Page:The future of Africa.djvu/209

Rh declared: "The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted; to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind; to set at liberty them that are bruised. And ever since, not only until the Ascension, but all these two thousand years of the Christian era, Jesus has been preaching the Gospel to the poor; it is He who, on Christian and on heathen ground, has been healing the broken-hearted; He it is who has broken the fetter from the limbs of the captive and the slave, and proclaimed emancipation; and it has been Jesus who, in multitudinous almshouses, asylums, infirmaries, and hospitals all over the globe, as healed the bruises, sores, and lacerations of men; enabled physicians to give sight to the blind, and hearing to the ear; made the lame to walk, and cured the dropsical and the paralytic. The bodily presence of Jesus has not been here on earth; but all curative influence, this restorative and healing power, came from the religion of Jesus, and is verily and indeed the work of our own gracious Lord.

Thus again, the Redeemer after His Resurrection, when taking leave of His Apostles, declared: "All these signs shall follow them that believe: in my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." Is there nothing in it for us in our work here save as reminiscence? Are men to receive these words in no other way than the literal? Do