 

 a great amount of faith ; and, like any physi- 

 cian, his faith has a powerful influence over 

 the patient. Dr. Dowie himself never healed 

 any one. Nobody is more emphatic in this 

 statement than he himself. It is divine heal- 

 ing. If you would break away from your 

 sins, burn up your stock in trade of whatever 

 is harming your fellow-men; make restitution 

 to those whom you have wronged, as in the 

 case above, and then you have just as much 

 right to expect divine help as if you went to 

 the expense of taking a trip to Chicago. 

 Since what has appeared on this matter in 

 Gleanings, a poor helpless woman, the moth- 

 er of a large family in one of the extreme 

 western States, has been induced to take 

 Christ Jesus as her physician, and has been 

 wonderfully healed. 



Before closing let me give a word in regard 

 to having the appetite for tobacco and mor- 

 phine taken away. I have passed through an 

 experience in a similar line, as some of you 

 may know. An Oberlin professor once asked 

 me a number of questions in regard to the 

 matter. In my case the deliverance from 

 bondage came about something in this way : 

 When I was between 30 and 35, by staying 

 from the churches, and, in fact, staying with- 

 in a little narrow circle around my own home, 

 I had become selfish and narrow minded. 

 Very likely I am that way yet (but not so 

 much so). Well, I was either helpless in the 

 toils of Satan or I imagined I was. You may 

 put it either way you choose. But many men 

 commit suicide from the effect of just such 

 imaginings. I was helpless and lost, or 

 thought I was; and let me say once more it 

 amounts to pretty much the same thing either 

 way. I was letting my mind run on a trivial 

 and foolish matter; and, oh dear me! is it 

 not true that sin of all kinds is simply folly ? 

 When a man says he can not give up tobacco, 

 and that, after having gone without it a whole 

 year, he wanted it as bad the last day as he 

 did the first, he is simply making a fool of 

 himself, just as I made a fool of myself; and 

 may God forgive me for that wretched piece 

 of folly. 



Well, like poor brother Imler I appealed to 

 the great God above. I felt like saying as did 

 Peter, "Loid, save or I perish." Now, from 

 this point on my experience is unlike Mr. Im- 

 ler's. I was alone. No human being was 

 near. I knelt down in the darkness, and 

 there promised the Lord to give up every 

 thing, surrender every thing, change my busi- 

 ness, change my life, if he would only give 

 me back childhood's innocence and child- 

 hood's freedom from care and worry, or the 



