CHRIST JESUS, the Founder of Christianity, healed the sick. And if a careful study of the New Testament be made, it will be found that he employed spiritual means alone in doing so. Underlying all his teaching and all his healing was a profound understanding of God, and it was this understanding which enabled him to break the spell of erroneous belief and set the afflicted free. The gospel narratives never show the master Christian at a loss in his work. Whatever the form of the sickness, he met it readily and efficaciously, showing how implicitly he relied on the spiritual understanding he possessed.
Jesus was the most unselfish man who ever lived on earth. Accordingly, it was his constant endeavor to share with others what he knew of God, the Father, and of man, His son. It was therefore to be expected that he would instruct his followers, his disciples, in his method of healing sick, sinning, sorrowing humanity. Consequently, we find it recorded by Matthew that he sent out his twelve disciples for that very purpose. Matthew's words in the tenth chapter of his Gospel read: "And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give." And the New Testament also bears witness that he sent out "other seventy also" with instructions to heal the sick.
It is obvious that Jesus intended that spiritual healing should be identified with the ministry he inaugurated. The disciples acted accordingly, and the "other seventy also" —and successfully too; for Luke says that "the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name." Furthermore, history bears witness that the healing of the sick was practiced in the early Christian church until, probably, the third century. It cannot be doubted that Jesus healed the sick, and that he imparted a measure of the spirit of the healing truth to his disciples, and that they in turn blessed the Christians who followed after them with the same spirit. Referring to the healing practice of the Nazarene, Mrs. Eddy writes on page 147 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," "Our Master healed the sick, practised Christian healing, and taught the generalities of its divine Principle to his students; but he left no definite rule for demonstrating this Principle of healing and preventing disease." She adds, "This rule remained to be discovered in Christian Science."
