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The Healing
Question
by Arno C. Gaebelein
1925
CHAPTER II
The Miracles of Healing by the Lord Jesus Christ
"Then the eyes of
the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then
shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing; for
in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert" (Isaiah
35:5, 6). These words are a prophecy predicting the blessings and the glory of
the promised kingdom. He through whom these great blessings, described in this
entire chapter, as well as elsewhere, will ultimately be accomplished appeared
on earth as man, in the form of a servant. That blessed One is Himself the
greatest miracle. His whole life from the moment of conception by the Holy
Spirit, when He came upon the Virgin of Nazareth, to His ascension in His
glorified human body, is beyond our powers of conception or explanation. Here
is where the modernistic-rationalist makes his fatal mistake. Instead of
believing in the supernaturalness of the Lord Jesus Christ and worshipping Him,
the modernist tries to explain His Person. He cannot be explained. In order to
bring the Lord Jesus Christ down to the level of common humanity the modernist
denies His miraculous birth, His miraculous life, His miraculous resurrection
and ascension, as well as the miracles he performed. To accomplish this the
rationalism which is being taught in many institutions of learning impeaches the
Gospel records. They are not trustworthy. The miraculous element is
legendary. It was added by others to the original story of Christ, to surround
Him with the halo of Deity. It is astonishing that men, who claim ripe
scholarship, can make such absurd and false claims.
[page 11] If they
are scholars they must know that the Gospel records as we possess them belong to
the most reliable historical documents in the possession of the race. The claim
that the miraculous is spurious in the four Gospels is a falsehood. If there is
no miraculous Christ, who performed miracles of various kinds, then the Old
Testament with its miracles and prophecy must also be branded a falsehood (as is
done by modernists). This is the road which leads into the night of atheism.
We are concerned
exclusively with the miracles of healing, which our Lord performed during His
ministry on earth. We shall first of all briefly record them as given in the
Synoptics and the Gospel of John.
Matthew
4:23-24. "And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching
in their synagogues, and preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom, and healing all
manner of disease among the people. And His fame went throughout all Syria; and
they brought unto Him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases
and torments, with those which were possessed with demons, and those which were
lunatick, and those that had the palsy; and He healed them." This is the first
time we find His miracles of healing mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew. We
note that the preaching of the Gospel of the Kingdom, announcing the nearness of
the promised kingdom, is closely connected with the healing of diseases.
Matthew 8:1-4;
Mark i:40; Luke 5:12-14. Here a leper is healed by
Him. "Jesus put forth His hand, and touched him, saying, I will, be thou
clean. And immediately his 'leprosy was cleansed." He speaks as the sovereign
Lord, with a majestic, omnipotent, "I will." When Miriam, Moses' sister, was
stricken with leprosy, Moses cried to the Lord, Heal her now! She had to be
excluded for seven days, then she was permitted to return to the camp. A
greater [page 12] than Moses is here! He healed by the finger of God, the sign
that the Kingdom was come upon them (Luke 11:20).
Matthew 8:5-13;
Luke 7:1-10. The healing of the centurion's servant
who was sick and ready to die is the next miracle. He was sick of the palsy and
was grievously tormented. While the Lord had healed the leper by touch, He did
not come near the sick servant; He healed him by His word. The significance of
this will be pointed out elsewhere.
Matthew
8:14-15; Mark i:30-31; Luke 4:38, 39. He healed
Peter's mother-in-law, who was sick with a fever. "And He touched her hand, and
the fever left her; and she arose, and ministered unto them." Like the healing
of the leper, the cure was instantaneous. The fever dropped down to normal in a
moment, in the twinkling of an eye. Nor was she weak after the fever had gone.
She arose at once and be an to minister to the company, the evidence that a
perfect cure had been made.
Matthew 8:16,
17; Mark i:32-34; Luke 4:40, 41. That evening brought
a great demonstration of His power to heal. Many demon-possessed people were
brought to Him. He cast them out by His word, and healed all that were sick.
The fifty-third chapter of Isaiah is quoted. The perversion of this text by the
divine healing systems will be fully dealt with in another chapter, as well as
the great prophetic meaning of that famous prophecy in Isaiah.
Matthew
8:29-35; Mark 5:1-21; Luke 8:26-40. Matthew gives an
account of two men possessed with demons; Mark and Luke speak only of one.
There were two but one of them must have been the more prominent and the most
afflicted. The Lord singled him out as His special witness. Another solution
of the difficulty may be found in the dispensational Jewish character of the
Gospel of [page 13] Matthew. He also speaks of two blind men healed; Mark and
Luke of only one, that is Bartimaeus. The two demon-possessed and the two blind
men picture the spiritual condition of all Israel, the house of Judah and the
house of Israel.
Matthew 9:1-8;
Mark 2:3-12; Luke 5:18-26. Another paralytic is
healed, after the Lord pronounced the forgiveness of his sins. It was again an
instantaneous cure, with the return of perfect strength, for he was able to
carry his bed.
Matthew
9:20-23; Mark 5:25-34; Luke 8:43-48. The Lord is on
the way to raise the ruler's daughter from the dead. A woman who was diseased
with an issue of blood for twelve years, touched in faith the hem of His
garment, believing that she would be made whole. She was healed immediately as
the Lord felt that virtue had gone out from Him.
Matthew
9:23-25; Mark 5:35-43; Luke 8:49-56. These passages
contain the first evidence that the Lord Jesus Christ has the power to raise the
dead. Jairus's daughter had died. She was not in a cataleptic state. There
were eyewitnesses who knew she was dead. When He said, "Weep not; she is not
dead but sleepeth" they laughed Him to scorn, knowing that she was dead. There
were also eye-witnesses that when he took her by the hand and said "Talitha cumi"!
the twelve year old girl arose and walked.
Matthew 9:
27-31. Two blind men appealed to Him for healing.
"Then He touched their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you.
And their eyes were opened; and Jesus straitly charged them, saying, See that no
man know it."
Matthew
9:31-33. The healing of a dumb man possessed with a
demon followed immediately upon the healing of [page 14] the two blind men. The
dumb spake in such a manner that the multitudes marveled, saying, "It was never
so in Israel."
Matthew 9:35;
Mark 6:5. He continued in His Galilean ministry of
preaching the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness among the people.
In Nazareth, His own city, He laid hands on a few sick folk and healed them. He
marveled because of their unbelief.
Matthew
10:1-10; Mark 6:7-13; Luke 9:1-6. As the whole land,
every town and every village had to hear the message of the kingdom, not by any
means the Gospel of Grace, as it is proclaimed after His finished work on the
Cross, but the message of the literal kingdom promised to Israel, He sent forth
His twelve disciples. He gave them power, His own power, over unclean spirits,
and to heal all manner of diseases and sicknesses. He gave them but one text to
preach, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand," with the command, "Heal the sick,
cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons; freely ye have received,
freely give." Miracles of healing were then performed by the twelve, just as the
Lord Jesus had performed them, for it was His power through them, which
operated. How this commission is misused by divine healers with their
unscriptural claims is elsewhere dealt with in this volume.
Matthew 11:5.
This passage shows the many miracles performed by Him
in the presence of witnesses, attesting His Messiahship.
Matthew
12:10-14; Mark 3:1-6; Luke 6:6-11. A withered hand is
restored by Him, not in a gradual process, but instantaneously.
Matthew
12:22-24; Luke 11:14. Another afflicted one with
dumbness and blindness, produced by demon-possession, was healed by Him. All
careful students of the Gospel [page 15] of Matthew know that the twelfth
chapter is the great divide in this Gospel. The message of the kingdom had been
rejected. Indications showed that the King Himself would be rejected. After
the twelfth chapter the message of the kingdom being at hand is no longer
heard. The King begins to speak of the mysteries of the kingdom and also of His
coming passion. It is therefore very significant that in chapters 13 to the end
of this Gospel fewer miracles are recorded, while in the beginning of Matthew
miracles upon miracles of healing are found.
Matthew 13:58.
He did not many mighty miracles there because of their
unbelief. They did not believe in Him as the promised King-Messiah and there
was no demonstration of His power.
Matthew
14:34-36. He had spent the night on the mountain
top. His disciples were on the sea and the ship was tossed with waves. In the
fourth watch He came. In the morning another great healing scene took place.
The dispensational aspect is pointed out later.
Matthew
15:21-28; Mark 7:24-30. This is the first definite
miracle of healing after the kingdom message had been rejected. It is a heathen
woman of Syro-Phenicia who appeals to Him for her daughter. He answered her
not, because she used His title as "Son of David," to which she had no right.
But He healed her daughter as soon as the mother appealed to Him as Lord and
manifested her faith in Him.
Matthew
15:29-31; Mark 7:31-37. A great multitude was healed
immediately after the healing of the Svro-Phenician daughter.
Matthew
17:14-21; Mark 9:14-29; Luke 9:37-43. A
demon-possessed son is delivered right after the transfiguration. [page 16]
Matthew
20:29-34; Mark 10:46-52; Luke 18:35-43. The
healing of these two blind men, one of whom was Bartimaeus, is the last miracle
of healing recorded in the Gospel of Matthew.
In the Gospels of
Mark and Luke we find a few miracles of healing which are not mentioned in the
Gospel of Matthew.
Mark 1:21-28;
Luke 4:31-37. This incident happened in the synagogue
of Capernaum. We notice especially that the unclean spirit confessed the Lord
Jesus Christ as the Holy One of God. There was perfect deliverance.
Mark 7:32-37.
Mark records this miracle exclusively. The deaf man
with an impediment in his speech is completely healed after the Lord had put His
fingers into his ears and touched his tongue and uttered the word "Ephphatha."
Mark 8:22-26.
This miracle is also peculiar to Mark. He spit on his
eyes, put His hands on him, and after He put His hands on him another time, the
man saw perfectly.
Luke 7:11-16.
This miracle is reported only by Luke. It is
the second time, when our Lord manifested His divine power in raising the dead.
Luke 8:2.
Mary Magdalene, one of our Lord's most devoted
followers, was healed by Him of evil spirits and infirmities. We do not know at
what time it occurred. The fact of the miracle is mentioned in this verse.
Luke 10:1-12.
As He sent forth the twelve so He sent forth seventy
disciples into the harvest. In connection with the preaching of the kingdom
they were to heal the sick.
Luke 13:10-17.
This miracle is not recorded elsewhere in the
Synoptics. The woman who had a spirit of infirmity for eighteen years, bound by
Satan, was instantaneously and perfectly loosed. [page 17]
Luke 14:1-6.
The man healed of dropsy in the house of a Pharisee is
also recorded by Luke only.
Luke 17:11-19.
The cleansing of the ten lepers is likewise peculiar
to the Gospel of Luke. They obeyed is command and "as they went they were
cleansed."
Luke 22:50-51.
All the Gospels record the action of Peter in smiting
the servant of the High Priest and cutting off his right ear, but only Luke
states that the Lord restored the cut off ear by a miracle. Nothing was needed
to stop the hemorrhage, nor a bandage to keep the ear in place, to give the
severed ear a chance to knit itself in place. It was an instantaneous cure.
And now we turn to
the fourth Gospel, the Gospel of John. None of the miracles of healing
recorded in the Synoptic Gospels appears anywhere in the fourth Gospel. The
omission is explained by the purpose of this Gospel. But while the many
miracles of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke are omitted, the Holy Spirit
through the pen of the beloved disciple gives the account of four miracles which
do not appear in the other Gospels.
The first miracle
in the Gospel of John is the turning of water into wine at the marriage of Cana
in Galilee, and the second, marked out as such, is the healing of the nobleman's
son.
John 4:46-54.
The nature of the disease is not stated, but the fact
is given that when the Lord spoke the word, at the same hour the fever left him.
John 5:1-15.
The healing of the impotent man, who had been in that
condition for thirty-eight years. When the Lord Jesus said, "Rise, take up thy
bed and walk," he was immediately whole. As a result of this miracle the Lord
gave that magnificent self-witness, in which He reveals His Deity.[page 18]
John 9.
The healing of the man born blind. He made a paste of
clay, anointed his eyes, and after the man had washed in the pool of Siloam he
had perfect sight.
John 11:1-44.
The raising of Lazarus from the dead, after he had
been dead for four days, so that the sister of Lazarus declared, "Lord, by this
time he stinketh, for he has been dead four days." This is the greatest of all
the miracles our Lord performed. It is also the minutest in description, and so
well authenticated that only the most out-spoken infidels, to whom some of the
religious modernists of our times belong, can deny it.
The passages we
have quoted from the four Gospels contain the record of the different miracles
of healing our Lord performed in His three years' ministry. We do not know how
many He healed. Several times we read of multitudes who came to Him, and that
He healed them all. There may have been hundreds of sick folks who crowded
around Him. Not one of those who sought His help was ever turned away.
Undoubtedly the Holy Spirit did not report all His miracles of healing (John
21:25). Certain Apocryphal New Testament writings, notably the Evangelium
Infantae, contain also supposed miracles of healing, but they are entirely
untrustworthy.
The four Gospels
tell us that He raised three persons from the state of physical death, the young
daughter of Jairus, the widow's son at Nain, and His friend Lazarus. He healed
and cleansed completely those afflicted with that dreadful disease known as
leprosy. He healed those who were constitutionally blind, deaf and dumb.
Paralysis of long standing, dropsy, epilepsy, different forms of insanity and
fevers were healed by His divine power. A withered arm, dried up so that it
hung lifeless, was completely restored, and a member of the body, an ear which
had been [page 19] severed by the stroke of a sword, was miraculously put back
into its place. We do not think that even a scar war. left. We doubt
not but every disease and every infirmity known in those days was healed by Him.
It is also
noteworthy that of the individual cases no two were exactly alike. Some
suffered more than others; some came personally to Him; others had their needs
presented by relatives and friends; some appealed to Him in faith and others
made no appeal. Most of those healed were Israelites; several were Gentiles.
The greatest praise was given by a Samaritan, the greatest faith displayed by a
Roman officer, and by the Syro-Phenician mother who appealed for her daughter.
He often healed by touch; sometimes He healed without touching the sick one; at
other times the sick touched the hem of His garment. Most were heated in His
immediate presence, others were healed being miles away from where the Lord
ministered. He never used the well known oriental remedy, oil. His disciples
evidently did (Mark 6:13). One man born blind He sent to wash in the pool of
Siloam, after He had covered his eyes with a paste of clay; He spit on another
man's blind eyes and put His fingers into the cars of a deaf man. Why He did it
in this way we do not know, unless it was for the reason of showing us that He
was not bound to any form; He could do as it pleased Him. Then in the place
where His rejection was the most pronounced, in His own country where He was
brought up, He could not do mighty works, and He marveled on account of their
unbelief. But there was no faith manifested in connection with the three
resurrections from the dead. Though He said to the ruler, "Be not afraid, only
believe" there is nothing to show that he believed that the Lord would bring the
dead child to life.
[page 20] He
halted the funeral procession at the gate of Nain, and, moved with compassion,
He raised to life the widow's son. But there was no faith displayed by anyone,
nor a single prayer offered for the resurrection of the young man. Mary and
Martha, while they believed on Him as the Christ, the Son of God, did not
manifest strong faith that Lazarus would be raised from the dead.
We also note
the many occasions where the Lord Jesus Christ forbade the wider publication
of His miracles of healing. Most of them were done in an unostentatious
manner. And what He preached He also practiced. When He sent out His
disciples, delegating to them His own divine power to heal, He commissioned them
in these words, "Freely ye have received, freely give." He made no charges, nor
received money from those whom He healed.
We also call
attention to the fact that many diseases, afflictions and infirmities the Lord
healed were the result of demoniac possession. It would be a very serious error
to say, as is being taught by divine healing fanatics, that every bodily pain or
sickness today is the result of the direct work of demons.
Demon possession
was a terrible curse in the days our Lord was on earth. The whole nation was
aware of this terrible affliction, and maintained a special class of exorcists
whose business it was to deal with these cases. The unseen world of evil
spirits must have anticipated the coming and the ministry of the Son of God in
the Holy Land, and in taking possession of a multitude of victims, tried to
oppose and hinder the Lord. They knew Him, for they confessed Him as the Son of
God. Some had more than one demon; Mary Magdalene had been delivered of seven;
some had legions, The poor victims suffered untold agonies. Some wandered
around naked, had their abodes among graves, [page 21] cut themselves with
stones, had supernatural strength. They had fits, fell into the water and into
the fire, foamed at the mouth, gnashed with their teeth, had paralysis agitans,
trembling from head to foot, and were otherwise afflicted. That demon
possession today is not only possible but an actual and most solemn fact, we
shall more fully demonstrate when we deal in this volume with the
Pentecostal-Healing delusion.
The Lord Jesus
Christ manifested His power in casting out these unlawful tenants of the human
soul and delivering all their victims.
The
Meaning of our Lord's Miracles of Healing
The miracles of
our Lord are, in the first place, the evidence of His Deity. By these
miracles of healing He revealed the attributes of His Godhead. Each one of them
manifests His omnipotent power. He never prayed that a certain miracle might be
granted unto Him. He commanded–"I will; be thou clean!" "I say unto thee,
Arise!" "Talitha cumi," "Ephphatha...... Receive thy sight." When He uttered
words of praise before the tomb of Lazarus it was not for the sake of asking His
Father to raise Lazarus, but an audible expression of His intimate fellowship
with the Father. He had witnessed to His Sonship, that He is one with the
Father, equal in all things with the Father. He spoke of doing the same
works which the Father doeth. "For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and
quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom He will" (John 5:21). In
connection with one of these miracles He also manifested His Deity in forgiving
sins (Matthew 9:11,12).
In the second
place His miracles are the evidences and credentials of His
Messiahship. When John the Baptist was troubled with doubt in prison, and sent
forth his disciples [page 22] to the Lord Jesus with the question "Art Thou He
that should come, or do we look for another?" the Lord said "Go and show
John again those things which ye do hear and see. The blind receive their
sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead
are raised, and the poor have the Gospel preached unto them" (Matthew 11:1-6).
The kingdom promised to Israel should bring, according to the prophetic
testimony in the Old Testament, the healing of the blind, the lame and the deaf
(Isaiah 35). The inhabitant of the kingdom would no longer have to say "I am
sick" (Isaiah 33:24). The King had therefore to evidence His Messianic claims
by these powers of the kingdom. The Jews ask for a sign (1 Corinthians 1:22).
They want to see before they believe. The message of the Messiah concerning the
kingdom had to be accompanied by miracles of healing. This is the reason why
the Lord sent forth His disciples and conferred upon them His own divine power,
to heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, to drive out demons and even to raise the
dead. But this commission was for that time exclusively. It is an important
fact, pointed out before, that in the Gospel of Matthew, the Gospel of the King
and His Kingdom, is divinely arranged in such a way so as to show how the Lord
Jesus, as the promised Messiah, the Son of David, offered the kingdom first of
all. It had to be thus, for He had to be rejected as the King by the people.
The great majority of miracles of healing are recorded in the first twelve
chapters of that Gospel and are connected with the message, "the kingdom of
heaven is at hand."
In the third
place in these miracles of healing the Son of God, the Messiah and King of
Israel, besides manifesting His divine power and evidencing His Messiahship,
also foreshadowed what the blessings of the kingdom will be [page 23] when the
prayer is answered, "Thy kingdom come," by the return of the Lord Jesus Christ
to receive that kingdom from the Father's hands. As we have seen, sickness,
pain and death are in the world on account of sin. It is part of the curse
which rests upon man; all creation groans likewise under that curse and has
shared in man's ruin. But Christ in His blessed sacrificial death bore that
curse. The crown of thorns is symbolical of it. . In order that His redemption
might be shown to be a perfect redemption, the curse of sin, disease and death,
the curse as it rests upon all creation, must some day be removed. When He
comes again and all things are put under His feet, that time of blessing and
glory will be reached. If in the days of His humiliation diseases, infirmities,
demon powers and the power of death were completely overthrown by His Word and
power, how much greater will be the victory in the day of His glorious
manifestation!
The dispensational
aspect of some of the miracles of our Lord is indicated, especially in the
Gospel of Matthew, in the peculiar arrangement. We just hint at it. Matthew
did not write his Gospel in a chronological way. Therefore he massed miracles
together under the guiding hand of the Spirit of God, as if they had followed
one the other. But it was done for a specific purpose. We take the eighth
chapter. The leper is cleansed first. He touched him and healed him
instantaneously . He represents typically the nation Israel. He came to heal
them of spiritual leprosy. In the silence of the priest to whom the cleansed
leper showed himself, we see the fact that Israel did not respond to the Purpose
of the King. Then a centurion, a Roman, approached Him. He believes and his
suffering servant is [page 24] healed without the Lord going to him in person
and touching him. Then the Lord said, "I have not found so great faith, no, not
in Israel." Upon this He announced the casting out of the children of the
kingdom (Israel) and the coming in of the Gentiles from the east and the west,
receiving the covenant blessings of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Who fails to see
in this the present age in which Israel is set aside and the Gospel goes forth
to the Gentiles? Then He entered a house next; Peter's mother-in-law is sick
with a fever. He touched her. She arose and began to minister unto them. Here
is a picture of what will happen some day, when the Lord will heal Israel of her
sin-sickness and restlessness. Israel is represented by the Prophets as a sick
woman. When He comes again He will touch Israel with His healing touch and
Israel will be raised up to minister. Then follows immediately the healing of
all. Not one was sent away disappointed, nor is there a word said about
conditions of healing. "He healed all that were sick." This will be the
case after Israel is converted and restored.
Equally striking
is the dispensational aspect of Matthew 9:18-26. A ruler, a Jew, requests the
Lord to come and to raise up his daughter, who was at the point of death, in the
eyes of her father as good as dead. On the way to raise her, she passed away.
But while He continues in the road to raise her up another miracle happens. The
woman with the issue of blood touched Him and is healed. Then He proceeds and
raises the dead daughter of the ruler to life. The ruler's daughter, about to
die, is another prophetic type of Israel, the daughter of Zion. She dies
nationally and spiritually, but the Lord is on His way to raise her up. The
woman who touched Him and was healed represents typically the Gentiles who
believe on Him, who touch Him in faith.
[page 25] Then
again in Chapter 14, in the closing verses, we see in the ship filled with
disciples, battling with the waves, the wind contrary, a picture of His own
during this age. It was night, as it is also night now. But in the fourth
watch of the night, when the day was about to dawn, He came walking across the
stormy sea. Peter went forth to meet Him. Beginning to sink, the Lord saved
him, and when they came to the ship the wind ceased. He is worshipped as the
Son of God. After this there was another great demonstration of His healing
power. Here too we see foreshadowed the present age and what will follow
when He comes. In the fifteenth chapter, after He had healed the daughter of
the Syro-Phenician mother, a Gentile, great multitudes came to be healed. The
great multitudes healed after the Gentile had been delivered, foreshadow once
more the blessings of the coming kingdom.
In the fourth
place the miracles of our Lord, besides bringing untold physical blessings
to those who were healed, illustrate the ruin of sin, the condition of Jew and
Gentile by nature, and His power to deliver from these spiritual diseases.
Leprosy shows typically the loathsomeness of sin and its terrible defilement,
excluding from the presence of God. Blindness illustrates the blind condition
in which the natural man is, blind to every spiritual truth ' and paralysis
illustrates the helplessness of the sinner to do anything for himself, he can
neither stand nor walk. Deafness shows spiritual inability to hear, and
dumbness inability to praise his God; the withered arm is the type of the
natural man's inability to work and serve. Fever is typical of the restlessness
of sin and the burning thirst of the soul. The woman bowed down with a spirit
of infirmity, always forced to look downward and not heavenward, illustrates the
fact that sin crushes and bows down the [page 26] creature destined to be in
fellowship with God. And death is the picture of the spiritual death in which
man is by nature, and the eternal death, separation for ever and ever from God.
Our Lord meeting all these physical conditions showed that He has the power to
meet also the spiritual needs of His lost creature.
Before we leave
this subject we point out a few other facts. Nowhere did our Lord make healing
the leading feature of His ministry. He did not use His power to heal to gain
fame, but He discouraged in every way the publicity of what He had done. There
was not a certain class of the sick which he singled out and healed, and others
who were sick that He did not heal, but sent them away still suffering and
disappointed. No! He healed them all. He did not appoint certain healing
meetings, nor certain times of the day, nor did He ask for certain preparations,
but He healed at any time and wherever the sick appealed to Him. There were no
outward phenomena connected with His miracles of healing, such as falling down
and becoming unconscious, or "the gift of tongues," which the Lord never
mentioned nor promised to His disciples; nor were there convulsions or fits.
The convulsions, falling down to the ground, foaming at the mouth, were the
evidences of demon power. When He healed there was instantaneous delivery; no
need of waiting days and weeks, nor was there a gradual cessation of the fever
and the symptoms. We mention these facts to show later the great contrast which
exists between the miracles of our Lord and those of the present day men and
women who make the claims of continuing His ministry.
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