Article April 3, 1909 Issue

"THY FAITH HATH MADE THEE WHOLE."

LOUIS A. GREGORY.

It sometimes happens that the passages of the Bible which we have studied most will suddenly present to us a new meaning, unfold a thought we had not discovered before, and teach a new and beautiful lesson. The 9th chapter of Matthew, which contains an account of the healing of the woman who touched the hem of Christ's robe, was such a passage for me. A recent reading of this chapter impressed upon me the ever-presence of God, good, and the naturalness and reasonableness of Truth's manifestation in every phase of human experience, as it had never done before.

When I read how the woman was able to get close enough to the Messiah to touch his robe, and how that touch healed her physical ailment, the first thought was, How blessed was the woman that she lived at a time when she could come into physical contact with Jesus and thus be instantly healed. But as I read farther I found how mistaken the first thought had been, for Christ Jesus told the woman that it was her faith which had made her whole. It was not, therefore, the physical presence of Jesus nor the touch of his robe that effected the healing, but it was the faith of the woman in the power of God and her appreciation of the fact that the Christ was present to demonstrate the supremacy of God as infinite good. As it was the faith of the woman in Christ Jesus' works and her appreciation of the import of his teachings that healed her, then she had no advantage that any one does not have who reads the story of her experience today, for all may be healed, as was this woman, through the attainment of sufficient faith. We have the benefit of her experience, which should add to our faith the true knowledge of God.

This story has another lesson, viz.; this, that the works of Jesus and the deeds which are being done today in the emulation of his example are not miraculous in the sense that they are special dispensations or manifestations of the power of God. The thought that this was a special manifestation of the power of God, peculiar to the time or circumstance, not something which is equally practicable and applicable today, is a mistake. In spite of a partial appreciation of the beauty and truth of the incident, I still clung to the orthodox notion that the healing was the result of the physical presence of Jesus and contained no practical lesson for the reader today. The Scientific understanding of the incident removes that misconception. If the faith of the woman made her whole, then the same faith, when coupled with the understanding which enables one even figuratively to touch the hem of Christ's robe,—that is, to get into harmony even to a degree with the teachings and works of Christ Jesus,—will heal instantaneously, as the woman was healed.

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