d woman.

THE HEALING CHRIST

'Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.'--MATT.
viii. 17.

You will remember, probably, that in our Old Testament translation of
these words they are made to refer to man's mental and spiritual evils:
'He bare our griefs and carried our sorrows.' Our evangelist takes them
to refer, certainly not exclusively, but in part, to men's corporeal
evils--'our infirmities' (bodily weaknesses, that is) 'and our
sicknesses.' He was distinctly justified in so doing, both by the
meaning of the original words, which are perfectly general and capable
of either application, and by the true and deep view of the
comprehensiveness of our Lord's mission and purpose. Christ is the
antagonist of all the evils that affect man's life, whether his
corporeal or his spiritual; and no less true is it that, in His deep
sympathy, 'He bare our sicknesses' than that, in the mystery of His
atoning death, 'He was wounded for our transgressions.'

It is, therefore, this point of view of Christ, as the Healer, which I
desire to bring before you now.

I. First, I ask you to look at the plain facts as to our Lord's ministry
which are contained in these words:--'Himself took our infirmities, and
bare our sicknesses.'

Now, there are two points that I desire to emphasise very briefly. One
is the prominence in Christ's life which is given to His healing energy.
We are accustomed to think of His cures as miracles. We are accustomed
to think of them in that aspect as evidences of His mission, or as
difficulties and stumbling-blocks, as the case may be. But I ask you to
put away all such thoughts for a minute, and think about the miracles
simply as being cures. Remember how enormous a proportion of our Lord's
time and pains and sympathy and thoughts was directed to that one
purpose of healing people of their bodily infirmities. We may almost say
that to an outsider He would look a great deal liker a man who, as the
Apostle Peter painted Him in one of his earliest addresses, 'went about
doing good and healing,' than as a teacher of divine wisdom, to say
nothing of an incarnation of the divine nature. His miracles of healing
were certainly the most conspicuous part of His life's work.

And then, remember, that whilst the great proportion of our Lord's
miracles are miracles of healing, we are sure that the whole of the
recorded miraculous works of our Lord are the smallest fraction of what
He really