While hearing Mr. Upcraft speak of the thousands and thousands who appeal to the missionaries in China for healing, we could not but ask, "Why may we not expect that the gift of healing will be bestowed upon the missionary?" The missionaries stand in the attitude of the early prophets and the apostles and other preachers of a pure religion as opposed to idolatry. All these recognized the demand which was made upon them for an evidence of the divine origin of their message. Our Lord repeatedly appealed to his works: "If ye believe not me, believe the works." "The works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me." And there is an unexplored significance in his words: "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do." It is for those who limit God's wonderful promises to the apostolic times to prove that this limitation is warranted.
And is it out of the question that, when the Lord sees his missionaries longing for the salvation of millions, whose strange tongue the missionaries cannot speak, he will give a supernatural gift of speech which shall at once convey the Gospel to these darkened souls, and shall evidence to them its divineness?
We take the liberty of copying the above editorial from the National Baptist, of Philadelphia. The reasoning is sound, so far as it goes, and we heartily endorse it; but it stops sadly short. Why limit God's healing power to the missionaries referred to? That is doing just what our good friend declares should not be done when he says: "It is for those who limit God's wonderful promises to apostolic times, to prove that this limitation is warranted." We call upon our friend for his proof. Where is the warrant for confining, or attempting to confine God's healing power to the missionaries who are sent to convert the heathen of the east? Might it not be well for our friend to consider seriously the question whether or not, in the sense, that all people need healing, all are heathen, and whether all who accept the promises may not become missionaries? Why should so invidious a distinction be made against all other people, that they must be remitted to the miserable healing agency of poisonous drugs, or other poor human power, while the "heathen" shall have conferred upon them the rich benefits of the divine power to heal? Is not this as extraordinary and unwarranted a "limitation "as we could well conjure up If our good friend will extend his reasoning a little further, and accept the repeated Scriptural declarations that sin is the cause of sickness, he will see at once that the only true missionaries are they who seek to remove the cause of sickness by destroying the sin, and that therefore every sinner is in that sense, a heathen and in need of conversion. Verily, as to the mind of our friend as well as many others, there is an "unexplored "significance in Jesus' words. Until they are more thoroughly explored the mistaken notions of what constitutes a heathen and a missionary will continue.
