Divine healing

“Thou shalt have none other gods before me.”—Ex. xx. 3.

The Mosaic Decalogue established for the world a code of morals, which is adhered to, theoretically at least, to this day. Civil law is based largely upon it. The authors of standard works upon human law go back to this code for their starting point. Theology draws its inspiration in part from it. It is a living, vital principle and rule of action in the world to-day. This is generally recognized. It is yet a corner-stone in the religious structure. It justly receives the homage of Christendom. It is a golden tablet, and its divine origin is not questioned by believers in the Bible. Its first article is: “Thou shalt have none other gods before me.” This is a sweeping edict against idolatry in every form. It is not directed alone against the image worship of the heathen. This worship, the worship of idols of wood and stone, or other representations of a personal Deity, has been but a small part of the idolatry of the world. It is but a small part of it now. It is the least mischievous part of it. There is a greater need of reforming and christianizing that part of the world now, who are bowing down before the Baal of the human body, and its train of supposed diseases, than there is for the regeneration of those who are worshipping their heathen gods of wood and stone.

Christendom should pay more attention to its own heathen, and more nearly cast the beam out of the Christian eye, before undertaking to cast the mote out of the eye of the foreign heathen. Idolatry is little understood yet. The first article of the Mosaic decalogue, is yet, what the late Governor Allen of Ohio would have called a “barren ideality.” Little is yet apparently known of the full import of the divine interdiction against idol worship. We make an idol of everything in the world to which we ascribe greater power than we do to God. This is the meaning of the first commandment; and how broad it is. The heathen gods and their worship constitute a small part of it. It is the god of the material senses against which the decalogue is directed; these are the images that are set up against the one and only God. The most frightful of these images is that of the human body, distorted as it is by the false beliefs of the material senses. The material senses have made it a hot-bed of pain and sickness, a festering sore, a very charnal house of leprosy. And why? because it has been worshipped as a god; because it has been made the idol of the human heart.

I will endeavor to point out somewhat in detail, the reasons why the healing power had become lost to mankind. I would answer the question if I simply said, Idolatry was the cause of its being lost. But this would not perhaps be sufficiently explicit. I will therefore, answer more explicitly; and this will involve a brief review of the history of early, or primitive Christianity, in its relations to healing the sick. Jesus healed all manner of diseases. This is not questioned by the Christian world. His disciples healed all manner of diseases. Nor is this questioned by the Christian world. He gave to the disciples the same power over disease that He possessed. I do not understand that this is questioned by the Christian world. He commanded them to “go and make disciples of all the nations, to preach the gospel and heal the sick;” and we are told in the last verse of Mark that “They went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word by the signs that followed.” The signs that followed, were healing the sick, raising the dead, and other so-called miraculous performances. Thus began primitive Christianity, as it is generally called. It had its origin in Rome, but its spread into other countries was, for those days, quite rapid. It is a matter of history that supernatural gifts—as they were, and are by many still called—were ascribed to the Christians. Gibbon, the historian, in his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire refers to these gifts. He says: “The divine inspiration, whether it was conveyed in the form of a waking or a sleeping vision, is described as a favor very liberally bestowed on all ranks of the faithful, on women as on elders, on boys as well as upon bishops. The miraculous cure of diseases of the most inveterate, or even preternatural kind, can no longer occasion any surprise, when we recollect, that in the days of Irenæus, about the end of the second century, the resurrection of the dead was very far from being esteemed an uncommon event; that the miracle was frequently performed on necessary occasions; and that the persons thus restored had lived afterwards among them many years.

Hundreds of persons during the past few years, through Christian Science, or Divine healing, have been raised from beds of sickness to which materia medica had consigned them, giving them no hope; while others have been snatched from the jaws of apparent death, under the very eyes of these modern philosophers; and yet they go blindly and unconcernedly on, taking no apparent notice of what must seem miracles to them; or if any notice is taken, it is simply to reject and deride as did their ancient prototypes. I wonder if they are aware that in doing so they are as much rejecting the Christ, and denying his resurrection as were their heathen brethren.

We are not then dependent only on the Bible, and the Christian writings, for our evidence of the exercise of the healing power. According to Gibbon, as we have seen, the dead were raised at least as late as the latter part of the second century. It is elsewhere historically recorded, that for at least three hundred years after Jesus’ time, the sick were healed by Divine power.

Says George Rawlinson, long a professor of Exeter College, England, and a writer of ability and note, in a work entitled, “Historical Evidences of the Truth of the Scripture Records:” “There is good evidence that the ability to work miracles was not confined to the apostolic age. The bishops and others who pressed to see Ignatius on his way to martyrdom, expected that he would communicate to them some spiritual gift.

Papias, an early Christian writer, near the close of the second century, relates that a dead man was raised in his time and that another wonderful thing occurred to Justin, who was surnamed Barsabas, namely, that he drank a deadly poison and suffered no unpleasant effects from it, on account of the grace of the Lord.

Irenæus speaks of miracles as still common in Gaul when he wrote, which was near the close of the second century. He says, speaking of Jesus: “On account of his true disciples receiving grace from him, they performed miracles in his name for the benefit of men, as each of them received the gift from him. For some truly and really expel demons; and others have foreknowledge of the future, and visions, and prophetic utterances. Others heal the sick and make them well. And even now, the dead have also been raised, and have remained with us many years. And also we have many brethren in the church having prophetic gifts, and speaking in all foreign tongues, and bringing to light the secrets of men for a good purpose.”

The contemporaneous writings of Tertullian, Theophilus and Felix affirm the continuance of the power of casting out devils in their time.

On the general question of the cessation of miracles, Burton, a more modern writer says: “Their actual cessation was imperceptible, and like the rays in a summer evening, which, when the sun has set, may be seen to linger on the top of a mountain, though they have ceased to fall on the level country beneath.” This latter statement is a simile which we might well bear in mind. If we will keep our eyes steadfastly fixed on the mountain top of Spiritual perfection, rather than upon the level country down in the valley of material sense, we shall not have the same experience that they did from whom the rays of the healing Light thus almost imperceptibly departed.

We will now proceed to consider why this Light went out from human consciousness. Christianity may be subdivided into three periods; the early Christians who were oppressed and persecuted, from its first establishment down to the time of Constantine; the mediæval period, when it became the Church of Rome, and was recognized as such, and was for the most part dominant; and the Protestant period from the time of Martin Luther. The first period extended to the year 311. During this period there was a protracted struggle between the Christians and Pagans. But notwithstanding the persecutions and terrific slaughter of the Christians, within a third of a century after the death of all the apostles, except John, that is, at the close of the first century, Christians were found in nearly all the countries bordering on the Mediterranean sea, especially in Asia Minor, Greece, Italy and North Africa. In the next two centuries, churches sprang up in all these places, and in many others. During all this period Christianity was opposed, sometimes by popular violence, sometimes by the government, and all the time by those who were accounted the scholars and men of learning of the day; that is, by the priesthood and philosophers of paganism. Then ensued a period of about eighty years, during which the emperors turned the handling of the Christians over to individual magistrates, who were even more severe and brutal in their persecutions than had the government been.

After fifty years more of uninterrupted persecution in this manner, came another general persecution under Diocletian, which ended with the change of the empire from a pagan to a Christian State, passing under the rule of Constantine. Under his rule Christianity became the acknowledged religion of the State. This changed the whole outward condition of the church. Politics and religion were combined. Sometimes the State ruled the church, and sometimes the church ruled the State.

Constantine established his court at Constantinople with regal splendor, where he exercised a most decisive influence on the church. The highest ecclesiastics were dependent on him for both appointment and retention in office; ecclesiastical councils were awed by his presence, and dictated to by him. He attended in person the general council at Nice, and there openly declared the Christian religion to be the official religion of the empire, although he was baptized only on his death-bed. He was cruel and ambitious. He is believed to have favored the Christian religion only because he thought a more powerful, and an absolute monarchy could better be erected upon its rising vigor, than upon the decaying remnants of paganism. Thus under his reign the church rose politically and sank morally at the same time. Piety, learning and the missionary zeal of the earlier times, retired before the increasing encroachments of political ambition and intrigue; there were many of the more pious and devout of the early christians, who, to escape these conditions, retired from the world, and this gave rise to monasticism. But this in turn, in course of time, drifted into the corruption and venality which characterized the general church.

The higher ecclesiastics became more and more secular; they were chosen from the families of princes for the sake of bringing them under the influence of the State. The right of investiture became an important question between the emperor, king, and the bishop of Rome. What the former sought to obtain by the appointment of favorites, the latter sought to nullify by oaths of allegiance. The emperor relied much on his archbishops, often his own dependents; the pope diminished their power by making them depend more on himself than on their immediate superiors. Thus the contest between church and state went on, each contending for the mastery, and resorting to all the devices of cunning and craftiness to accomplish its own ends on the one hand, and defeat the purposes of its enemy on the other. Meantime the people became ignorant, and a general deterioration in morals was the consequence; and things went on from bad to worse until the sudden breaking out of the German reformation. We have thus casually sketched the history of early Christianity from its original purity down through varying stages, to its final merging into the corruption and venality of state-craft, and sacerdotalism, or priestcraft. I have spoken of the splendors of Constantine’s court, permit me to refer to that of one of the bishops—Paul, Bishop of Antioch. Of him the historian tells us “His ecclesiastical jurisdiction was venal and rapacious; he extorted frequent contributions from the most opulent of the faithful, and converted to his own use a considerable part of the public revenue. By his pride and luxury the Christian religion was rendered odious even in the eyes of the Gentiles—that is the Pagans. His counsel chamber and his throne, the splendor with which he appeared in public, the suppliant crowd who solicited his attention, the multitude of letters to which he dictated his answers, and the perpetual hurry of business in which he was involved, were circumstances much better suited to the state of a civil magistrate than to the humility of a primitive bishop. Against those who resisted his power, or refused to flatter his vanity, he was arrogant, rigid and inexorable; but he relaxed his discipline, and lavished the treasures of the church on his dependent clergy, who were permitted to imitate their master in the gratification of every sensual appetite.”

In view of these historical facts, and many others which might be mentioned; when we consider that a large part of the world was involved in almost perpetual warfare; and all in the name of Christ; when we see how his name, and his example and teachings were lost sight of in a little more than three hundred years from his time, and how they were prostituted to the lust of gain and earthly power; when we think of all these things, have we not found an abundant answer to the question as to why the healing power, as taught by Jesus became lost to mankind? Need we inquire further? Does this history indicate an obedience to his injunction to make disciples of all the nations? And why was this command disobeyed? I answer Idolatry was the cause. The idolatry of temporal, worldly power: the idolatry of worldly ambition; the idolatry of gain; the idolatry of lust; the idolatry of fleshly appetites, and this means the idolatry of the five material senses, the idolatry of the human body, for these constitute the human body.

We see in the history of Rome that the idolatry of Paganism was superceded by the greater idolatry of Romanism. These two forms of idolatry still exist in the world. Did Protestantism do away with idolatry? Has it yet? Has it re-established primitive Christianity? Has it lived the pure and simple religion which Jesus taught? Are there none of the elements of Pagan idolatry, of Judaic idolatry, of Romish idolatry hanging about it yet? There are. And so long as religious philosophy, whether assuming the name of Protestantism, Judaism, Catholicism, or Paganism, gives greater power to the human than to the Divine, to the material than to the Spiritual; or in other words, so long as it clings to the false belief that matter contains a life, substance and intelligence apart from God, so long will it continue to worship its material idols.

From the time of Constantine to Luther, a large part of the world was held in the darkness of Romish idolatry. It has not yet emerged from that darkness. It is only just now emerging from it. It is not so strange then, in view of the history at which we have been glancing, that not until the calcium light of the Nineteenth century was turned on, was the Divine healing of primitive Christianity, and of the earlier Bible times, revived. It seems only consistent with the spirit of the age that it should be so. That light is only yet dimly shining in the wilderness of mortal consciousness. Mankind are yet in the deep mesmeric sleep of materialism, yet under the dread, hypnotic spell of sensual idolatry. It will require, I fear, many repetitions of the thunder roars and lightning flashes, and the “voice of a trumpet exceeding loud” from the mountain heights of Sinai, to wake it from its stupor. These Sinaic roarings and flashings and trumpetings reverberated down the vistas of time, growing fainter and still fainter, until they gathered around Mount Horeb where Elijah talked with God; and bursting anew therefrom they again echoed and re-echoed, faintly and more faintly, until they gathered around, and burst with mighty force from the peaks of Calvary. Yet were not the thunderings and lightnings of Sinai, nor of Horeb, nor the brightness of the Transfiguration, nor the sweetly flowing cadences from the Saviour’s lips on Olivet, nor the terrific roarings and flashings and quakings around Mount Calvary, sufficient to wake the sleeping world but for brief moments. It slept; it yet sleeps. Here and there we may see one of its denizens crawling lazily out of his bed of material ease, and rubbing his heavy eyes as he listens dazedly to the resounding thunders of Sinai and Horeb and Calvary, and blinks stupidly at the lightning flashes of Truth as they light up the Nineteenth century sky.

But there are a few watchful shepherds looking skyward for the Christ’s coming. There are a few Moses and Elijahs up on the mountain tops. There are a few Peters and James ready to follow Him up to the Mount of Transfiguration. Let us too follow Him there. Let us no longer sleep. Do we not hear from Sinai: “Thou shalt have none other gods before me?” Do we not hear from Horeb: “Go forth and stand before the Mount of the Lord?” Do we not hear the sweet reverberations from Olivet: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven?” Do we not hear the voice of God from out the bright cloud of the Transfiguration: “This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye him?” Hear ye Him, for he spake as never man spake, and it was Him who said: “Elijah indeed cometh, and shall restore all things: but I say unto you, that Elijah is come already, and they knew him not.”

Once more listen to the warning notes from the Nineteenth century Mount, at whose feet we stand, looking with eager eyes to catch glimpses of the radiant Light at its top.