Body. Christian faith can only heighten human sympathy.
And in the New Testament there are not wanting indications that the faith of friends has a vicarious efficacy. In such faith the force of suggestion is at work, but it is a collective suggestion. There is the typical case of the four friends, who were not to be put off by the crush at the doors, but resolutely stripped the roofing in order to lower the paralytic, as he lay on his pallet, into the Saviour's immediate presence. Such unconventional faith was irresistible. 'When Jesus saw their faith, He said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.'[1] The bodily cure soon followed. The fact is, that such faith diffuses a spiritual atmosphere; it is contagious and works from mind to mind. 'Our bodies isolate us, our spirits unite us.'[2]
Similarly, in the raising of Jairus's daughter an emphasis is laid on the necessity of a sympathetic atmosphere: first, by the fact that only three, the elect among the chosen Twelve, SS. Peter, James and John, were allowed to
- ↑ Mark ii. 5. Cp. T. T. Carter, Holy Eucharist, pp. 150, 151, especially the words, 'To lean one's own failing faith on the more trustful, assured faith and convictions of others. So that the same spirit may communicate itself to the sad and darkened soul by a mutually organic sympathy.'
- ↑ Sir Oliver Lodge, Man and the Universe, p. 47.
