To some of us this explanation of the power of a
Christian ceremony will, I fear, seem irreligious. But
if so, let us ask ourselves whether our Lord's reiterated
explanation, " Your own faith has saved you," detracted
from His teaching that it was by " the power of God,"
"the finger of God," "the will of God," that salvation
of soul and body was wrought. It is quite clear from
His whole teaching that He regarded the power to
heal and reform as of God, and as coming upon man
in definite times and places from the transcendent
Spirit of God. Yet He no less implies that the gift
or power waited upon something that happened in
the minds of men — upon the act of faith, which
is the conviction of the whole mind, conscious and
subconscious.
In an age when all other men looked to religious
magic for relief from personal disabilities, it displayed
marvellous insight to declare that faith — that is, an



vn THE LANGUAGE OF THE SOUL 277

attitude of the soul — could reform conduct, heal the
body, and cure mental insanities. There is no more
striking evidence of the way in which the mind of
Jesus transcended the minds of His contemporaries,
including His followers, than His insight into the
potency of the inward attitude to heal and reform.
