A remarkable instance illustrating this principle occurred in the history of Jesus. It was in the case of the man who brought his son to be healed, who was afflicted with a "dumb spirit." He had gone to Jesus' disciples, who failed to effect a cure. In despair, he appealed to the Master, saying:—
"If thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us.
"Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.
"And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief."[51]
Whereupon Jesus rebuked the foul spirit and commanded it to come out of the boy, "and enter no more into him." And the boy was instantly healed.
Now, the whole circumstances surrounding this case were calculated to render the father sceptical concerning the power of Jesus to heal his son. He had gone to the disciples, and they had failed. When he appealed to Jesus he said: "If thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us." This expression plainly implied a doubt. After Jesus had explained that belief was a necessary condition of success, the father cried out: "Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief." This expression plainly indicated a want of objective faith. But he spoke the words, "I believe," and then intimated to Jesus that his real belief depended upon him. He uttered the words "I believe" in pursuance of an earnest desire to comply with the conditions imposed, and that was sufficient. These words constituted an auto-suggestion from his objective mind to his subjective mind; and Jesus was satisfied with that compliance with his demand for faith, and he instantly healed the sufferer. He knew the law, and was fully aware that any lingering objective doubt remaining in the father's objective mind could not prevail against the "spoken word" of faith.
This case is also illustrative of the principle discussed in the previous chapter; namely, the desirability of having a favorable mental environment, especially in cases where the objective mind of the patient could not be appealed to. The boy was in a state of complete objective insensibility. The father was the only one present who was in telepathic rapport with him. Hence the importance of impressing the father's subjective mind with faith, to the end that his mental condition might be impressed upon the subjective mind of the son, and by that means exert a favorable influence upon the latter by telepathic suggestion. In this case the father's spoken word of belief was a more potent suggestion than his objective doubts, and the son's subjective mind, ever alert, seized upon the suggestion; and Jesus, by means of a suggestion uttered in a solemn tone of supreme authority, healed him instantly.
I do not mean to say that Jesus could not heal in such cases where the mental environment was unfavorable; but the fact that he took infinite pains, wherever practicable, to secure the best conditions, shows that he understood the law and worked within its limitations.
Certain it is that he never performed any of his wonderful works outside the laws which he proclaimed, nor did he ever intimate that he could do so. It is true that his biographers did not always relate the details of the transactions recorded; but it must be remembered that they wrote at a later day, and may not have been in possession of all the details. It is, however, a marvellous fact, and one which constitutes indubitable evidence of the truth of his history, that in no instance do they relate a single act performed or word spoken by him, relating to the healing of the sick, that does not reveal his perfect knowledge of and compliance with the laws which pertain to mental therapeutics as they are revealed in modern times through experiment and the processes of inductive reasoning.
There is but one legitimate conclusion, and that is that the discoveries of modern science demonstrate the essential truth of the history of the physical manifestations of Jesus.
The next question is, How did it happen that Jesus came into possession of the knowledge of the true science of mental therapeutics, when no one else in all the world at that time knew its rudiments? It may be true, and doubtless it is true, that there were mental healers before his time, who, by various methods, performed wonderful works in psycho-therapeutics. But it must be conceded that he was the first who evinced a true knowledge of the underlying principles of the science. He it was who first divined the very essence of that science, and proclaimed it to the world in the one word faith. That word embraced all that it was necessary for the world to know at that time. Faith, and the means of acquiring it, is the substance of all that he taught to his disciples concerning the means of healing the sick; and it was all that was necessary to enable them to imitate his example and to transmit the power to those who should come after them. To use his own language, it was all that they could bear. It was the exoteric science of mental healing. The esoteric doctrine he reserved for the time when mankind, inspired by the "Spirit of truth," which he promised, should be able to discover it for themselves. His was the "dispensation of faith." The "dispensation of knowledge" was yet to come. That he was in possession of the knowledge of the underlying principles of the whole science of mental healing is all but self-evident. No man without that knowledge could have done what he did to secure the most favorable conditions for the exercise of his power. It required a full comprehension of the law of suggestion, a thorough knowledge of the law of telepathy, a complete realization of the dual nature of the mind of man, and the power of the soul over the functions of the body, to enable him to take the seven steps preparatory to the raising of Jairus' daughter from the dead. If he had failed in that attempt, his preparatory steps to that end would nevertheless have demonstrated his knowledge of the laws which pertain to healing by psychic power.
The theologian will find a ready-made answer to the question, How did Jesus come into possession of knowledge which it has taken nineteen hundred years of scientific research to verify? His answer will be: "By direct inspiration from God; by virtue of his being the Son of God,—one with the Father." I shall not attempt to gainsay this proposition, but shall endeavor to show that it is true in the highest and best sense of the expression. In doing so I shall not discuss the question of his miraculous birth; I leave that to the theologian. I desire simply to show that, whatever may have been the conditions of his birth, he took upon himself the nature and attributes of humanity, and subjected himself to its physical conditions and limitations. In other words, his wondrous works were performed within the domain of the same natural laws which limit the powers of all mankind. He was a man, and merely a man, in his physical life and manifestations, and differed from other men only in the degree of his faculties and in the possession of the intuitive power of perception of the laws of the soul in its relations to the physical world and to God.