In November 1833, Philo Dibble was
wounded in a mob attack. Recounting his role in the miraculous healing of
Dibble, Newel Knight (1800-1847) wrote:
The next day I went
to see brother Dibble. I found the house where he laid surrounded with the mob.
I managed to get into the house when two of the mob Seated them Selves in the
door. I went up to the bed wher he lay in extreme agony. As I looked upon him,
not dareing to utter a word of prayer, I laid one hand upon his head while wih
the other I drawed the bed curtain to hide us a little from the mob, and lifted
my desires to the Lord in behalf of Brother Dibble, after which I arose and
went away. As I left him I saw tears fast streaming from his eyes, yet no word
passed, but I felt that I had done my errant and felt to trust the event to the
Lord. As I to well knew the design of the mob who had stationed there, the
I did not feel to give my self in to their power at that time.
The next day I had buisness about ten miles [dis]tant, where to my great joy I found Brother Dibble to all
appearance perfectly well. He told me that at the time I laid my hand upon his
head he felt the Spirit of the Lord rest upon him and pass gently through his
body, and before it pass all pain and soreness so that he felt perfectly easy.
In a few minutes he discharged about a gallon of putrid blood also the balls
that had entered his body and peices of his clotheing. He rested that night and
the nex day made his escape and was nearly out of the County when I met with
him. (The Rise of the Latter-day Saints: The
Journals and Histories of Newel Knight, eds. Michael Hubbard MacKay and William
G. Hartley [Salt Lake City/Provo: Deseret Book and BYU Religious Studies Center,
2019], 56-57; spellings in original retained)
Apart from being an early example of the healing associated with
priesthood blessings, what is also interesting is that Knight used a single
hand, not both his hands, in administering this priesthood blessing, showing
that whether one uses one or both hands in such an instance is accidental—what is
essential is that at least one hand is used to administer the blessing (a
technical issue, sure, but I am “into” such things).