real cause of the cure." Now it is notorious that by very far the greater part of "medical practitioners" are open and avowed infidels. Mr. Bell shewed, in his opening lecture at "the lecture bazaar," which miscalls itself the London University, that it was the natural tendency of the study of medical science to make men sceptics; and this honesty, we presume, is the cause, for we are utterly unable to assign any other, that that lecture is the only one delivered which has never been published: at least, we have repeatedly inquired for, but never been able to procure, it. The witnesses, therefore, whom the Christian Observer thinks the best to summon to give evidence as to the real cause of the cure," are those who are "far removed from superstition; that is, those who think, with the Editor, that "we must admit any solution rather than a miracle, which it appears to us quite unauthorized and unscriptural to expect." Now such witnesses Mr. Phillips will teach him are very good to bolster up a case. But the real witnesses required in this case are men full of the Holy Ghost, and of faith in the name of Jesus to do any thing for any one who asks him, as he has promised; men, in short, who believe God to be true, and who have experienced His truth: for the facts of the case were admitted at the outset to be unimpeachable. The "medical practitioners far removed from superstition" are not required to prove the facts, but the character of the facts; and to the character of the facts such witnesses are incompetent to bear testimony. The Pharisees in John ix. might have taken a hint here: they, poor ignorant men, went no further than to examine the parents, the Mr. and Mrs. Fancourt of the blind man the parents then, like the parents now, confirmed the testimony of their child; and there is no reason to believe that he was more than "twenty-five years of age," that age so peculiarly adapted, as the Christian Observer informs us, to "nervous excitement:" but if the doubters in the synagogue had but thought of referring the case to the Jerusalem college of physicians, the evidence would have no doubt seemed to them more conclusive. The blind man, however, would have been equally excommunicated, for maintaining, in spite of them all, as Miss Fancourt does, that his cure was effected by the power of Jesus. The only observations which we have seen in the Record that are not contemptible, are contained in the letter of Mr. Travers; and we subjoin it in a note*, because it expresses the true philosophy of

*"To the Editor of the Record.

"Sir,---The impression left upon my mind of Miss Fancourt's case, to which it appears the attention of the public has been so much directed, entirely bears out and confirms the view taken by yourself in the remarks contained in your paper of Thursday last. Although, as it appears by the narrative, I visited the young lady but twice, and as long ago as the winter of 1824, the directions which I am stated to have given enable me to say, decidedly, that no notion of

the case. What Mr. Travers says is all perfectly true; but still something is lacking. According to his opinion, a cure to be miraculous must be performed, not on merely functionary derangement, but on organic structure. If such be the case, then the cures of the woman who had the issue of blood, of the patients with fever, as well as of various others in the New Testament, fall to the ground as miraculous, and come merely under the class of nervous excitement. The argument of Mr. Travers will not square with that of the Christian Observer on metallic tractors and magnetism; for by this latter power "change of structure" has been restored, as well as diseased function. Since Mr. Travers's letter was written, Dr. Jarvis, who of all Miss F.'s medical attendants had most attentively examined her case, has

the existence of an organic disease had at that time entered my mind; and I am fully confirmed in this view of the case by information I have recently obtained from the usual medical attendant of the family. The facts of the case lie in a small compass, although its history involves a period of not less than eight years; and the question now raised about it may, I think, be easily disposed of. Not only is there no sign of a change of structure having ever taken place (for the marks of such a change are indelible), but there is not any passage in the narratives of Miss F. or her father, which admits of such a construction. If, then, the disease was one not permanently affecting, i. e. altering structure, it follows that it was chiefly, if not entirely, a disease of function; and the history of these cases may best be characterised, by saying that the symptoms fluctuate-are suspended and renewed in a manner so peculiar, both as regards the time and circumstances of these alternations, that they oftener get well spontaneously, and as it would seem, capriciously, than yield the surgeon any share of credit in their cure. Such cases are chronic, and, therefore, complicated; made up of constitutional and local symptoms. Mere duration, giving the force of habit to morbid actions, unfortunately predisposes other organs of the economy to similar deviations from the healthy condition; all the natural secretions, sensations, and sympathies, become more or less modified and vitiated. The ordinary effects of remedies are no longer to be calculated upon, and extraordinary agents, or extraordinary modes of employing those which are familiar, become requisite to bear upon the symptoms, if, indeed, they are open to the influence of any remedies within the suggestion of sober reason or experience. Since the nervous system is clearly the medium through which the only efficient remedies act, and since the phenomena of pain and impaired muscular power, not to mention the concomitant symptoms, all point to this system as principally implicated, a very slight acquaintance with physiology will make it obvious to the general reader, that the mind (such are the strong and innumerable links between mind and body) is often the surest road by which to conduct our artillery to the attack. A familiar illustration of this is furnished by the fact, that a cheerful mind not only powerfully resists, in many instances, the incursions of real disease, but when animated and elevated by hope and confidence, it often carries the patient in triumph over fearful odds, when the resources of medicine are exhausted. The injuriously depressing effect of an opposite state is so well known, that the experienced physician goes all lengths to anticipate or counteract it. Often has the predominance of the one or the other turned the trembling balance for or against us. "Treatment of an active kind, local or constitutional, where the complaint is of this character, by irritating and further depressing the power of the system, is often positively injurious, and operates greatly to retard recovery. In stating this, as the result of my experience of very many cases, I beg that I may not

positively asserted that her disease was "not functional" but organic," as evidenced by curvature of the spine.

The Christian Observer says that this lady "had long believed in Christ for the salvation of her soul, and this was true faith; but the belief that he would exercise a miraculous cure upon her body we consider to have been an impression not authorized by Scripture; wholly inconsistent with the present dispensation of the church; unreasonable; a mere imagination; having nothing whatever to do with religion, though in this particular instance, as perhaps in some of the Scotch miracles, entertained by a religious person." Faith in Christ for one object is as much true faith, as faith in Christ for any other object. Faith is faith, in short; and the epithet true, as applied to it, is absurd:

be supposed to convey more than my individual opinion; and that I do so without reference to the views adopted, and practice pursued, in the case before us.

“I have been tempted to premise thus much to render my explanation of the result in Miss Fancourt's case intelligible to the general reader.

“A volume, and not an uninteresting one, might be compiled of histories resembling Miss F.'s, in which the mind itself at length participates in the morbid state which has gradually spread itself over the outworks of the citadel. It exhibits very multifarious conditions, often opposed to those of health, but much determined by the natural temperament, circumstances, and habits of the party. The truth is, these are the cases upon which, beyond all others, the empiric thrives. Credulity, the foible of a weakenened though vivacious intellect, is the pioneer of an unqualified and overweening confidence; and thus prepared, the patient is in the most hopeful state for the credit, as well as the craft, of the pretender. This, however, I mention only by the way for the sake of illustration. I need not exemplify the sudden and remarkable effects of joy, terror, anger, and other passions of the mind, upon the nervous system of confirmed invalids, in restoring to them the use of weakened limbs, &c. They are as much matters of notoriety as any of the properties and powers of direct remedial agents recorded in the history of medicine. To cite one: A case lately fell under my notice, of a young lady, who, from inability to stand. or walk without acute pain in her loins, lay for near a twelvemonth upon her couch, subjected to a variety of treatment by approved and not inexperienced members of the profession. A single visit from a surgeon of great fame in the management of intractable cases, set the patient upon her feet, and his prescription amounted simply to an assurance, in the most confident terms, that she must disregard the pain, and that nothing else was required for her recovery, adding, that if she did not do so, she would become an incurable cripple. She followed his direction immediately, and with perfect success. But such and similar examples every medical man of experience could contribute in partial confirmation of the old adage, "Foi est tout." Of all moral engines, I conceive that faith which is inspired by a religious creed, to be the most powerful; and Miss Fancourt's case, there can be no doubt, was one of many instances of sudden recovery from a passive form of nervous ailment, brought about by the powerful excitement of this extraordinary stimulus, compared to which, in her predisposed frame of mind, ainmonia and quinine would have been mere trifling. "I am, Sir, your most obedient servant,

"Bruton-street, Berkeley-square, Dec. 11, 1830."

B. TRAVERS,"

it may be reposed on a person unworthy of it; or on a promise supposed to have been given, but which has not really been given in these cases the object on which faith is exercised is wrong; but the faith is just as true as if the object were never so worthy. Faith in Christ for one purpose does not necessarily include faith in him for another purpose, as the Editor of the Christian Observer himself evinces. He has faith in Christ as a Saviour of men's souls, but no faith whatever in him as a Saviour of men's bodies, or, as far as appears to the contrary, for any other purpose. This faith is the very first act of the Christian life; it is like the birth of a child, which then first begins to have its lungs inflated with air instead of having its life sustained by another process. This faith is the faith of the newborn babe in Christ, and nothing more: and this Christian babyhood is just the state of the Evangelical world, and which they entirely mistake for Christian manhood. This is the very point that constitutes the Evangelicals mere "theological babes." And it is because Miss Fancourt and Mr. Greaves have attained to a higher degree of faith; have more nearly approached the perfect stature of Christ; are no longer babes, but grown-up Christians; that this whole proceeding is as utterly unintelligible to the religious world as any miracle can possibly be to men's

senses.

But we are told that there is something peculiar in the present dispensation of the church inconsistent with miraculous agency being manifested in the children of God. It is confessed on both sides that God has visibly displayed himself in acts contrary to the ordinary course of men's observations-that is, contrary to the course of nature-from the days of Adam down to the times of the Apostles; yet in no one of the former dispensations, whether to the Antediluvians, to the Patriarchs, to the house of Judah, to the house of Israel, or to the inhabitants of Jerusalem after the captivity, did God ever promise miraculous power to be resident in his church, although it was frequently displayed. To the church in the present dispensation, however, God did make such promise: he fulfilled his promise at the beginning of the dispensation: his church then confessedly exercised the power-(it was so common, and diffused so widely, that men abused it, as they always do God's best and most common gifts, 1 Cor. xii.-xiv.; and an inspired Apostle was instructed specially to rebuke them for that abuse, and to direct them how to regulate the use): there is not the remotest hint of such power being ever withdrawn: and yet the Religious World proclaims that it is this identical "present dispensation of the church" with which the exercise of miraculous power is peculiarly inconsistent!!!

So perfect does the Christian Observer deem the parallel of the loadstone, that he again cites it: "We cannot invent

an hypothesis to solve many things which no person accounts supernatural; and there seems to us quite as close a connection between a mental impression and bodily healing, as between touching a bar of iron with a loadstone and pointing to the north.' Faith is a mental impression: and if the Editor means that he really knows the rationale, or why, of any process whatever, we beg leave respectfully to assure him that he knows no such thing. A cow eats madder, and the bones of the calf that sucks her are red. We ask the learned Editor, Why? He gives us an erudite answer about absorbents and lacteals, &c. We return with our unsatisfied, Why? He then tells us about digestion. Once more we inquire, Why does food digest? Now he has recourse to a gastric fluid. Still we follow him up with our Why, till he is driven to confess that he has arrived at a point at which he is in total darkness. It is thus that halfinformed men ring the changes upon sounds without reflecting that they convey no ideas; and that the only answer to any why? is, that we have seen such a cause produce such an effect before, and therefore anticipate that it will do so again. But can he so predicate of every sick lady whom Mr. Greaves may visit? He knows he cannot: he knows that we could send him, and all the Evangelical clergy in London, to any number of ladies labouring under "nervous excitement," and defy them to cure a single individual.

It is truly awful to hear an organ of the Religious World maintain that we must admit any solution rather than a miracle.” God has promised to answer prayer made in the name of his Son. A prayer in the name of the Son is offered; and we must believe any thing in the world rather than that God has kept his word. We ask Mr. Greaves, how did you cure this lady? he replies, "Why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this lady to walk? the Prince of Life, his name, through faith in his name, has made this lady strong, whom ye see and know." We ask the lady herself how she became cured? she replies, By faith in the name of Jesus of Nazareth." Yet we are to believe any solution whatever rather than that Jesus has done this great deed!! "Their device is only how to put him out, whom God will exalt." From the beginning to the end of the comment there is not one observation essentially Christian, unless that purely Deistical remark can be called so, that they do not dispute that God could work a miracle if He pleased.

The Editor says, "It is almost in vain to reason against a belief in prodigies, where they are once firmly credited; for the idiosyncrasy which disposes the mind to admit them usually prevents the belief being expelled by the force of mere reasoning. It is easier to a person thus predisposed to believe a miracle, than either to admit a possible solution, or to keep the mind free