however, there was a gradual disuse of this power, following upon a
failing recognition of its possession. That which was originally the
rule became the exception. By degrees, the sense of authority and power
to heal passed out from the consciousness of the Church. It ceased to be
a sign of the indwelling Spirit. For fifteen centuries, the recognition
of this authority and power has been altogether exceptional. Here and
there, through the history of these centuries, there have been those who
have entered into this belief of their own privilege and duty, and have
used the gift which they recognized. The Church has never been left
without a line of witnesses to this aspect of the discipleship of Christ.
But she has come to accept it as the normal order of things that what was
once the rule in the Christian Church should be now only the exception.
Orthodoxy has framed a theory of the words of Jesus to account for this
strange departure of His Church from them. It teaches us to believe that
His example was not meant to be followed, in this respect, by all His
disciples. The power of healing which was in Him was a purely
exceptional power. It was used as an evidence of His divine mission. It
was a miraculous gift. The gift of working miracles was not bestowed
upon His Church at large. His original disciples, the twelve apostles,
received this gift, as a necessity of the critical epoch of Christianity
–the founding of the Church. Traces of the power lingered on, in
weakening activity, until they gradually ceased, and the normal condition
of the Church was entered upon, in which miracles are no longer possible.
We accept this, unconsciously, as the true state of things in
Christianity. But it is a conception which will not bear a moment’s
examination. There is not the slightest suggestion upon record that
Christ set any limit to this charge which He gave His disciples. On the
contrary, there are not lacking hints that He looked for the possession
and exercise of this power wherever His spirit breathed in men.
Even if the concluding paragraph of St. Mark’s Gospel were a later
appendix, it may none the less have been a faithful echo of words of the
Master, as it certainly is a trustworthy record of the belief of the
early Christians as to the thought of Jesus concerning His followers. In
that interesting passage, Jesus, after His death, appeared to the eleven,
and formally commissioned them, again, to take up His work in the world;
bidding them, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every
creature.” “And these signs,” He tells them, “shall follow them that
believe”–not the apostles only, but “them that believe,” without limit
of time; “in My name they shall cast out devils . . . they shall lay
hands on the sick and they shall recover.” The concluding discourse to
the disciples, recorded in the Gospel according to St. John, affirms the
same expectation on the part of Jesus; emphasizing it in His solemn way:
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me, the works that
I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do.”
APPENDIX F
Few will deny that an intelligence apart from man formed and governs the
spiritual universe and man; and this intelligence is the eternal Mind,
and neither matter nor man created this intelligence and divine
Principle; nor can this Principle produce aught unlike itself. All that
we term sin, sickness, and death is comprised in the belief of matter.
The realm of the real is spiritual; the opposite of Spirit is matter; and
the opposite of the real is unreal or material. Matter is an error of
statement, for there is no matter. This error of premises leads to error
of conclusion in every statement of matter as a basis. Nothing we can
say or believe regarding matter is true, except that matter is unreal,
simply a belief that has its beginning and ending.
The conservative firm called matter and mind God never formed. The
unerring and eternal Mind destroys this imaginary copartnership, formed