Article October 7, 1985 Issue

Of hems and handkerchiefs

NATHAN A. TALBOT

I remember feeling a little puzzled about the woman in the Bible who was cured when she reached for the hem of Christ Jesus' robe.^{See Matt. 9:20–22 .} What a marvelous healing—freedom after twelve years of suffering! But was it contact with a piece of cloth that really healed?

Others in New Testament times had similar experiences. The Bible mentions that many people from the land of Gennesaret entreated Jesus "that they might only touch the hem of his garment: and as many as touched were made perfectly whole."^{Matt. 14:36.} Somewhat parallel events occurred during Paul's healing ministry. Did a handkerchief contain some kind of mysterious curative power? The book of Acts leaves this record: "And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul: so that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them."^{Acts 19:11, 12.}

Mrs. Eddy makes reference to these events. First she comments on the early pagan views of sun worshipers—and their failure to look beyond nature for God. She goes on to point out that this idolatry shifted toward a higher basis but then quickly turned to a new idolatry—the worship of person, while the real need is always the worship of God as Principle. Speaking of the early Christian era, she explains, "At that period, the touch of Jesus' robe and the handkerchief of St. Paul were supposed to heal the sick, and our Master declared, 'Thy faith hath made thee whole.' ... By reposing faith in man and in matter, the human race has not yet reached the understanding of God, the conception of Spirit and its all-power."^{The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 152.}

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