MRS. R. D. MILLER suffered at an early age from inherited rheumatism. In a testimony that appeared in Wonders of Prayer,* she wrote,

For nearly forty years I was subject to more or less suffering from this cause, sometimes unable to attend meeting for months at a time. For seven years, until the last three months, I have been unable to get about without the aid of crutch or staff, generally both. I have used many liniments and remedies, but with no permanently good result. I have been a Christian from early life, but last Spring, in our revival, I received a spiritual refreshing from the Lord, which gave a new impulse to my faith. Since then my religion has been a new life to me.

In a prayer group, someone brought up the narrative of Dorothea Trudel. Trudel trusted God’s word and saw many healings. (See our 21 August Trudel story.) This made no impression on Miller.

I had long since ceased to use remedies for the restoration of my health, and had not even thought of praying in regard to it, for I regarded it as the will of God that I should suffer in silent submission.

However, on this day, 26 September 1872, several ladies met at her house for prayer. One told how she herself experienced healing and she read aloud several Scripture promises regarding healing. Miller was impressed.

She asked me if I could join my faith with hers and ask for present healing. I told her I felt that I could. We then knelt and called upon the Lord. She offered a mighty prayer to God, and I followed. While she was leading in prayer, I felt a quickening in my whole being, whereupon my pain subsided, and when we rose from prayer, I felt that a great change had come over me, that I was cured. I found that I could walk without my staff or crutch, or any assistance from anyone. Since then my pains have never returned; I have more than my youthful vigor; I walk with more ease and rapidity than I ever did in my life, and I never felt so fresh and young as I now do, at the age of fifty-two.

Now, the hundred and third psalm is my psalm, and my youth is more than renewed, like the eagle’s. I cannot express the constant joy of my heart for the wonderful healing of my soul and body.

Evangelist and educator Charles Finney knew Mrs. Miller and considered her truthful. “We have known her for years as a lame, suffering invalid, and now see her in our midst in sound health.”

An eyewitness confirmed the circumstances.

We were all present at the time of the healing, and know the facts to be true. We are all Christians, and have no interest in deceiving anybody, and would by no means dishonor God by stating more than the exact truth.

Miller’s husband affirmed that she had been unable to walk without crutches for many years, had given up on remedies, and expected to remain in great pain. So things went “until the moment she fully believed, and, in an instant, she was restored to perfect soundness.”

Afterward, he said, she could walk long distances, attend church, keep house, “and seems as young and spry, as when we were married, thirty-two years ago.”

—Dan Graves

* Christian History Institute advises caution when using Wonders of Prayer. Not all of the contributors were equally reliable.

Christian History 142, Touching the hem of his garment has many accounts of divine healing