Article August 31, 1899 Issue

Do the Signs Follow?

Republican

The Christian Scientists at Boston. Massachusetts, are very active, sending out printed matter, long newspaper articles, etc., in support of their system. While we cannot endorse their claims, it is difficult to understand how any one who fully believes in the plenary (full, complete) and authoritative inspiration of the several books of the New Testament and their "inerrancy" as they now stand, can avoid the conclusion that healing and immunity from sickness and danger should largely' follow belief. In the sixteenth chapter of Mark, Christ, after telling his disciples to go into all the world and preach the gospel, is represented as saying to them, verses 17 and 18, "And these signs shall follow them that believe: In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents: and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover."

Nothing could be more definite and specific than this last clause. No exception is made of any case or kind of sickness?—"they shall recover." And in the last verse of the chapter, and of the book, it is recorded that they went forth and preached and that the Lord confirmed the word "with signs following." No limit of time was placed upon the continuance of these signal powers for "them that believe." In the last chapter of Matthew, in the account, evidently, of the same scene, Christ says: "I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."

Is this passage from Mark an "interpolation, an unauthorized addition by some scribe or monk? If it is genuine and spoken with the authority of God, then how few, if any, are there who "believe"! The passage, as well as others in the New Testament, seems to sustain the central idea of so-called "Christian Science healing."

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