ghter lay dead (Luke 8:41, 42, 49,
50; page 313 herein), and of many who brought their helpless kindred or
friends to Christ and pleaded for them. As heretofore shown, faith to be
healed is as truly a gift of God as is faith to heal (page 318); and, as
the instances cited prove, faith may be exercized with effect in behalf
of others. In connection with the ordinance of administering to the
afflicted, by anointing with oil and the laying on of hands, as
authoritatively established in the restored Church of Jesus Christ, the
elders officiating should encourage the faith of all believers present,
that such be exerted in behalf of the sufferer. In the case of infants
and of persons who are unconscious, it is plainly useless to look for
active manifestation of faith on their part, and the supporting faith of
kindred and friends is all the more requisite.

2. Power Developed by Prayer and Fasting.--The Savior's statement
concerning the evil spirit that the apostles were unable to
subdue--"Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and
fasting"--indicates gradation in the malignity and evil power of demons,
and gradation also in the results of varying degrees of faith. The
apostles who failed on the occasion referred to had been able to cast
out demons at other times. Fasting, when practised in prudence, and
genuine prayer are conducive to the development of faith with its
accompanying power for good. Individual application of this principle
may be made with profit. Have you some besetting weakness, some sinful
indulgence that you have vainly tried to overcome? Like the malignant
demon that Christ rebuked in the boy, your sin may be of a kind that
goeth out only through prayer and fasting.

3. Nothing Impossible to Faith.--Many people have questioned the literal
truth of the Lord's declaration that by faith mountains may be removed
from their place. Plainly there would have to be a purpose in harmony
with the divine mind and plan, in order that faith could be exerted at
all in such an undertaking. Neither such a miracle nor any other is
possible as a gratification of the yearning for curiosity, nor for
display, nor for personal gain or selfish satisfaction. Christ wrought
no miracle with any such motive; He persistently refused to show signs
to mere sign-seekers. But to deny the possibility of a mountain being
removed through faith, under conditions that would render such removal
acceptable to God, is to deny the word of G