Three Questions by a Christian and their Answers — Page 38
38 gather two or three hundred patients around them and re- store them to health with a single glance. Those who were less proficient in this art would cure a patient by touching him or his clothes. When he practised this art, the practitio- ner would feel as if some sort of energy was radiating from his person; and the patient would at times feel as though some poisonous matter within him was moving down to his lower limbs until it vanished altogether. Muslims have written numerous books on this subject, and I believe the Hindus have done the same. The art of mes- merism invented by the Europeans in our time is also a branch of the same knowledge. Upon examination, the New Testament reveals that Jesus as was also, to an extent, proficient in this art, though not to the degree of perfection. Nevertheless, since people in those days were simple- minded and ignorant of this art, it was considered deserving of greater acclaim than it actually was. But, as time passed, and the truth became more and more evident, people grew weaker in their faith, until they began to say that healing the sick or curing the insane by such practices is not some- thing that deserves merit, and it does not even require that one should be a believer, let alone that it should serve as a proof of someone’s Prophethood or Sainthood. They even say that to become perfect in the exercise of curing bodily ailments and to occupy oneself day and night in this voca- realm of possibility, when we know that certain drugs do cause some animals to be revived after death. [Author]