Christ Jesus healed the sick through spiritual means. There is no doubt about it. He commanded his followers to heal as he did. There is no doubt about that. There is no doubt, also, that his immediate disciples, and later Paul, had definite proofs of Christian healing; and for the first two centuries or more after Jesus' ministry, spiritual healing was not unknown among those who adhered to the teachings of the great Nazarene.
What happened then to this vital Christian tenet? With the exception of isolated instances of healings through what were considered unexplainable miracles, the cure of disease and sin through spiritual means and as a necessary corollary of Christian faith and practice all but disappeared from the earth. Many honest theologians sadly admit this fact, seeking refuge in the untenable thesis that, after all. Christian healing belonged to the days of the Master.
What a wonderful thing happened to the Christian world, therefore, when in 1866 a consecrated follower of Christ Jesus not only experienced an unquestioned spiritual healing but shortly thereafter began to heal others! Here is an important point for all history to record: Not once did Mary Baker Eddy, this restorer of Christian healing, proceed on the assumption that the power of healing from on high was a special gift to her.
