This book was first published in 1972 and interestingly enough it is still available new. It is the candid and rather unconventional autobiography of one of the most influential people in the healing movement of the twentieth century. She was the daughter of Presbyterian missionary parents who served in China where she herself spent the first twenty or thirty years of her life. She regarded herself as a relatively simple person, sometimes suffering bouts of depression and she was amazed as she felt that God had given her orders to move into the ministry of healing. She does not fit the ‘traditional’ mould of Christian life and ministry. Although the marks of true spiritual life are present, Jesus as Lord, the way of the crucified life as being the path of authentic Christian life, yet along with these there are elements about which many would raise question marks. It was through her Pastoral conferences that the concept of the healing of the memories began to develop, she pioneered the idea almost single handedly although there were others such as John Sanford and Morton Kelsey with whom she engaged in ministry later in her life. Earlier on she was involved with the Camps Farther Out ministry which of necessity brought her into contact with Glenn Clark and others who would not be regarded has healthily acceptable evangelical ministers. She believed that she really was called to promote the power Christ being available today for healing in the churches, this was mainly accomplished by the holding of various prayer and healing conferences where she instructed clergymen in the things she had learned. Perhaps the value of this book is at least partly to be found in its simplicity and instruction in the life of faith and prayer and what it can accomplish and with that the fact that God does desire to answer prayer, to communicate with His people as they pray and to bring healing to many. After the death of her minister husband she moved from the Vermont to California, part of the reason for her choice to settle there was her conviction that she was called to pray for the healing of the earth, in particular the calming of the San Andreas Fault. This may be regarded by many as a strange concept though it does indicate her understanding of all things being interconnected and that men and women were God’s vice regents on the earth and were here to bring healing everywhere. This book is really her memoir, she wrote a number of other books, some on the subject of healing as she understood it, she speaks of ‘the healing light’ of the power and so on, she writes of the ‘deep heart’ needing healing in its memories and many such things. Not language used by those evangelically trained. These things should alert us to read with care and much prayerful thoughtfulness should we decide to look into the writings of this lady.
