AN outstanding feature which is brought out in the New Testament is the progress made by some of the disciples in their later ministry. For a long time, the twelve chosen ones had been but dull and doubting students. Even in the third year of Jesus' public ministry, when it might have been supposed the disciples had been with him long enough to have profited greatly from his teaching and practice, they received from him a strong rebuke because of their inability to heal a certain case; and at the termination of his ministry, so little apparently had they imbibed at the spiritual fount that all but one forsook him. How inspiring, then, to read of the influx of spirituality which came to them shortly afterwards! In the Acts of the Apostles this and their consequent healing work are graphically recorded; and a truly triumphant note is sounded by the recorder when he states: "And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people.... There came also a multitude out of the cities round about Jerusalem, bringing sick folks, and them which were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed every one." In this statement the wording of the writer is certainly worthy of note. He does not say that some of them were healed, or many of them, or most of them, but that "they were healed every one."
As we read the account of the works wrought by the early Christians, and of the growth of the church founded on the basis of those works, it seems almost incredible that humanity should have allowed such a priceless treasure as the art of Christian healing to slip from its grasp. The mighty works continued to be wrought for about three hundred years, to the glory of God and in the name of Christ Jesus; then adulteration claimed to seep in and the pure spiritual essence of Christian metaphysics seemed to be blotted out. Popularity began to vie with true humility; creed and ritualistic dogma crowded out the understanding of God's true nature; and the adoration and demonstration of the impersonal Christ gave way to worship of the personal Jesus. Thus the jewel of Christian healing was lost to the world, and there followed centuries of spiritual darkness, with only here and there a faint gleam of light. New nations came into existence, and grew up in constant fear of one another. Mankind, groping for a vision of the true God, established innumerable systems and methods of worship, but these taught the worship of an anthropomorphic God and pointed to matter, or materially-mental methods of healing.
In the fullness of time, however, and in fulfillment of the Apocalyptic vision, "a great wonder appeared in heaven": the spiritual idea of God, typified as a woman in travail, came proclaiming the harmony of divine Science, that a suffering world might be healed. This fulfillment of Scriptural prophecy was the most momentous event since the birth of Christ Jesus. She who was prepared to receive the final revelation of Truth, came imbued with the spirit of Christly humility. Unfalteringly and adoringly Mary Baker Eddy walked in the sacred footsteps of the master Christian. In the years that followed her reception of the divine revelation, she, and many others taught by her, healed many sufferers whose cases had for the most part been given up by physicians as hopeless.
