jiliysicians fell into line with the leading classical .■^iliools, which freely employed bleeding as a remedy. The Talmud (c.gr. Bckhoroth, 45« ; Hazii; S'2b) licars witness to some anatomical knowledge possessed by post-Biblical practitioners, and from this and other Rabbinical sources the common
maxims of the physicians, and indications of their principles and methods, may be not obscurely learned. The Talmud mentions myrrh, aloes, cassia, frankincense, cinnamon, spikenard, and camphire as having medicinal properties. Dietetic rules and sanitary regulations were also carefully enjoined, and many bodily disorders were treated by homely remedies. AVunderbar {I.e. infra) gives examples of the application of drugs and the like to various ailments, but also plainlj' shows that occult methods, involving astrology, and the wear- ing of parchment amulets or charms, were with more contidence prescribed. Various incantations were in use to prevent miscarriage, and to ward oft' the machinations of evil spirits from the cradle of the newborn. Drugs and magic were, in fact, generally employed, the chief reliance being placed on the latter.
With these methods our Lord's action in the healing of disease liad no affinity. Necromantic or superstitious observances were entirely foreign to His spirit. He never taught that sicknesses were tlie result of the action of evil spirits [on Lk 11'"^- see below, and art. Impotence]. And it is equally clear that He had no recourse to such medical knowledge as was familiar to the physi- cians of His time, and that He was not endowed Avith knowledge of disease and of the curative art in advance of His own generation. In the cures recorded in the Gospels He employs nothing be- yond His word, addressed either to the patient or to a parent or friend, and sometimes a touch. For use of saliva, see art. Sight. The method of Jesus must be sought on an entirely ditferent line.
In every process of healing, whether in the time of Jesus or in our own day, there are two ele- ments : the physical, and the mental or psychical. On the one hand, the disturbing and enteebling causes, functional or organic, in the bodily tissues and organs, are gradually removed by the action of drugs or other medical treatment. On the other, a new tone and vigour are restored to tlie unseen and intangible but essentially real ' life ' of the patient. The two are most intimately and vitally connected with each other, and neither element can be ignored. Mind and body are mutually interpenetrative, and although the rela- tions between them are in many respects still pro- foundly obscure, yet advancing knowledge only makes more certain what is already firmly estab- lished, that this interdependence and mutual influence are of the closest character. The uncer- tain and incalculable element in every sickness or feebleness, passing beyond all power to adequately diagnose, is the psychical. The physical condition may clearly point to a particular issue of the in- firmity— recovery or death— and, so far as the physi- cal goes, this might be determined with consider- able accuracy ; but the action of the incalculable element remains, cannot be predicted, and may produce most surprising results. These are matters of common knowledge, and amount to common- places. But they must be steadily borne in mind when cases of restoration — those in process to-day, and those recorded in the Gospels — are considered.
The action of Jesus was upon the complex per- iuality, body and spirit, but upon the body lirough the spirit. His power went directly to
the central life, to the man, the liWng person, and this may be traced in all His dealing with disease and iniirmity both of body and of mind (sei Lunatic). Tlie Divine power was, through Hi
CURES
CURES
403
life, at one ■with itself, brouglit to bear witli living energy on the unseen springs of the being. Con- sideration of the actual phenomena of our Lord's working in the restoring of the sick -will make these facts more manifest.
1. Our LorcTs oivn dependence upon the Divine power. — Not only did He declare this close, trust- ful dependence (Jn 5'»-» 8=8 iqm-sj-st.ss 1410)^ |,ut it is evinced spontaneoiisly in His action (Mk 7", Jn ll'"-'=). The customary association of prayer with His works of healing'was proof of His utter- most dependence upon God. The power of prayer, which He marked as the condition of all human victory, He indicates as vital also to His own action (Mk 9-"). The prayer He desiderates is no slack and formal petitioning of a far-distant Peity, but a close absorption of life in a very-jirest'iit Helper. And this was the quality of our Lord's own dependence upon God. He cherished tlie largest e.xpectations from the power of the Living God, of wliich He was so conscious. He felt tlie throbbing in His own life of that Mighty Will and Love which animated all being, and therefore He intimated that the true value of prayer, for Him- self and for mankind, was that it established in man a close sympathy with, and an absolute de- pendence upon, tlie (Source of all healing and life.
2. His healings were an expression of intcnscst sympathy tvith snjf'crinij humanity. Compassion was the moving cause of many of His beneficent actions (Mt W- 20**, Mk 8=, Lk 7"). True sym- pathy is a mighty human energy in wliich the Divine power is at work, and even on tlie lower levels of our feeble jiersonal force it has a con- tinuous tendency towards healing. Experience multiplies the evidence of this fact as the years pass. And we are led to conceive in some measure the vast resources of power in the full compassion of Him who was morally one with the Source of all love and pity. His syiiijiathy was never viti- ated or weakened bj' personal imperfection, and so it possessed the jjower of self-identification with God and man. The healing of the Issue of Blood {see article) shows that this sympathy with dis- tressed humanity worked even apart from His direct will.