It may surprise the reader to know that Miraculous Healing and Speaking with Tongues are practiced today in ABSOLUTELY HEATHEN CIRCLES. The late Dr. J. L. Nevius, for forty years a missionary in China, went out to that country a firm disbeliever in present-day demon-possession. Little by little as he was brought into touch with heathendom, he was reluctantly compelled to the belief that demon-possession of human bodies was a reality.
Like a doctor, who, coming across a patient with all the symptoms clearly marked of a disease described in his medical books, has therefore, no doubt as to the disease and its treatment, so Dr. Nevins found all the characteristics of demon possession in heathen circles in China, as described in the Scriptures, and was therefore able to treat intelligently the cases that came under his notice.
He testifies that before ever the Gospel came to China, and, therefore, before Bible teaching could have influenced the minds of the natives, they firmly believed in demon-possession. When the missionaries came, and the converts studied the Gospels, they found that the characteristics, marking demon-possession as given therein, so exactly tallied with their first-hand experience in the matter, that they had no difficulty in seeing the connection between the two.
Dr. Nevius describes case after case where demon-possessed persons made large incomes in the practice of miraculous healing, and how on conversion their power to cure ceased, and consequently their ability to make money, clearly indicating the Satanic source of their power. It reminds us of the celebrated case in Acts 16, where the damsel, possessed of a " spirit of divination," was healed, and how at once "her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone" (verse 19).
Dr. Nevius gave years to the patient study of this subject, and produced a monumental book, Demon-Possession, and Allied Themes," well worthy of careful perusal.
Nor is he alone in this testimony, for many missionaries have given similar witness.