That the conviction is growing among many earnest thinkers in the American pulpit, that healing clearly belongs to religion, is to be seen on every hand. The following strong words were recently spoken at the dedication of the Brockton, Massachusetts, Congregational Church, by Rev. Lyman Abbott, D.D., editor of the Outlook, and Henry Ward Beecher's successor in the Plymouth Church of Brooklyn, New York.
That the spirit of Jehovah was upon Jesus was the secret of His power. His mission was going about, healing the sick, giving necessities to the poor, binding up the brokenhearted, and giving encouragement to those who were downhearted. He did not say, 'I have come to found a church.' He does not say that He has come to propound a creed. It is the tendency here to call a creedless person not a Christian, and a creedless church no church at all. He does not say, 'I have come to found a religion.'
"He furnished not a creed, not a ritual, not a church order. He taught them by His works what is the measure of a church. He did not found a church. The church did not exist till after His death. He went about doing good.
