The Healing of the Narrator's Baby through Faith and Consecrated Oil

“I laid the Bible in my rocking chair and went to look at baby. He was still awake, and round-eyed, making no sound. With great difficulty I suppressed my screams and rushing back into the light, threw myself on my knees and sobbed, trying hard to get mastery of myself, and fearing hysterics. I clutched the Bible hard with both hands. I must read or do something to get control of myself; so I opened the Bible, but could not see a word! The words, ‘O Lord, what shall I do?’ kept running through my mind. I knew I was fast losing control of my nerves, so I bowed my head on the chair for some time, clutching the Bible. And in desperation, I cried aloud, ‘O Lord, O Lord—O Lord, tell me what to do.’ I raised my head and looked at the book in my hands, not expecting an answer in it, yet the first words I saw were these, ‘Have faith in God!’ (Mark 11:22.) The words seemed to stand out in letters of fire. I read them over and over. ‘Have faith in God!’ I had been praying, but I had not had faith. I had been looking at the doctor’s verdict, not at God’s power. I stood up, and a great calm came over me. I felt as though a heavy weight had been lifted from my heart. I determined to rub the oil on baby’s head, which I did, rubbing it in thoroughly. Then I knelt and prayed. I never doubted, but that baby would be all right. It never occurred to me that he might not. I was so sure! When I raised my head he was asleep! He slept for three hours, and when he awoke he was hungry, and from that hour he began to mend. He never had another dose of medicine, and he is today a strong, healthy boy.”

— Unnamed mother, The Young Woman's Journal