"BEHOLD, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear." Wonderful words these of Isaiah! How near they bring us to God! Through them we are helped to feel that God is not afar off, but present with us, listening to our cry and willing to save us by His might. That was how the Hebrew prophets must have come to regard the Almighty: He was their God, willing and ready to save and heal, even as Jeremiah's words to the Jews indicate: "For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the Lord."
As is evident from the words just quoted, healing through spiritual means was not unknown before Jesus' day. But never had any one demonstrated divine power to the extent the Master demonstrated it in the healing of disease and sin. The New Testament records of his life contain numerous accounts of healings of all kinds of disease. Matthew says in the fourth chapter of his Gospel: "Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people." The work of healing was thus an integral part of his ministry. In this respect alone he might be said to have inaugurated a new era.
Unquestionably there was the most intimate connection between Christ Jesus' teaching and his practice of healing. It must, indeed, be admitted that the latter proved the truth of the former. The Gospels show, however, that in all probability this was but feebly recognized by all except his disciples, that little band of faithful followers to whom he intrusted the work he had inaugurated, after his departure from their midst. The New Testament bears record that these faithful ones nobly carried out their great Teacher's commands to the best of their understanding, in some cases raising the dead as well as healing the sick. Moreover, Paul, who was a violent persecutor of the followers of Christ Jesus before his conversion to Christianity, likewise afterwards healed sickness and raised the dead.
