Healing through Christian Science : discourses and editorials / by Septimus J. Hanna.

  • Hanna, Septimus J. (Septimus James), 1844-1921.
Date:
1898
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Healing through Christian Science : discourses and editorials / by Septimus J. Hanna. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    unwilling and distressed, and before your very eyes put to an open shame.* In his Address to Scapula he says:— The clerk of one of them who was liable to be thrown upon the ground by an evil spirit was set free from his affliction; as was also the relative of another, and the little boy of a third. How many men of rank (to say nothing of common people) have been delivered from devils, and healed of diseases! Even Severus him- self, the father of Antonine, was graciously mindful of the Chris- tians; for he sought out the Christian Proculus, surnamed Tor- pacion, the steward of Euhodias, and in gratitude for his having once cured him by anointing, he kept him in his palace till the day of his death. Antonine, too, brought up as he was on Christian milk, was intimately acquainted with this man. Both women and meu of highest rank, whom Severus knew well to be Christians, were not merely permitted by him to remain uninjured; but he even bore distinguished testimony in their favor, and gave them publicly back to us from the hands of a raging populace. Marcus Aurelius also, in his expedition to Germany, by the prayers his Christian soldiers offered to God, got rain in that well-known thirst. When, indeed, have not droughts been put away by our kneelings and our fastings? At times like these, moreover, the people crying to the God of gods, the alone Omnipotent, under the name of Jupiter, have borne witness to our God. Then we never deny the deposit placed in our hands; we never pollute the marriage bed; we deal faithfully with our wards; we give aid to the needy; we render to none evil for evil. As for those who falsely pretend to belong to us, and whom we, too, repudiate, let them answer for themselves. In a word, who has complaint to make against us on other grounds? To what else does the Christian devote himself, save the affairs of his own community, which during all the long period of its existence no one has ever proved guilty of the incest or the cruelty charged against it? It is for freedom from crime so singular, for a probity so great, for righteousness, for purity, for faithfulness, for Truth, for the living God, that we are consigned to the flames; for this is a punishment you are not wont to inflict either on the sacrilegious, or on undoubted public enemies, or on the treason-tainted, of whom you have so many.t * Apology, Vol. iii.. chap, xxiii., p. 38. t Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. Hi., p. 107.