and power has been altogether exceptional. Here
and there, through the history of these centuries,
there have been those who have entered into this belief
of their own privilege and duty, and have used the
gift which they recognized. The Church has never
been left without a line of witnesses to this aspect
of the discipleship of Christ. But she has come
to accept it as the normal order of things that what
was once the rule in the Christian Church should be
now only the exception. Orthodoxy has framed
a theory of the words of Jesus to account for this
strange departure of His Church from them. It
teaches us to believe that His example was not meant
to be followed, in this respect, by all His disciples.
The power of healing which was in Him was a purely
exceptional power. It was used as an evidence
of His divine mission. It was a miraculous gift.
The gift of working miracles was not bestowed upon
His Church at large. His original disciples,
the twelve apostles, received this gift, as a necessity
of the critical epoch of Christianity —the
founding of the Church. Traces of the power lingered
on, in weakening activity, until they gradually ceased,
and the normal condition of the Church was entered
upon, in which miracles are no longer possible.
We accept this, unconsciously, as the true state of
things in Christianity. But it is a conception
which will not bear a moment’s examination.
There is not the slightest suggestion upon record
that Christ set any limit to this charge which He
gave His disciples. On the contrary, there are
not lacking hints that He looked for the possession
and exercise of this power wherever His spirit breathed
in men.
Even if the concluding paragraph of St. Mark’s
Gospel were a later appendix, it may none the less
have been a faithful echo of words of the Master,
as it certainly is a trustworthy record of the belief
of the early Christians as to the thought of Jesus
concerning His followers. In that interesting
passage, Jesus, after His death, appeared to the eleven,
and formally commissioned them, again, to take up His
work in the world; bidding them, “Go ye into
all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.”
“And these signs,” He tells them, “shall
follow them that believe”—not the
apostles only, but “them that believe,”
without limit of time; “in My name they shall
cast out devils .
. . they shall lay hands on the
sick and they shall recover.” The concluding
discourse to the disciples, recorded in the Gospel
according to St. John, affirms the same expectation
on the part of Jesus; emphasizing it in His solemn
way: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He
that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he
do also; and greater works than these shall he do.”
APPENDIX F
Copyrights
Christian Science from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.
