LEPROSY HEALED.
No. 9 GUARDIAN STREET, SPRINGFIELD LANE,
SALFORD, May 19, 1849.
Last winter, a young woman addressed me in the Carpenter's Hall, the daughter of a fustian cutter, named Lee, residing in Cook Street, Salford, and said her parents were desirous that I should go and see her brother, who was very bad with a leprosy. I went in company with one or two of my brethren. I think I never saw anything so bad as the boy was (the small pox excepted); the whole lower part of his face and under his chin, as well as the back of his hands and wrists, were one entire mass of scabs; indeed, you could not have inserted a needle point, they were so thick. He was eight and a half years of age, and had been afflicted since he was six months old; they had him at the Manchester Infirmary and the Salford Dispensary, and are at this time paying the surgeon's bill who attended him as a private patient. The surgeon told his parents he could do nothing for him, as the disease was too virulent for medicine to reach it. His parents told me they did not know what it was to get a regular night's rest with him, and it frequently took three hours to wash him. The first night we went they were not disturbed during the night, and in three weeks he was entirely free, and his flesh was renewed like that of a young child.
JOHN WATTS.
To all whom it may concern. This is to certify, that I was seized with a disease like the leprosy, in the year 1837, and tried all that I could to get a cure, but I could not, and all the doctors that I applied to could do me no good; and it continued with me over all my body till the month of September, 1843, when I went and was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, by William McFarland, Elder of the church, on the first of September, 1843, and on that same night the leprosy left me.
JENET RIDD.
Witnesses,
WILLIAM McFARLAND,
JAMES CRYSTAL,
ALEXANDER RIDD.[[12]]
The instances of what are usually called miraculous cases of healing in the church are by no means confined to the past, they take place today and are of frequent occurrence. By permission of Elder Heber J. Grant, one of the Twelve Apostles, I give herewith a letter of his written to his cousin, Mrs. Julia MacDonald, living in St. George, Utah, that relates a case of quite recent date.
TOOELE CITY, April 28th, 1894.
MY DEAR COUSIN JULIA:—I am half inclined to the opinion that you will be thinking that I have entirely forgotten the promise which I made you, some time ago, to write about the case of healing, that came under my observation in connection with my brother Hyrum. I have not forgotten the promise, but I have been pretty busy with my usual duties, and the conference matters which needed attention before and since April 6th.
* * I will, to the best of my ability, now redeem my promise about giving an account of the young lady healed by the Lord. Some years ago, as nearly as I can now recall it is about seven or eight years, my brother Hyrum was living in Salt Lake City, he had charge of the business of Grant Brothers' Livery Co. The employees of the Z. C. M. I. shoe factory arranged with our company to carry them to Calder's Farm to spend the day. Just before dark it looked quite like a storm, or commenced storming, I do not now recall which. My brother, who had driven one of the large drags down to Calder's, called the party together, and told them he felt that it was the proper thing to start for the city before it was dark, for fear of an accident on State Road. The people declined to start for the city, and Hyrum then and there warned them that he was not to be responsible for any accident that might happen.
Coming from Calder's in the rain and dark, the drag driven by my brother was turned over, and one young lady had some bones broken, and in addition being so badly exposed, she took cold and the result was pneumonia. She got very low and the doctors had a consultation and decided it was an impossibility for her to recover. Hyrum felt very bad indeed when he learned her condition and that the doctors had said that the young lady could not live more than two days, and that they did not think she would live more than twenty-four hours. He came to see me and said that he had had a testimony that in case he and I would go and administer to the young lady she would get well. I was pleased to go with him, but when I got to the house where she lived I looked at her and felt that she was dying, and told my brother that I did not think there was any use of blessing her, but he turned and said, "Did I not tell you that I had had a testimony that if we would bless her that she would get well?" I felt ashamed of my refusal to bless the girl, and we then administered to her, and, while I had my hands on her head, I got a testimony that she would recover. I met Brother Wm. H. Rowe, [manager of the shoe factory] soon after I left the young lady's home, and he was feeling very badly, and told me that she was going to die. I then assured him that he need have no fears, as I had been blessed of the Lord with a testimony that she would recover, and I then explained to him what my brother had told me, and of our visit to the home of the sick sister. The next morning the doctor in attendance upon her called at the livery stables and told my brother that there was a wonderful change in the girl's condition, and that he could not possibly account for the improvement, and that he now had hopes of her recovery. My brother informed the doctor that he had no difficulty in accounting for the change, and he then told him of our visit. He, the doctor, did not have any faith that our visit had anything to do with the improvement in the sister's condition, notwithstanding the fact that he had admitted that he could not account for her improvement.
The girl recovered, and the last I heard of her she was still working in the Z. C. M. I. Shoe Factory. I have a faint recollection that I was told that she was married, but of this I would not be sure. I have never seen her since I called with Hyrum at her house, and I do not know whether or not her family ever knew that she was given up to die by the doctors. I think the sister's name was Maria DeGray, but in case you wish to use her name I will make sure that this is correct. With love and best wishes to each and all of the folks, not forgetting yourself, I remain,
Your affectionate cousin,
HEBER J. GRANT.
The following account of a case of healing is taken from the Juvenile Instructor, one of the leading periodicals of the church, the pages of which are replete with such accounts of healing by the power of God as is here presented:
HEALED OF BLINDNESS.
As near as I can remember, it was in the month of June, 1879, that I was engaged in building a rock cellar for Vernee Halliday, in Provo City. About noon, after finishing the walls as high as I could from the inside, before drawing my lines off to go outside, I looked along the wall to see if every rock was in keeping with the line, when I saw a small corner of a rock a little out of place. With my hammer I tapped it very lightly to bring it to its proper position, keeping my eye along the line to see when it came to its place. While doing this I felt as if something had touched my eye, but nothing to cause me any uneasiness. At the time I did not think more of the affair.
I worked all the afternoon and the next forenoon, but felt my eye beginning to get very hot, and water came therefrom. In the afternoon my eye became worse, and was inflamed to such an extent that I could not see; my head also became so affected that about four o'clock I was obliged to cease work and go home. Arriving there my wife, seeing my eye in such an inflamed condition, got me into a dark room, and from that time till very early the next morning she used about two packets of tea in making strong lotions to bathe my eye to keep down the inflammation. At four o'clock in the morning I got a handkerchief on my eye, and went away to arouse Dr. W. R. Pike. When I arrived at his house he was attending a man from Payson. This done, he asked me what he could do for me. I told him of the inflammation of my eye and the pain in my head, and said I wanted him to examine it and see what was the matter with it, or to tell the cause of my suffering. After examining my eye he said there was one-third of the lens of my eye entirely destroyed. The center of the lens was gone and only a little on each edge remained. He said it had been struck with something rough like a rock, and that I would never see again with that eye. He described the transparency of the eye, and assured me that it could not by nature be restored. He said it was likely to take away the use of my other eye at any time, and that a white opaque substance would grow over my eye so that I could never see any more.
After leaving his office, I met on the street a Mr. Harrison, who had formerly lived in Salt Lake City. He told me of Dr. Pratt, who had just returned to Salt Lake from the East, where she had been studying the eye, and had done a great deal of good. I therefore went the same day to see her, but had then to be led by my wife. When we arrived in Salt Lake it was too late for her to do anything with my eye that day, and she told us to come back the following morning at ten o'clock. We did so, and after hearing my story she examined my injured member by the aid of many glasses, and told me the same as Dr. W. R. Pike had done. She allowed my wife to look through the glass at my eye, and she described its appearance as that of a wound from which a dog had bitten a piece. Dr. Pratt then took me by my front hair, and pushing my head back, was about to take my eye out. I inquired what she was about to do, and she answered me that she was going to take it out and put in a glass one.
My wife seized her arm, and I scrambled out of the chair saying, "No you don't, or you will shoot me first."
I then asked if she could give me a lotion to check the pain. She took a small vial and put one drop of its contents in my eye, which immediately took away all pain. She then gave me a prescription, which I had filled, and then went home.
Just as both doctors had said, the opaque matter gradually grew on my eye for three or four weeks, at the end of which time I could not distinguish my own wife standing so that her dress touched my clothes, unless she spoke. Up to this time I had not been able to work, and I was getting dissatisfied.
About that time the quarterly conference took place in Provo. On the Sunday morning I found my way to conference, still with the napkin on my eye. There were present of the general authorities, Presidents George Q. Cannon and Joseph F. Smith and Apostle John Henry Smith. During the morning meeting I made up my mind to have them administer to me for my sight, and at the close of the services I went to the vestry where they were attending to this ordinance for many who were there before me. When I entered Brothers Joseph F. and John Henry Smith came and shook hands with me, enquiring what was the matter, and what I wanted them to do. They introduced me to Brother George Q. Cannon, whom I had never before known. I knew the Brothers Smith in the old country. I was told to take a seat, and when they had attended to the rest they would administer to me, and that I would get my sight. After they got through with the others they came to me. I cannot now call to mind who anointed, or who confirmed it, but this I do know that from that very hour the white, opaque matter that had gradually grown over my eye as gradually began to disappear, until my eyesight was completely restored and has remained to this date as perfect as it ever has been. To this fact myself and family, and others yet living in Provo can testify.
While suffering with this affliction I reasoned that as God made the eye He also knew how to repair and restore a damaged one, and I testify to all to whom this may come that He did restore sight to the blind one.
ROBERT McKINLEY.[[13]]
Let me assure the reader that these cases of healing the sick, opening the eyes of the blind, unstopping the ears of the deaf, etc., are but as a handful of earth to a mountain. It would require volumes to contain the testimonies of the Saints to the fulfillment of the promises of the Lord made through the great modern prophet; but what is set down in this chapter will doubtless be sufficient to prove the fulfillment of his promises. The church has taken little or no pains to publish accounts of "miracles." But the fact that more than sixty years after these promises of the gifts of healing, etc., were made to the church, the chief reliance of the Saints in times of sickness is upon the anointing with oil and the laying on of hands by the Elders—and this throughout all the branches of the church—it must be evident even to the most skeptical that the promises of Jesus Christ through Joseph Smith have been realized, or else long ago the faith of the firmest would have failed them.