All the recorded healing agency of Christ and his apostles was instantaneous, or nearly so. We only know of one occasion where Christ had to "treat" twice. But the ten lepers found themselves cleansed, not when Christ spoke to them, but when they were on their way to the priests. Whether there were cases where the healing process was slow we are not informed. If there were such, they would naturally receive very little attention, and still less public mention. They would never be pointed to as proofs of "miraculous" power, which was the chief object of public admiration, and the supposed proof of the divine mission of Jesus. They would, therefore, certainly be left out of a biography whose object was to show the pre-eminent power of its hero. It is not at all improbable, therefore, that there were numerous cases of gradual healing which are unrecorded.
Christian Science naturally follows a similar course. We rightly wish to exalt, not only our office, but our doctrine; and this is a pure desire to honor God, since this doctrine ascribes all the power to God. It is also a benevolent desire, since it sincerely seeks to impress the world with the conviction that they may all be blest through Christian Science. It is, therefore, not only natural, but right, that we should give a disproportionate prominence, in public mention and record, to those cases of healing which are the most sudden and striking. These, indeed, are quite numerous, and they deserve the distinction they receive. Every issue of the Journal contains a number of well-attested cases of this kind, and they could easily, with perfect veracity, be largely multiplied.
We all know, also, on the other hand, that the majority of healing processes through Christian Science are not instantaneous, and that many of them are very gradual. This fact has led many healers to feel offended at the publication so frequently of the more rapid and extraordinary examples of healing power, on the ground that they disparage the more ordinary cases, and generate impatience in those patients who are not healed rapidly; and insinuate a suspicion of the comparative incompetence of their Christian physician. However natural this may be, it is quite unreasonable. We never do publish the tame and the ordinary. It would be dull, and nobody would read it; and then, if we are debarred from publishing the extraordinary, we can print nothing. If Christ had not been extraordinary in his character, teaching and works, his name had long since melted away into the dim unknown. For the same reason, it is what was most extraordinary in him which is embalmed in the immortal remains. On the same principle, all the greatest characters of the world, and all the greatest events of time, find a conspicuous mention on the roll of fame, or a due exposition on the pages of history and science.
