That remarkable incident in the life of the Master where he sent out the seventy disciples on their healing mission, as related in the tenth chapter of Luke, is of especial significance to this age. Jesus understood perfectly the nature, not only of good, but also of its suppositional opposite, evil. He knew how to deal with every aspect of evil, including its worst phase which was then called necromancy and which is to-day known as mesmerism or hypnotism. Otherwise he could neither have "overcome the world" himself, nor have revealed to the race the way of salvation.
Jesus had taught many students, and had illustrated his teaching by his practice. The time had come to test how far the average student had grasped that teaching. Accordingly he selected, not the twelve who had enjoyed unusual opportunities to learn, but seventy average men, whom he instructed and sent into certain cities and villages with instructions to "heal the sick'' and to say to the inhabitants, "The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you." The record states, "And the seventy returned again with joy, saying. Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name.'' Thereupon Jesus rejoiced. The success of the seventy proved that he had presented the truth so clearly and accurately that the average man, if childlike enough to be teachable, could grasp it and thereby learn how to handle the evil suggestions which originate in the human mind. The establishment of that fact assured the ultimate destruction of all evil. Hence the Master's remarkable declaration: "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you."
While the seventy did their healing work in the cities and villages, the Master was active in a way which they did not then understand, but which later became plain to those who continued to follow in his footsteps. Jesus knew how to annul the false arguments of necromancy or hypnotism without interfering with any man's God-given right of self-government, without violating his precious precept which we now call the Golden Rule; and through his clear realization of the allness and oneness of God, good, and the powerlessness, the nothingness of its suppositional opposite, he taught his students how to protect themselves and their work from the aggressive attacks of evil.
