The Medical Missionary, vol. 12
November 1903
“God’s Spell” The Medical Missionary, 12, 11, pp. 272, 273.
A. T. JONES
THE influence of sin is hypnotic. People who are sinners, in the face of all that God has given them, act as if they were hypnotized, and that is what they are; because a person that is hypnotized, imagines he sees things that are not so. I once saw a man come down off a platform, walk through the audience, snapping his fingers in people’s faces, and one after another got right up and followed after him,—a whole string of people followed him right up on to the platform, and there he had them all circled round him like a ringmaster. One would go through a trapeze performance, and another would sit on the back of a chair; they were in a circus, and having a most gleeful time, until he brought them out of the spell. Now there was nothing in all this but imagination, but they saw all that they acted out. MEDM November 1903, page 272.1
Come back to the beginning of that thing in this world. God set man in the garden of Eden, and said to him, There is a tree, and “thou shalt not eat of it.” Then came another, and said, “Has God told you not to eat of the trees of the garden?” The woman said, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die; for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat.” (Genesis 3:2-7.) She saw what was not so; she was hypnotized. So we see that the influence of sin is hypnotic, and it is hypnotism that has ruined this world. This world was hypnotized by sin, and Satan is the great hypnotizer. The whole system of mesmerism and hypnotism and all its performances are simply phases of the same Satanic work that came in with sin in the beginning. MEDM November 1903, page 272.2
People act directly against themselves. When God has spoken, it is so, whether man will accept it or not. Often he will not accept it and have the benefit of it, when it is there for him all the time, whether he believes it or not. Now where is this hypnotic spell of Satan—the spell of sin—and mankind is under it. But God has a “spell,” and that spell has broken Satan’s spell. God’s spell is the gospel (originally “God’s-spell”). God’s spell was brought to bear to break Satan’s spell,—and God’s spell is the gospel, which is given in Christ, and through Christ the hypnotic spell of sin is broken, and men are delivered into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Satan’s spell is bondage, while God’s spell is life and liberty and eternal joy and glory. Satan’s spell is death and eternal ruin. MEDM November 1903, page 273.1
There is creative power in the word of God,—“He spake, and it was.” When the Bible is to us, by faith a creative power, it works in us the thing it says. Then reading the Bible becomes a glorious pleasure, for we are reading life into ourselves. We are reading life into our souls, for “the word of God worketh effectually in you that believe.” “For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:10, 11.) It is not you shall accomplish that which I please, but “it shall accomplish that which I please.” MEDM November 1903, page 273.2
You know of some failing in your life that you have been trying to overcome, but you have failed, and you have almost despaired, and do not know what to do. Read in the Bible till you find the word of God that speaks to you on that subject,—and you will find that word speaking to you on that subject,—and there is your deliverance; for that word spoken, produces in you that divine power which delivers you from that failing. That is the perfection of the Bible. The Bible is human experience written out, and there is not a single experience of man that is not written out in the Bible. You should study the Bible from beginning to end, and then, if you find something in your life that comes short, the Word of God will bring it out, and that very word will deliver you. There is the word of God spoken, and there is new life created by divine power, and you have victory over that besetment. That is the power of God through Christ, and thus we are created anew in Christ Jesus unto good works. MEDM November 1903, page 273.3