"Yes; it seems so to me. Do you believe that man--Peter, I
believe, was his name--performed that cure instantaneously, as
related?"
"No; but God did, working through him," said Katherine.
"You firmly believe that such an incident really occurred?"
"I certainly do."
"And you just as firmly believe that such healing can be done
now?"
The girl lifted a quick, searching look to her companion, half
expecting to see the skeptical curl, which she so well remembered,
wreathing his mobile lips.
But, instead, she found herself looking into a pair of grave,
earnest blue eyes, and there was no sign of levity or derision in
the fine face.
"Yes, it has been done many times during the last thirty years,"
she quietly replied.
"Do you speak from actual knowledge or only from hearsay?"
"Both. I know of two cases, and my mother could tell you of
several others."
"Do you believe that Dorothy could be healed? made straight and
well?"
"Oh, Dr. Stanley!" Katherine breathed, with luminous eyes. "Yes,
indeed! yes. Will they try the Science for her? Oh! how I have
yearned to have that dear child made whole!"
Her face was so radiant with hope, yet so softly tender and so
beautiful, the physician was deeply moved.
"I cannot say as to that," he replied. "But will you tell me, Miss
Minturn, what, in your method, heals the sick?"
"God--the power that created the universe and holds it in His
grasp, who 'spake and it was done.'"
"Ah! but that is so vague, so intangible, I cannot comprehend your
meaning," said the man, with an impatient shrug of his broad
shoulders. "I do not doubt the existence of God," he continued,
"nor His omnipotence, for I believe that the Creator must have all
power over His own creation. But how--how can suffering humanity
avail itself of that power? If I could grasp that--if I were sure
it could be done by a really scientific process, I would never
again prescribe a drug or touch a surgical instrument."
He spoke with evident emotion, almost passionately, for they could
hear Dorothy sobbing, from the returning pain, in the other room,
and, with all his learning and experience, the man had a heart-
sickening sense of discouragement in view of his own and others'
helplessness to cope with that demon of torture which was surely
destroying his niece and, indirectly, wearing to a shadow his only
sister.
"You say you believe in God--that you do not doubt His power; but
is that statement of your attitude quite true, Dr. Stanley?"
Katherine gently inquired. "If you really believed it, if all who
claim that they have faith in an omnipotent God really believed
it, would you or they ever assume that drugs or surgical
instruments were needed to assist God to do His work?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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