CHAPTER III
CHAPTER III
THE PUBLIC MINISTRY OF JESUS
Tue life of Jesus was well-balanced.
His inner life of prayer and His outer life of service were equally important to Him; the one did not crowd out the other.
His communion with the Father was close and intimate both during His times of prayer and His hours of work.
We have seen some glimpses of His inner life of prayer; we shall now study the nature of His public ministry.
Soon after He began His work, He went to Nazareth where He had spent the greater part of His life. On the Sabbath day He attended the service in the synagogue and expounded a passage from the book of Isaiah.
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, Because he anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor:
He hath sent me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovering of sight to the blind, To set at liberty them that are bruised,
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.
And he closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down: and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fastened on him.
And he began to say unto them, To-day hath this scripture been fulfilled in your ears." *
He thus laid down the programme of His public work.
We are impressed by the comprehensive character of His ideal.
The main principles of all social and spiritual work are enumerated here in the clearest possible way and for all time. We may now inquire how Jesus Himself carried out this programme.
His chief lines of activity were healing and teaching.
He constantly travelled through the villages and towns of Palestine, carrying on these two types of work.
Some of the important characteristics of His public ministry may now be noted.
It was in the spirit of a servant (Sévaka) that He did all His work.
' But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. Not so shall it be among you : but whosoever would become great among you shall be your
+ Luke iv. 18-21.
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4! minister; and whosoever would be first among you shall be your servant: even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." ?
The disciples never understood Him wholly.
They had been drawn to Him by His mysterious spiritual power; though they listened to His lofty teaching and moved with Him closely, they did not quite grasp the spiritual character of His mission.
They thought that He would establish a glorious worldly or spiritual Kingdom and that they themselves would be given places of importance in that Kingdom.
The saying of Jesus that He had come to minister and not to be ministered unto perplexed them much.
And yet that was the spirit in which He did His entire work.
In the Gospel of St. John the story is told of Jesus washing the feet of His disciples.
' Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he came forth from God, and goeth unto God, riseth from supper, and layeth aside his garments; and he took a towel, and girded himself.
Then he poureth water into the bason, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded.
So he cometh to Simon Peter.
He saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet?
Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt understand hereafter.
Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet.
Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.
Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head." * Though this story occurs only in the Gospel of St. John we need not doubt it. The Fourth Evangelist was always exalting the glory of Christ, and an incident like this would not have struck him as natural.
It was because it actually occurred that he has related it, though it is not in keeping with his high idea of the dignity of Christ.
This incident shows clearly the spirit of the servant which actuated Jesus throughout His ministry. g.
Again and again He was moved with compassion.
The needs of men deeply stirred Him.
When He saw large numbers of sick people He was moved with compassion for them and healed them.
'' And when even was come, they brought unto him many possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all that were sick: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, Himself took
? Matthew xx. 25-28.
3 John xiii. 3-9.
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our infirmities, and bare our diseases." * '' And he came forth, and saw a great multitude, and he had compassion on them, and healed their sick."* On two occasions they had come in thousands to a desert place to hear Him. They had no food and were hungry; so on each occasion He worked a miracle and fed them.
'And Jesus called unto him his disciples, and said, I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with me now three days and have nothing to eat: and I would not send them away fasting, lest haply they faint in the way." °
'""And he came forth and saw a great multitude, and he had compassion on them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd: and he began to teach them many things.""
His compassion always led to immediate action; it was no empty feeling of sympathy.
There is a great deal of useless sympathy in the world; people often express their sympathy and do nothing more. Not such was the sympathy of Jesus. Compassion literally means " suffering with'; Jesus suffered with the people who suffered.
He realized in Himself more than any one else in the world the ideal of the godly man as set out by Tukaram, the poet of Western India.
** That man is true Who taketh to his bosom the afflicted :
* In such a man Dwelleth, augustly present, God himself :
The heart of such a man is filled abrim With pity, gentleness and love:
He taketh the forsaken for his own." ® A wonderful prayer of a devotee is given in the Mahabharata:
" O who would tell me of the sacred way Whereby I might enter into all hearts That suffer, and take all their suffering
Upon myself for ever and for aye." ® Some such prayer must often have been on the lips of Jesus.
* Matthew viii. 16, 17.
° Matthew xiv. 14.
° Matthew xv. 32.
™ Mark vi. 34. oy erry Songs from Prison, p. 129. é Mahabharata, Anu-Shdsana Parva, 1. li. uot i Das, The Essential Unity of All Religions, p. 304.
PRE eke e
THE PUBLIC MINISTRY OF JESUS
The greater the need, the deeper His sympathy.
A touching story is told of a leper who came to Jesus and was healed by Him.
" And there cometh to him a leper, beseeching him, and kneeling down to him, and saying unto him, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.
And being moved with compassion, he stretched forth his hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, I will; be thou made clean.
And straightway the leprosy departed from him, and he was made clean." *° Leprosy is a loathsome disease ; the very sight of a leper disturbs most people.
But Jesus was 'ees stirred and touched him with His own hand and healed im.
In the course of His work Jesus clearly realized the close connexion between the spirit and the body. A great many social workers to-day desire to give them better houses, better clothes, better food and better surroundings, and they think that all this could be done without any reference to religion or God.
Even Mahatma Gandhi, with his deep religious experience and _ his passion for social work, urges Christians to run hospitals and schools but not to teach Christianity in them.
In the work of Jesus the physical and the spiritual were constantly associated together.
As we have just seen, when people came to hear Him preach and had no food He gave them food.
He did not say, "I am only concerned with the souls of men and not with their bodies" but He met the physical needs of men just as effectively as He met their spiritual wants. And how much time He devoted to the relief of physical suffering!
He made the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak; He made the blind to see and the lame to walk and He cleansed lepers.
All this was primarily physical relief, and yet He devoted a considerable part of His time and energy to such work.
Often He made the giving of physical help an occasion for spiritual teaching.
When people came to Him to be healed He forgave them their sins and set them on a new spiritual path.
We cannot reaily help people unless we . help them both body and soul.
If a man suffers intense physical pain we cannot tell him about God unless that pain is relieved ; if a man is starving, instruction about the love of God will fall on deaf ears unless his hunger is satisfied.
The opposite is also equally true.
A man whose illness is healed must be given a new spiritual vision and taught to make the best use of the new life which has been made available to him.
" Tolstoi, the Russian writer, is reputed to have once said that his best story was never written.
Explaining the paradox, he * Mark i. 40-42.
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continued:
'What a wonderful novel I could have written about a story I once heard in Moscow, a supposedly true story.
An officer's wife was about to bear a child, and the doctor attending her declared that she herself could not be saved.
A priest was hurriedly summoned to give her the last rites.
He was a monk from a nearby cloister.
It so happened that during his worldly life he had been a famous surgeon, and he realized at once that there was a chance to save both the woman and the child.
Without stopping to think, he grasped the instruments and performed the operation.
It turned out successfully, and the happy officer fell on his knees before the monk.
But the latter, in his turn, begged forgiveness and made those present swear they would never tell a soul of his deed: for he had sinned grievously: he had seen a woman's naked body and had shed blood in the presence of the Almighty.
. Naturally, the overjoyed husband could not keep the secret and the news leaked out.
The monk was sent to do penance in a distant cloister in Siberia.
Oh, what a wonderful book could be woven around that!'
His voice trembled, tears glistened in his eyes!" ™ Our point of view on this matter has now changed a good deal.
Many a Christian minister would now covet the monk's ability to give immediate physical relief.
4. Jesus called for the co-operation of the people.
Whatever His own powers were, He always taught that He could not really help unless people had faith.
He did this in the course of His teaching ministry.
Once He was invited to dinner and as He sat down at the meal a woman who was a sinner brought an alabaster box of ointment, broke it at His feet and anointed them with the scent.
The Pharisee who had invited Him was quite taken by surprise.
He thought within himself that if Jesus were a prophet, as many people claimed Him to be, He would certainly have known that she was a sinner and would have had nothing to do with her.
But, on the other hand, He told her that her sins were forgiven, and sent her away with the words of benediction:
"Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace." "
; This woman was probably a well-known character.
She was locally held in disrepute as a bad woman.
All good people had given up hopes of her. They thought that social contact with her would be contaminating and avoided her like poison.
Probably she also began to lose all hope for herself.
The attitude of people "The Hindu, October 1, 1939.
™ Luke vii. 36-50.
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around her would certainly have affected her; she might have begun to think of herself as having gone beyond redemption.
But she heard of this new spiritual teacher who would not cast her out but who would give her a new lease of spiritual life.
So she came to Him in great faith.
She had to make an effort and decide to come to see Him, though she might naturally have shrunk from such an interview.
She might also have anticipated difficulties from the host in whose house Jesus had the meal.
Jesus welcomed this initiative on her part and reinforced her feeble spiritual powers.
He forgave her sins and sent her out with new hopes to live for and new expectations to realize.
He did the same with the physically infirm.
A paralytic man was brought to Him on a bed.
Jesus bade him get up, take his bed and go home and he did so.** In every case He insisted upon people exercising their faith.
They must do the best they could and then He would help them.
Whatever powers resided in a man must be fully used before Jesus would come to his aid.
Social workers know the importance of this principle.
Unless the people want to help themselves it is no use building clean homes for them or giving them higher wages.
Jesus took men and women as they were and drew out all that was best in them.
If they were morally weak they had to use what little power of decision they had before He would come to their rescue.
They might be physically weak and even unable to walk: but He put so much confidence in them that they walked, much to their own amazement and the surprise of those who knew them.
In several cities He could not do mighty works because there was no faith. " And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief." ** Only where there was faith His healing power was released.
He constantly rebuked His disciples and those who came to Him to be healed or to be helped otherwise for their lack of faith. Such want of faith always distressed Him.
He spoke sternly whenever He saw men losing their faith in God.
Unless they exerted themselves there was no salvation for them.
Jesus gave of Himself unstintedly to His work.
One of the maxims in the Kurral says:
** The loveless to themselves belong alone ; The loving men are others' to the very bone.
The second line of this verse describes Jesus exactly.
He gave of Himself to others to the very bone.
His was unremitting toil.
99:15
9 Mark ii. 2-12.
4% Matthew xiii. 58.
%G. U. Pope, Sacred Kurral, p. 12.
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He was often fatigued at the end of a hard day's work.
His time was so crowded with people coming and going that He had often to seek quiet and peace in the desert place or by the hillside.
Once a deaf and dumb boy, who was possessed with a spirit, was brought to Him.
The boy behaved violently; as soon as he saw Jesus he fell on the ground and wallowed foaming.
His father said he had often leaped into fire or water at immense risk to his life.
Jesus healed the boy.
When His disciples, to whom the boy had been brought first.and who had not been able to heal him, asked Him why they were not able to heal him,
Jesus said that this kind of spirit could only be cast out by prayer and fasting.** This shows what price Jesus had to pay for His healing work ; it was only as a result of long prayer and fasting that He was able to cure men of their diseases; such work did not come easy to Him.
On another occasion as He was walking along, followed by a big crowd, a sick woman who had been ill for twelve years and had spent all her fortune on medical treatment came behind Him and touched the border of His garment and immediately she was healed.
Jesus said:
" Who is it that touched me?"
Every one denied having touched Him.
Peter and others remarked to Jesus that there was a big crowd pressing on Him.
But Jesus said:
"Some one did touch me: for I perceived that power had gone forth from me."
On this the woman confessed that she had touched Him and was sent away with a blessing by Jesus.*'
Here again we see what it cost Jesus to heal people; He had to give of His spiritual energy to help them.
When men did not respond, He took it very much to heart.
He wept over Jerusalem.
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killeth the prophets, and stoneth them that are sent unto her! how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her own brood under her wings, and ye would not!" ** He helped people by living with them, entering into their deepest sufferings and working for them to the utmost limit of His strength.
6. Jesus helped all classes of people. He healed street beggars.
A blind beggar on the way to Jericho besought Him to help and He gave him sight."
There were many men who were possessed with spirits; in our present day medical phrase we should call them insane; they were wandering wildly about, living in tombs
* Mark ix. 14-29.
* Luke viii. 43-48.
* Luke xiii. 34.
*® Mark x. 46-52.
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and in other strange places.
These also Jesus made whole.
Some patients had enough influence and money to be carried to Him on beds.
He healed a centurion's servant.
The centurion, though an officer in the Roman army, was quite humble and asked Jesus only to say a word and not to trouble even to go into the house, but Jesus went all the same and healed the servant.
The mother-in-law of Peter, one of His disciples, was ill with fever and He healed her; Peter and his people were fisher folk.
His intimate friend, Lazarus, was apparently a man of some means for he lived with his sisters in a home of his own at Bethany; he died; Jesus wept over the calamity and brought
'him back to life.
Mary Magdalene, from whom He drove out spirits, was a harlot. A noble man's son was also healed by Him.
Jairus, whose daughter He raised from the dead, was a ruler of a synagogue: that is, he was a church official.
Thus He ministered to all sorts and conditions of men and women.
He was a profound social revolutionary in the sense that He laid down principles which upset a great many of the accepted ideals of men about their duty to one another. But He did not advocate or practise class-war or class-bitterness in any form. Among those who came and were healed by Him, or who listened to His teaching, many races were represented.
The Greeks, with their philosophy and culture, came to Him and were taught by Him.
A woman of the Samaritan race, with whom the Jews were always in conflict, received some of His noblest teaching.
The centurion, whose servant He healed, was a Roman and the Jews hated the Romans bitterly as they ruled over them.
7. Jesus was anxious to avoid all publicity.
Again and again we read in the Gospels that He asked people not to speak about the mighty works which He wrought." When men came to Him and were healed by Him, He asked them not to publish the news but often they disobeyed Him and spread abroad the glad tidings all the more.
They were so filled with gratitude and joy for the new health which had been given to them that they did not give heed to the command of Jesus but made known the amazing change which had taken place in them by His power.
'Those possessed with spirits seemed to have a strange gift for understanding who He was; they had some unusual power of insight.
As soon as they saw Him they confessed that He was the Son of God.
Jesus forbade them to speak of Him publicly in this way.
After the Transfiguration, when His glory was revealed to His three intimate disciples, He asked them not to speak about it to " Mark i. 34, 42-45; Mark iii. 12, and in a great many other places.
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others until after His Resurrection.
The anxiety which He showed to avoid publicity and fame was remarkable.
Often good people who are really anxious to help others and who do a great deal for them are weak in this matter; they like their names to be mentioned in the papers and their photographs to be published.
Some give away large sums of money and even themselves actively take part in philanthropic work in order that they may be given titles.
But Jesus who worked for others day and night avoided publicity as much as He could.
If His fame became too great in one locality and large crowds began to collect He left that neighbourhood and went to another part of the country where He was not so well known.
It may be said" that the main reason for His avoiding publicity was to postpone the Messianic crisis. The Jews of His time were eagerly expecting the advent of the Messiah. If the mighty works which Jesus did got abroad, the Jews would have immediately concluded that He was indeed the long-expected Messiah and would have sought to force Him to declare Himself publicly as such.
This He was not prepared to do, as the time for it had not yet come.
The desire not to hasten a crisis was certainly one reason why He avoided publicity.
But it was not the only reason.
He helped people because they needed to be helped; their sad condition stirred Him to immediate sympathy; and He did not want others to know all that He was doing to relieve men of their suffering and misery.
Did He not enjoin on others the utmost secrecy in almsgiving? " Take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men, to be seen of them: else ye have no reward with your Father which is in heaven.
When therefore thou doest alms, sound not a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men.
Verily I say unto you, They have received their reward.
But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: that thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret shall recompense thee." 7"
This precept Jesus practised in His own life of service, avoiding publicity and glory as much as He could.
8. Jesus did not use any of the supernatural gifts which He possessed for His own benefit.
Before His ministry began we are told that He had three temptations.
In a vision or in a series of visions He had an encounter with Satan who tempted
Him.
The first two of these temptations related to this very point.
"Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness ™ Matthew vi. 1—4.
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to be tempted of the devil.
And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he afterward hungered.
And the tempter came and said unto him, If thou art the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.
But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Then the devil taketh him into the holy city; and he set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto him, If thou art the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee :
And on their hands they shall bear thee up, Lest haply thou shalt dash thy foot against a stone.
Jesus said unto him, Again it is written, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." "
He knew He had extraordinary powers (siddhis); these He could use for His own profit; when He was hungry, for instance,
He could turn stone into bread.
He was going to be a Sannyasi and would carry no money.
It was quite likely that as He wandered from place to place He would have to go without food sometimes.
Perhaps then He could use His supernatural powers.
Or He could use His miraculous gifts to demonstrate to the world His greatness ; He could jump down from a high tower and be unhurt.
Before He commenced His ministry, as He reflected in His own mind about the methods which He should follow in His work, the suggestion to use His supernatural gifts to avoid suffering for Himself and to win the favour of the public arose in His mind in a vision as an encounter between Himself and Satan.
But He dismissed the suggestion; He would have nothing to do with it.
He would not use His abnormal powers to win the faith of the world.
His method was rather the method of the Cross.
He would live with men, help them to the farthest limit of His strength and die for them; only in that way would He make men love Him.
When during His arrest a disciple of Jesus cut off the ear of a servant of the High Priest,
Jesus healed the wound and said to His disciple:
' Put up again thy sword into its place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.
Or thinkest thou that I cannot beseech my Father, and he shall even now send me more than twelve legions of angels?" ** i g. Jesus passed on to others His own passion for work.
He » Matthew iv. 1-7.
* Matthew xxvi. 52, 53.
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appointed seventy disciples to go to various villages and towns, to heal the sick who were there and to preach the Kingdom of God.
'And the seventy returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us in thy name.
And he said unto them, I beheld Satan fallen as lightning from heaven.
Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall in any wise hurt you.
Howbeit in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.
In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou didst hide these things from the wise and understanding, and didst reveal them unto babes: yea, Father; for so it was wellpleasing in thy sight." **
This is a remarkable passage.
The disciples were quite surprised when their work was crowned with success.
Particularly were they pleased with the effective way in which they were able to treat the insane.
The results of their mission stirred Jesus deeply and His joy was tremendous.
It was a matter of supreme happiness to Him that His disciples had taken up with enthusiasm the work which He had entrusted to them, that they were doing it so well and that even greater results would follow than they had yet seen on their mission.
We read in the Acts of the Apostles how in the early Church the disciples of Christ continued to carry on this important ministry of helping men, both body and soul.
10.
There was another striking characteristic about the public ministry of Jesus.
He introduced a new factor into human life by associating women with His work.
"And there were also women beholding from afar: among whom were both Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome; who, when he was in Galilee, followed him, and ministered unto him; and many other women which came up with him unto Jerusalem." *° Women were held in great contempt in the time of Jesus. The ethical teachers of that day taught that "A man should not salute a woman in a public place, not even his own wife."
They also held that it was " better that the words of the law should be burnt than delivered to women."
In the daily service of the synagogue the men said:
" Blessed art thou, O Lord . . . who hast not made me a woman."
'The women from their separate "Luke x. 17-21.
Mark xv. 40, 41.
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place made the response:
" Blessed art thou, O Lord, who hast fashioned me according to thy will." *° We perhaps fail to recognize all that Christ has done for women.
We are so familiar with the freedom and high social position given to women in modern days that we sometimes forget that it was Christ who introduced a new outlook into the world about women.
For the first time in History women went about publicly doing religious and social work.
In the Upanishads we read of some women who were the apt spiritual pupils of the Rishis; these ancient thinkers of India explained some of their deepest thoughts to them.
We may gather from this that some of the women of those days in India were highly advanced in their spiritual culture and were considered worthy of profound religious instruction.
In the Gospels also we see some women in the capacity of apt spiritual pupils, to whom Jesus gave His highest teaching.
Martha and Mary and the Samaritan woman received instruction from Him on some of the deepest things in life. The Gospels show that women were not only apt pupils but that they engaged in the active ministry.
From this small seed has grown the tremendous Women's Movement which we see to-day all over the world; women are now co-operating with men in all spheres of life and holding various positions of leadership and responsibility.
The Miracles of fesus There has been much controversy in recent years about the miracles of Jesus.
The spread of scientific education has made many men unwilling to believe in miracles.
They say that the world is governed by certain well-known laws and miracles are contrary to them ; we can believe only in what normally happens and not in the miraculous.
So there are some Christian theologians who do not believe in any of the miracles recorded in the Gospels and many who believe only in the miracles of healing and reject all the other miracles as improbable.
We must remember that Jesus Himself often said that these and other miracles could be worked by any one who had faith.
" And Jesus said unto him, If thou canst! All things are possible to him that believeth." 2"
'" And the Lord said, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye would say unto this sycamine tree,
Be thou rooted up, and be thou planted in the sea ; and it would % William Temple, Readings in St. fohn's Gospel, p. 59, and B. F. Westcott, The Gospel According to St. John, Pp. 74.
"1 Mark ix. 23.
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have obeyed you." ** "' Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast it out?
And he saith unto them, Because of your little faith: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you."
Jesus firmly held that the power to work miracles was not confined to Himself; all those who had strong faith in God had the capacity to perform miracles.
The power of God is infinite; if we can only tap that power and release it, we can do a great deal which ordinarily seems impossible.
God is quite ready and willing to let us use His power.
He is full of love for us and His infinite resources are always at our disposal.
Only we must have strong faith that this power is available and we must be prepared to draw from it.
As I have said, some of the Christian theologians are prepared now to believe in miracles of healing which are recorded in the Gospels.
Canon Raven says:
"Scientists began to demonstrate that in certain directions, and notably in cases of nervous disease, individual men of to-day could accomplish results that to an earlier generation would have seemed miraculous.
Psychic research began to open up fresh evidence of the subtle interactions of personalities, to demonstrate the power of suggestion, and to break down the older forms of materialism.
Clinical experience, enormously increased by the nerve-strain and shock of war, discovered lines of treatment that yielded astounding and often almost instantaneous cures.
That is not the place to describe the methods or discuss the significance of Psycho-therapy.
But its effect upon the general attitude towards miracles has been revolutionary. Twenty years ago it was hard to believe that even
Jesus healed the sick 'with a word' : to-day it is admitted that in a person of outstanding psychic development it would be surprising if there were not the power to heal.
Certain of His works are now generally accepted." *° The practice of spiritual healing is spreading in the Christian
Church.
There are many men and women who are able to cure diseases by their prayers.
I myself have come in first-hand contact with such cases of recovery.
The name of Bishop Pakenham-Walsh is well known in India.
He prays for sick people, often anointing them, and keeps a careful record of all
% Luke xvii. 6.
°° Matthew xvii. 19-21 * Raven, Jesus and the Gospel of Love, p. 251.
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his cases.
He states that over thirty-three per cent of the persons for whom he prays are healed. I have had occasion to investigate carefully three or four cases of remarkable recovery as the result of his prayers.
The evidence, both of the patients and of their close relations or friends, is quite convincing.
It has always been believed in India that the spirit has great power over matter and that what are called miracles can be worked by men of high spiritual development. I am not referring here to the miracles which are narrated in the Puranas.
These can be paralleled from all over the world.
Men in a low stage of intellectual development are ready to believe whatever they are told and stories of miracles easily grow.
The ancient books in the different countries of the world are full of such stories.
I am referring here rather to the deep and subtle thinkers of India who came to believe in the miraculous as a result of their careful investigation into the powers of the mind.
Patanjali, the author of the Yoga Sititras, must be regarded as a great psychologist.
His book reveals a profound knowledge of human nature.
He goes deep into the subject and makes a minute and careful study of the workings of the mind.
He says:
'" One whose whole nature is surrendered to the /svara has perfection of concentration.
By which (concentration) he knows, as the thing really is, all that he desires to know, in other places and in other bodies, and in other times.
Thereafter his insight sees into things as they are." * Patanjali lays down precise directions for psychic development and believes that any one who follows them will attain powers like Telepathy and Television. Convictions such as these are at the root of the Hindu idea that the capacities of a spiritually advanced person are quite beyond the normal.
Scholars in the West are gradually coming to recognize the truth behind these Hindu convictions.
They are beginning to realize slowly the enormous possibilities in the control of matter by mind.
We know what a deep inner life Jesus led.
His was a life of prolonged prayer and meditation.
In the course of His spiritual development he acquired certain unusual gifts and He was able to do a great many things which men are not ordinarily able to do.
He had, for instance, the gift of Telepathy or the power 'to read into other people's minds. * "Now when the Pharisee which had-bidden him saw it, he spake within himself, saying,
This man, if he were a prophet, would have perceived who and what manner of woman this is which toucheth him, that she is
* J. H. Woods, The Yoga System of Patanjali, p. 190.
THE GOSPEL AND INDIA'S. HERITAGE
a sinner.
And Jesus answering said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee.
And he saith, Master, say on." "
""And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?" *° " And knowing their thoughts he said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand." * We must sift the evidence in the case of each miracle whether of Jesus or of others.
We must be sure that the writers who recorded the miracles got their evidence first-hand. Often stories of miracles grow when they are passed on from mouth to mouth ; new and unusual features are added to them.
But if we can be sure that the historical evidence is sufficient we should have no hesitation in believing in miracles.
In other words, we need not start with the idea that no miracles could happen.
Miracles do happen if there is a highly developed individual with strong faith in God. What is recorded of him must be attested by ample evidence for men always tend to attribute miracles to persons who are not likely to possess the spiritual gifts needed to work them, and even of those who have the gifts far more stories, often added to by fertile imaginations, are in circulation than the events which took place would warrant.
| ™ Luke vii. 39, 40.
*% Matthew ix. 4.
** Matthew xii. 25.