548 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



PHILOSOPHY. 



PRAYER FOR PHYSICAL HEALING. 



BY S. H. TROWBRIDGE. 



Was anything gained by praying for the restoration of President Garfield ? 

 Did not the disabilities resulting from the assassin's bullet, work out their results 

 in accordance with the laws of nature, and are not these laws immutable ? " Can 

 a man take fire into his bosom, and his clothes not be burned?" "Can one go 

 upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned?" Can one violate the laws of his 

 being and not suffer the legitimate consequences of his acts? "Whatsoever a 

 man soweth, that must he not also reap ? " 



God works by law in nature and in grace. He has ordained the laws of 

 nature as his own plan of controlling the material universe. We are satisfied that 

 he conforms strictly to these laws in all the physical phenomena which our minds 

 have, as yet, been able fully to understand. To more and more of these do we 

 find him thus to conform as science advances. Many events, which were once- 

 looked upon as miraculous, are now explained in this way to the satisfaction 

 alike of friends and foes of the Bible. Some events recorded in Scripture that we 

 are accustomed to consider genuine miracles, are accompanied in the record it- 

 self with a statement of the physical causes which are there distinctly said to have 

 produced them. Elijah is said to have been carried up from the earth in a whirl- 

 wind. And travelers tell us that severe whirlwinds, capable of carrying up 

 heavy bodies, often occur on the banks of the Jordan; caused by a severe gale as 

 it sweeps over the abrupt bluffs. The waters of the Red Sea, as we are told in 

 the Bible, were parted for the crossing of the Israelites by means of a " strong 

 east wind" that blew "all that night." And if it is true, as surveyors of the 

 Suez Canal route assert, that a bar or upheaved crest, a little beneath the water's 

 surface, marked their Hne of march across the sea, the friction of a strong wind, 

 would be sufficient to blow the water away and leave dry land for the passage of 

 the hosts of Israel. 



Clay, which is known to possess healing properties, was used by Christ in 

 opening the eyes of the blind man. I know that this and washing in the pool of 

 Siloam are said to be only helps to his faith ; but what harm is there in the sup- 

 position that Christ knew of the healing properties in the clay, and availed him- 

 self of them ? Much has been said, of late, about "faith cures," and, in rnany 

 cases, the proximate cause has been traced to the mere effect of the mind on the 

 body, or to the " expectant attention " of the patient to some supposed effective 

 remedy. And it is claimed that it makes no difference what the remedy is, or 



