It is recorded in Luke's Gospel that besides his twelve disciples, Christ Jesus appointed seventy others to preach the gospel of the kingdom of God, and specifically instructed them to heal the sick. It is also stated that they returned with joy, saying, "Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name." Evidently, by their spiritual understanding many cases of sickness had been healed and much sin destroyed; and doubtless their great Teacher was also happy because of their success. Yet he found it necessary to admonish them by saying, "In this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven."
Heaven was a favorite subject with the great Teacher. The Gospels indicate very clearly that Jesus taught that the kingdom of heaven is a state of spiritual consciousness, attainable here and now by subjugating personal sense, and by gaining an understanding of God's immutable law of universal harmony. The purpose of his admonition, therefore, must have been to impress upon the seventy that, in order to preserve that state of consciousness by which, through his teachings, they had been able to cast out many devils of sickness and sin, they should be alert to guard against being elated through any sense of personal accomplishment. From the Gospel account of Jesus' sayings and teachings we learn that his followers should pray constantly for more humility, more love, more spiritual understanding.
The method of healing taught by Christ Jesus was carried on successfully for almost three hundred years after the Master left the earth. Then, because personal sense, manifested in pride, rivalry, and other phases of wrong thinking, gained a foothold among the early Christians, the understanding of God's true nature gradually waned, and in the third century A.D. spiritual healing was lost to the world. The discovery of Christian Science by Mary Baker Eddy, in 1866, revived this glorious art, and today it is being practiced in every civilized country. Although the world is at present in the throes of mental fermentation, increasing numbers are nevertheless gradually awakening to the truth that all fears, resentments, hatreds, disasters, sicknesses, and sorrows are due to ignorance of God's true nature— ignorance of His immanence, His impartial bounty, His unchangeable love. The healing and regenerating power of Christian Science is proving to humanity that the only way out of its manifold woes is through the understanding and demonstration of God's beneficent and harmonious laws.
