own experience as final evidence not only of goodness but also of inspiration: they accept the particular dogma professed by the healer as infallible and its teacher as a prophet. On this fallacy flourish, and have always flourished, the impostors of medicine and the impostors of religion, the quacks and the false prophets of all ages; yet it is not perhaps with deliberate impostors that the peril lies at the present day, but rather with those, less deceiving than deceived, who, untrained by the discipline either of religious practice or of scientific study, are arrogant, shallow, and self-confident, and lead others into those futile and foolish ways which end in disillusion and disaster.

CHAPTER XVIII

THE MISSION OF THE DISCIPLES

It will be noticed that in the passage from St. Matthew, just quoted,1 our Lord regards healing as the twin-brother of preaching in ministerial work"Did we not prophesy by thy name, and by thy name do many powers?" It will also be noticed that he puts preaching first, as the more important of the two: the healing powers he regards rather as the natural accompaniment and support of the teaching ministry; and this is definitely stated in that remarkable saying from the Appendix to St. Mark, which must surely embody a true record 2—“ And these signs shall follow them that believe." The signs are to follow, not to precede; and this the unknown writer of the second century comes back to and repeats" And they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word by the signs that followed.”

"3

This combination of teaching and healing, with teaching in the first place, is the normal process of our Lord's own ministry. We find it mentioned in Nos. I and 4; we find it in the climax of the Message to John Baptist (No. 25): "And the poor have good tidings preached to them"; and it 2 See pp. 190–1.

1 See p. 186.

3 Mk. 16 17-20.

is brought home to us by St. Matthew where he twice says (Nos. 23 and 24)—

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And Jesus went about all the cities and the villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of disease and all manner of sickness."

1

It was this same mission which our Lord entrusted to his followers on two notable occasions "As ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out dæmons; freely ye received, freely give." How often, in our curious fashion of wresting "texts" from their context, has this saying, "freely ye received, freely give," been proclaimed as an inducement to almsgiving! although the Apostles had not even brass in their purses to provide alms withal.2

Let us then set these two important instances in our list

43 Mk. 67

1 Mt. 10 7-9.

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THE APOSTLES: And he called unto
him the twelve, and began to send
them forth by two and two; and he
gave them authority over the unclean
spirits.
And they went out,
and preached that men should repent.
And they cast out many dæmons, and
anointed with oil many that were sick,
and healed them."

2 Of course almsgiving is taught elsewhere by Christ. In the little sermon imbedded by St. Matthew in the Sermon on the Mount, the three universal duties of religion are taken for granted, "when thou doest alms," "when ye pray," "" and when ye fast."

(Lk. 91)

44 Lk. 101

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St. Luke adds details: And gave them
power and authority over all dæmons,
and to cure diseases. And he sent
them forth to preach the kingdom of
God and to heal the sick.
And they departed, and went through
the villages, preaching the gospel, and
healing everywhere.
And the
Apostles, when they were returned,
declared unto him what things they
had done."

THE SEVENTY: Now after these things
the Lord appointed seventy others, and
sent them two and two before his face
into every city and place, whither he
himself was about to
Heal the sick that are therein, and
say unto them, The kingdom of God
is come nigh unto you.

come.

And

the seventy returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the dæmons are subject unto us in thy name."

So far then from claiming that the healing virtue was confined to the Divinity of his own person, our Lord gave the Twelve authority to exercise it. Nor did he confine this authority to the Apostles to use ecclesiastical language, he did not make it an episcopal function, but licensed no less than seventy of his followers to exercise the healing ministry as they preached. Nor did he attempt to attract attention to his own signs; on the contrary, he sent the Seventy on in front to heal the sick in those cities whither he himself was about to come. These two instances are great and crucial: they show in a manner that is at once large and definite what our Lord's own method was of spreading the Gospel through his ministers.

What means did they use? They may have healed in more than one manner; but only one is mentioned. St. Mark tells us that they used Unction" they anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them."

One other instance of a healing commission is to be found in the New Testament, that, namely, in the Appendix to St. Mark, which we have as Mk. 16 9-20. It is almost certainly not the original ending to the Gospel, which may have been lost through the destruction of the last leaf of the MS.; but it is of early date. Possibly it was added by a disciple or successor of St. Mark; in any case it is considered by scholars to embody a true apostolic tradition.1 It, therefore, very probably preserves a genuine saying of Christ, a saying indeed the general drift of which could hardly have been invented; 2 and if this be denied, then at least it is extremely valuable as illustrating the opinion of the Church in the second century ·

44A Mk. 16 17 "And these signs shall follow them that believe in my name shall they cast out dæmons; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall in no wise hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. And they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirm

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1 Dr. Salmond in Hasting's Dict. of the Bible, III, p. 253. 2" Who," says Bishop Lyttleton, "would have put into his mouth so unexpected a phrase," as 'these signs shall follow them that believe,' signs being thus considered as the consequences among believers and not as the causes of their belief. Hulsean Lectures on Miracles, 1899, pp. 76–7.