Article May 11, 1912 Issue

The recent controversy over the merits and demerits of...

Ernest Stewart

Portland (Ore.) Oregonian

The recent controversy over the merits and demerits of healing, engendered by sermons from a local pulpit, would perhaps not justify any further comment, as it has been profitably considered in communications and editorials from many angles.

One phase of it might be capable of a little elucidation, however. In an endeavor to fulfil Christ's undisputed commands, one church heals the sick with noticeable success, notwithstanding many other churches denounce the practice and emphatically aver it is not of Christ. If healing is not of Christ, could it not with equal propriety be asserted that the characteristic present-day sermons are likewise not of Christ? People used to go hungry for a couple of days or so and walk miles and miles to hear Christ's sermons. What proportion of the modern church-goers would "pass up" a single meal, or walk a single mile, to hear their modern pastors decry the alleged unchristian methods of a sister church? The average reader will draw his own inferences as to how this kind of question would be answered. With an equally forceful trend of reasoning, then, should we not place in the same category with those who "do not heal as Christ did," sermons such as are incapable of attracting under conditions parallel to those delivered by Christ Jesus; in other words, sermons not preached as Christ preached them?

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