We come to You, dear Lord, and we want to touch Your humanity. May Your divine power be transfused into us to become our healing today. We don’t want to just press against You but touch You in a personal and intimate way. Hallelujah, there is healing power in the Lord’s humanity and His human virtue! Praise the Lord!
William Bradbury, a pupil of Dr. Lowell Mason, and the pioneer in publishing Sunday school music, was born 1816, in York, ME. His father, a veteran of the Revolution, was a choir leader, where William’s love for music was inherited. He left his fathers farm, and came to Boston, where he first heard a church organ. Encouraged by Mason and others to follow music as a profession, he went abroad, and studied at Leipsic, and soon after returned his return became known as a composer of sacred tunes. He died in Montclair, New Jersey, 1868
Manie Ferguson was a pioneer leader in the American Holiness Movement, a Christian evangelist and social worker who co-founded the Peniel Mission, and the author of several hymns, most notably "Blessed Quietness".
She was born in the town of Carlow in County 84 km from Dublin, in the south-east of Ireland. On 7 June 1883, she married Theodore Pollock Ferguson of Mansfield, OH, a former minister in the United Presbyterian Church who had been converted in 1875 in Oberlin, Ohio through the preaching of evangelist Charles Finney. After relocating to Santa Barbara, California in 1879, he was entirely sanctified in a holiness revival meeting in 1880 in California. Initially TP became an itinerant preacher, before moving with Manie to Los Angeles during the boom of 1885-1886.
Manie along with her husband, founded the Los Angeles Mission on November 11, 1886. This was eventually renamed the Peniel Mission. From the outset, the Peniel Mission was undenominational and nonsectarian. In 1894, the Fergusons received a significant anonymous financial donation (from former English cricketer George Studd, brother of C.T. Studd). With this funding the Fergusons were able to plan to expand the ministry of the Peniel Mission. They invited former Methodist presiding elder Dr Phineas Bresee to join them in their endeavor, and constructed a 900-seat auditorium and ministry center. It was decided that there would be four superintendents: Theodore and Manie Ferguson, George Studd and Phineas F. Bresee.
On Sunday 21 October 1894 the 900-seat Peniel Hall was dedicated. University of Southern California president Dr. Joseph Pomeroy Widney led the 9.30am Praise Service, while Bresee preached in the 11.00am service. In the initial issue of the Peniel Herald, it was announced
"Our first work is to try to reach the unchurched. The people from the homes and the street where the light from the churches does not reach, or penetrates but little. Especially to gather the poor to the cross, by bringing to bear upon them Christian sympathy and helpfulness.... It is also our work to preach and teach the gospel of full salvation; to show forth the blessed privilege of believers in Jesus Christ, to be made holy and thus perfect in love."
As Timothy Smith explains:
Here were holiness and humanitarianism working hand in hand, as in the days of Wesley. And sectarian feeling was rejected: "Peniel Mission is thoroughly evangelical but entirely undenominational," the Herald declared. Its superintendents would welcome help from all "earnest souls . . . who have any time over and above the work in their churches that they desire to give."
After Bresee and Widney separated from the Peniel Mission in September 1895 to form the Church of the Nazarene, Manie Ferguson provided primary leadership of the Peniel Mission. According to Schwanz,
"Manie Ferguson was more outgoing than Theodore and was the guiding force for the expansion of the ministry. ... Under Manie’s direction, the Peniel Missions sought to provide a ministry for single women. This appears to have been a primary motivation in the growth of the movement. The women usually lived in rented rooms near the rented hall where they conducted evangelistic services. They boldly testified on street corners and in bars and houses of prostitution. All workers were unsalaried, but the local mission paid for most of their expenses. Even the Fergusons were not paid by the mission, but lived on the rental income from three small houses they owned."
According to Sandra Frankiel, "Together with his wife Manie, he offered street-corner meetings in the afternoons and evangelistic services nightly, with a meal afterwards. Their entire work, like that of most of the city holiness missions, was oriented toward soul saving and the promotion of holiness. The mission was not a church, however; converts were supposed to join one of the regular denominations. It was, rather, a holiness revival station spreading the message of Christian perfection." "The Peniel Mission used some of the same methods as the Salvation Army, including street-corner meetings followed by parades back to the mission hall."
After her husband's death in 1920, “Mother Ferguson” continued to direct the work until her own death. In 1947 the Peniel Mission became a part of the present-day World Gospel Mission. In 1998, the West Coast USA Peniel Missions experienced a significant change when the majority of Peniel Missionaries resigned from Peniel Mission and went to work for City Team Ministries leaving the Peniel Mission in Stockton, California the remaining American Peniel Mission affiliated with the World Gospel Mission. -wikipedia
I got to know about this song from my Father in Lord, just 2 days ago. And I strongly believed that healing will take place tomorrow in our service. Thank You Great physician.
I was asked to preach to Medical practitioners on Sunday and as I was preparing my sermon this old song came up in my spirit as the congregation song for that message. I believe that God wants to do something special in the area of healing. I pray that all who are sick now wherever they are receive instant healing now in the name of Jesus. So shall it be.
I was just about to start praying secretly for many known people who were seriously sick, when this hymn kept on coming to my mind. By singing it meditative lay, my faith has been strengthened. I have the assurance that many of those prayed for will be touched by the GREAT HEALER. Thanks for making the hymn available online.
I been diagnosed with ALS but have faith that I am going to be healed. The begining words to this song started playing in my head. I found the wrods here and now know my angels and God are giving confirmation! What a beautiful tune.