When Christ Jesus sent out his disciples to preach the gospel, he left no doubt of their authority to heal through his teaching, and when they returned, they came "with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name." ^{Luke 10:17;} Throughout all time, followers of the Master have the right to display confidence in good, and to command the situation wherever they are—at home, in the street, in connection with business affairs, and in the sickroom when seeking to help others. They should always feel able to walk with firm step and to heal with Christian authority, knowing with certainty that, as the Psalmist declared, and Jesus demonstrated, "power belongeth unto God." ^{Ps. 62:11;}

The disciples had good reason to believe they could heal when Jesus instructed them to do so. They had been inspired by his preaching; they had felt impelled to accept the truths he taught of God's nature as the divine Father of all, and had glimpsed, through him, the perfection of man as God's son. They had witnessed with awe the great power Jesus himself exercised over disease to heal it. How could they fail to fulfill the commission he gave them personally, or to accept his further assurance on their return: "Behold, I give unto you power... over all the power of the enemy"! ^{Luke 10:19;}

Today, in this age when we do not see Christ Jesus in the flesh, nor hear his spoken word, more than blind faith in his personal assurance handed down through the years seems needed to enable us consistently and with certainty to cast out devils and heal the sick in his name. We need understanding—the twofold scientific understanding that was the basis of the Master's own authority. We need the realization of the impotence and unreality of matter, evil, sin, discord, disease, death, as well as the conviction that God, divine Spirit, infinite Love, eternal Life, is all-power, all-presence, and all-substance. We need to be sure that man is God's son, or idea. He is not mortal, material, subject to change and discord. He is unchanging in perfection as God's image, the manifestation of divine intelligence.

Despite the evidence of the senses that disease, death, lack, were sometimes present and governing, Jesus rejected it. With authority he denied disease that seemed to cripple and control. "She is not dead," ^8:52; he declared before he took Jairus' daughter by the hand and raised her to life. "Give ye them to eat," ^{Matt. 14:16;} he told the disciples when it seemed obvious to the senses that there was not enough food to satisfy more than one in a thousand of the multitude present. If we are to obey the Master's injunctions to know the truth and thereby heal, we too must be equipped with understanding that will enable us authoritatively to reject as untrue the physical evidence of evil in order to demonstrate the presence of good.

It is a fixed belief of the carnal, or mortal, mind that evil is a real power and makes its presence felt through matter as well as by means of harmful, mental influences. But Christian Science exposes both evil and matter as, in truth, powerless and insubstantial. It shows matter to be ephemeral, a dream—merely the objectification of mortal mind, and evil to be no more than the suppositional absence of good. "Matter and evil are subjective states of error or mortal mind," ^{Mis., p. 367;} writes Mary Baker Eddy in her Miscellaneous Writings. Knowing this, and the all-power and all-presence of God, good, we can challenge the testimony of the physical senses. We can confidently refute the authenticity of matter's formations, deny physical disease, and destroy material discord with the authority of God, divine Mind, despite the apparent substantiality of their claims.

In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mrs. Eddy writes, "You command the situation if you understand that mortal existence is a state of self-deception and not the truth of being." ^{Science and Health, p. 403;} And elsewhere she says, "Entirely separate from the belief and dream of material living, is the Life divine, revealing spiritual understanding and the consciousness of man's dominion over the whole earth. This understanding casts out error and heals the sick, and with it you can speak 'as one having authority.' " ^{p. 14 .}

Anyone who today is equipped with this twofold understanding of the illusive nature of mortal existence, with its images of discord and decay, and the true facts of man's spiritual, perfect being and dominion, has the power to heal. The devils will be subject to him as surely as they were to Jesus' immediate disciples. Knowing that "mortal existence is... not the truth of being," he will not hesitate to deny the reality of discordant material conditions as Jesus did. In a sickroom, he will without timidity put false suggestions aside, and with authority lift the patient's thought from the mesmeric material belief of disease and termination to the realization of health and continuity. He will confidently disregard physical evidence of lack and demonstrate plenty.

Timidity and Christianity do not go together. Jesus assured his followers they had authority to heal. Today we are equipped with scientific understanding to do so with confidence.

Naomi Price