Testimonies Blog

We give the following instance, which we find recorded and strongly endorsed by an eminent Baptist minister of the last century, Rev. Morgan Edwards, of New Jersey. We reproduce the story of the “miracle”, as he names it in his own somewhat quaint and old -fashioned phraseology. It is in regard to Hannah Carman, who, he says, died in Brunswick, N. J., 1776. “Of her I received the following piece of history, so well attested that the skeptic himself can have nothing to gainsay. I have before me three certificates of the fact, and the testimony of Squire N. Stout’s lady, who was present at the time of the miracle. She was remarkable for piety and good sense from a child. About the 25th
year of her age she got a fall from a horse, which so hurt her back that she was bowed down and could in no wise lift up herself. Her limbs were also so affected that she
was a perfect cripple, not able to walk nor to help herself in the smallest matters.
One day the young woman who had the care of her (now Squire Stout’s lady), seated her in an elbow chair, and went to the garden. She had not been long in the garden before she heard a rumbling noise in the house. She hastened in, thinking that the cripple had
tumbled out of her chair ; but how was she surprised and frightened to see the cripple in the far end of the room praising God who had made her whole every whit. Miss Ketcham (for that was the name of Squire N. Stout’s lady, from whom I had the narrative) sent to her neighbor Bray (the signer of one of my certificates) who
came in haste, and was equally astonished, for the cripple was all the while in an ecstasy, taking no notice of the company, but running about the house, moving chairs and tables from place to place, going to her bedroom, taking up her bed and walking about with it,
and every now and then falling on her knees to praise God; who had made whole a daughter of Abraham, who had been bowed down for ten or a dozen years. It has been observed before that the cripple was alone in the house when the miraculous event occurred. The manner thereof must have come from herself, and was as follows: ‘While I was musing on these words, Aeneas, Jesus Christ maketh thee whole, I could not help breathing out my heart and my soul in the following manner: 0 that I had been in Aeneas’ place! Upon that I heard an audible voice saying, Arise, take up thy bed and walk ! The suddenness of the voice made me start in my chair; but how was I astonished to find my back strengthening and my limbs recovering their former use in that start. I got up, and to convince myself that it was a reality and not a vision, I lifted up my chair
and whatever came in my way: went to my room and took up my bed, and put my strength to other trials, till I was convinced that the cure was real, and not a dream
or delusion.'”

Excerpt from “Ministry of Healing” by A. J. Gordon.