A study of the Gospels reveals the fact that many of Jesus' healings took place by the wayside, as he traveled and taught in the Syrian hills and the Galilean valleys. Even as he was about to be led out of Gethsemane he healed the severed ear of Malchus, servant of the high priest. In the agony of those hours in the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus in his distress truned to his heavenly Father, and, as Luke records, "there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him."

When we realize through Christian Science the full significance of that angel, that comforting thought from God, and consider how uplifted the thought of Jesus must have been to receive the message, we can understand why he could instantly restore the severed ear, even for one who seemed to be his enemy. Had Jesus admitted enmity, had he seen anything as real but God's likeness, he could not have healed Malchus. The tranquil thought of the Master knew that the hatred which had conspired to destroy him was no part of the real man, God's image; and this understanding prevented the error from gaining an entrance into his consciousness for even the briefest moment.

Another glorious testimony of the Saviour's wayside ministry is the incident of the healing of the woman who had been plagued with an issue of blood for twelve years. According to the account, as narrated in Mark and Luke, Jairus, one of the rulers of the synagogue, had besought Jesus to come and heal his daughter, who lay at the point of death. As the compassionate Master unhesitatingly turned to follow, and wended his way through the throng, he knew suddenly, with that spiritual perception which was his, that a healing had taken place. When he inquired, a woman came forth from the crowd and told him how at the instant she had touched his garment she had been made whole. He knew that her faith in Christ, Truth, had healed her, and with the words, "Be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole," he pursued his way to raise from death the young daughter of Jairus.

These are familiar stories, and the vital point about them is that Jesus was always ready to heal instantly. It was not possible for an erroneous picture to find a place in his truthfilled thought.

On page 36 of "No and Yes" the revered Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, shows us the secret of Jesus' glorious ability to heal. She writes: "The real Christ was unconscious of matter, of sin, disease, and death, and was conscious only of God, of good, of eternal Life, and harmony. Hence the human Jesus had a resort to his higher self and relation to the Father, and there could find rest from unreal trials in the conscious reality and royalty of his being,—holding the mortal as unreal, and the divine as real. It was this retreat from material to spiritual selfhood which recuperated him for triumph over sin, sickness, and death."

An earnest study of this whole paragraph prepares the student to go forth and heal whenever the right opportunity presents itself. It was his constant readiness, his undeviating loyalty to Truth and his faithful communion with God that made Jesus the perfect healer. It was that same quality of allegiance to good that gave Mrs. Eddy the power to cure malignant disease, to teach, and to write her textbook, despite human understanding, opposition, and malicious persecution. And it is the same fidelity to the Principle of divine Science that today enables the Christian Scientist to heal those who in sincerity seek his help by the wayside. The prayerful preparation for this healing work must be constant and unremitting.

Oftentimes one may be unaware that a spontaneous expression of love, a gracious act, a gentle word, a right thought, has had a healing effect. Yet, when we ourselves are the recipients of such manifestations of Truth we know how beautiful is the experience. We see God in the one way we can behold Him—through His expression, man. And it follows that as we show forth unceasingly in our daily lives what we already understand of man in God's image, we are more and more in instant readiness to meet the unanticipated opportunities for wayside ministry. Such healings, accomplished by the overflowing of a love-filled heart, seen in the quiet tranquillity of forgiveness, in simple, gracious loving-kindness, are deeply significant, and are necessary steps in the path of spiritual progress, steps which lead onward to more glorious healing work. Christian Scientists should not let a single opportunity pass, however slight it may seem, to express actively the Godlikeness reflected by man. Jesus' promptness in judging instantly from the standpoint of Truth, instead of from the evidence presented by the material senses, was the result of his consecrated, unswerving awareness of his oneness with his heavenly Father.

The traveler seeking to photograph keeps his camera always ready for instant use, that he may secure the choice and oftentimes fleeting view. Likewise, if by daily watchful work the human consciousness is kept clean and always ready to receive only the correct, perfect pictures that Mind reveals, we shall not have to stop, when a need for healing arises, to clear our thinking of the blemishes of false, baseless beliefs, illusions, erroneous and fearful suggestions. Only the real, the divine, the God-derived, will then be cognized.

Mary Baker Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (pp. 476, 477): "Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick."

Healings by the wayside will be more numerous when men more generally obey the precepts of God as understood in Christian Science. Simple mandates they are, and the fruitage thereof so beneficial to all that this Science is indeed seen to be the Comforter foreseen and promised by Christ Jesus.