CHRIST JESUS announced his mission to mankind in these prophetic words : "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." Thus briefly did the Master outline the task he had taken upon himself, in fulfilment of the Father's will, and we find him speedily about the Father's business,—preaching in the synagogues and healing those sick of divers diseases that were brought to him, and often stopping by the wayside, as he journeyed from city to city, to comfort some afflicted one.
Only one who was loving and gentle, whose heart was "moved with compassion" at the woes and needs of the multitudes which thronged him wherever he went, who knew the inexhaustible source of his power, could have accepted such a responsibility' and carried it so courageously to the end. The pathetic cry of the leper, "Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean ;" the blind man's humble appeal, "Lord, that I might receive my sight;" the proud centurion's confident assurance, "Speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed,"—to one and all who sought him, believing, the boon of restoration to health, to wholeness, was granted. He who could read the inmost thoughts of men could likewise discern when they were sick, hungry, or oppressed, and out of the abundance of the Father's house he met their need.
There is a lesson in all this for the Master's every follower, and the duty is the more incumbent on this age because of the long centuries that his command to heal the sick has been practically in abeyance. The Church of Christ, Scientist, was founded "to reinstate primitive Christianity and its lost element of healing" (Manual, p. 17), and its every adherent enlists "to lessen evil, disease, and death" (Science and Health, p. 450). "Ye are the light of the world," said the Master; and the Christian Scientist who lets his light shine out in the darkness, who is reflecting in his daily life the Love that has "infinite resources with which to bless mankind" (Science and Health, p. 60), will not lack for opportunity to demonstrate the truth he professes.
