to stir mankind to Christian effort? Because men are assured that this command was intended only for a Jesus' teaching belittled particular period and for a select number of followers. This teaching is even more pernicious than the old doctrine of foreordination, — the election of a few to be saved, while the rest are damned; and so it will be considered, when the lethargy of mortals, produced by man-made doctrines, is broken by the demands of divine Science.
Jesus said: “These signs shall follow them that believe; . . . they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” Who believes him? He was addressing his disciples, yet he did not say, “These signs shall follow you” but them — “them that believe” in all time to come. Here the word hands is used metaphorically, as in the text, “The right hand of the Lord is exalted.” It expresses spiritual power; otherwise the healing could not have been done spiritually. At another time Jesus prayed, not for the twelve only, but for as many as should believe “through their word.”
Jesus experienced few of the pleasures of the physical senses, but his sufferings were the fruits of other people's Material pleasures sins, not of his own. The eternal Christ, spiritual selfhood, never suffered. Jesus mapped out the path for others. He unveiled the Christ, the spiritual idea of divine Love. To those buried in the belief of sin and self, living only for pleasure or the gratification of the senses, he said in substance: Having eyes ye see not, and having ears ye hear not; lest ye should understand and be converted, and I might heal you. He taught that the material senses shut out Truth and its healing power.
