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(Naming maladies)
Sometimes Jesus called a disease by name, as when he
said to the epileptic boy, "Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I
charge thee, come out of him, and enter no
more into him." It is added that "the spirit
[error] cried, and rent him sore and came out of him, and
he was as one dead," - clear evidence that the malady
was not material. These instances show the concessions
which Jesus was willing to make to the popular ignorance
of spiritual Life-laws. Often he gave no name to the
distemper he cured. To the synagogue ruler's daughter,
whom they called dead but of whom he said, "she is not
dead, but sleepeth," he simply said, "Damsel, I say unto
thee, arise!" To the sufferer with the withered hand
he said, "Stretch forth thine hand," and it "was restored
whole, like as the other."
Homoeopathic remedies, sometimes not containing a
particle of medicine, are known to relieve the symptoms
of disease. What produces the change? It is
the faith of the doctor and the patient, which
reduces self-inflicted sufferings and produces a new effect
upon the body. In like manner destroy the illusion of
pleasure in intoxication, and the desire for strong drink
is gone. Appetite and disease reside in mortal mind, not
in matter.
So also faith, cooperating with a belief in the healing
effects of time and medication, will soothe fear and change
the belief of disease to a belief of health. Even a blind
faith removes bodily ailments for a season, but hypnotism
changes such ills into new and more difficult forms of
disease. The Science of Mind must come to the rescue,
to work a radical cure. Then we understand the process.
The great fact remains that evil is not mind. Evil has
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