A New Friend With the Gift of Healing
By Calvin Miller, Birmingham, AL
Note: This fourth chapter from The First Letter of Eusebius of Philippi to his Beloved Friend Clement, is (supposedly) a long-lost second-century manuscript discovered by archeologist Dr. Helmut Niedegger and translated from ancient Greek scrolls.
1. Shortly after my arrival in the city I made another new friend, Helen of Hierapolis. She is a dynamic love of people, and is so bound up in her love for Christ, that she walks in an aura of esteem.
2. I am not usually so taken with traveling healers.
3. You will remember my disaffection for Hiram the Healer of the Hellespont who claimed instant health for all who would in faith touch his sequined toga.
4. He lost much of his following in West Asia because he couldn’t get relief from a toothache.
5. But Helen is different. She came to Philippi with a conviction that God loves the suffering and she determined to participate with God in this love. 6. I met her near the synagogue when she was talking to a group of blind beggars, I was surprised when she didn’t even try to heal them, but bought each of them a new cane and reminded them that the curbs on Caesar’s Boulevard were especially high. 7. She reminded them that they should be especially careful because it is so hard to hear a chariot coming down an unpaved road. 8. “Someday,” she told them as we walked away, “light will be universal, and every eye will behold eternal love.”
9. They didn’t feel as though she had cheated them. 10. She is not much of a show woman, I’m afraid. She just mixes with humanity in order to take divinity as far as it will go. 11. I am the richer to know her.
12. Sister Helen opened a great crusade in Philippi on Thursday, and is the sensation of the leper colony. 13. She rarely does anything one could call a miracle. 14. Last week she laid hands on a little crippled boy and was not able to heal him, but she gave him a new pair of crutches and promised to take him for a walk in the park here in Philippi.
15. Yesterday with my own eyes I saw her pass an amputee selling styluses. She touched his legs and cried, “Grow back! Grow back! . . . In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, grow back!”
16. Well, Clement, I so wanted to see the legs grow back, but they did not. Poor Helen. What’s a faith healer to do with an amputee that refuses to grow legs on command?
17. She sat down with the little man, crossed her legs on the cold pavement, and began selling styluses herself. 18. Soon she was talking to him, and before very long they were both laughing together. For an hour they laughed together, and by nightfall they were having an uproariously good time.
19. When it was time to go, Helen’s legs were so stiff from disuse, they refused to move.
20. Her legless, stylus-selling friend cried in jest, “Grow strong! . . . Grow strong! . . . Grow strong!” Helen only smiled and staggered upward on her unsteady legs.
21. She looked down at her lowly friend and said, “I offer you healing, you will see. It is only one world away. Someday . . . ,” she stopped and smiled, “you will enter a new life and you will hear our Savior say to your legless stumps, ‘Grow long! . . . Grow long!’ Then you will know that glory which Sister Helen only dreamed for you.”
22. He smiled and said, “Do you heal everyone this way?”
23. “It is better to heal with promises than to promise healing.”
24. “You are right, Sister Helen. But more than right, you are an evidence that our Father yet heals the spirit of amputees—even when they will not grow legs. And, once the spirit is healed, the legs can be done without.”
25. Helen turned and walked on down the street. She was near the amphitheater where she holds her great crusade when she saw a young girl without any arms.
26. “Grow long! . . . Grow long! . . . In the glorious name of Jesus Christ, grow long!” she cried.
27. The girl looked puzzled and looked at her shoulders where her arms refused to be. They did not seem to her to be growing.
28. “I was afraid of that,” said Helen. “Oh, well, I can miss my meeting one night, I guess. Young lady, how long has it been since anyone combed your hair?” 29. And she sat down beside her new friend and took out her comb. For the first time in my life I wanted to be a faith healer, Clement.
30. After the crusade was over last night, Helen came to our home for squab and honeycomb. Wouldn’t you know it, she brought a couple of hungry lepers.
This article is reprinted by permission from The Philippian Fragment, now out of print. For other works by the author, visit www.calvinmillerauthor.com .
A PERSONAL COPY OF THE PHILIPPIAN FRAGMENT
Calvin Miller is reprinting this classic work this Fall and CET will offer a copy to our subscribers. Watch for details in our Thanksgiving letter to our readers.
