died.--And Moses prayed for the people.--And Moses made a serpent of
brass and put it upon a pole and it came to pass that if a serpent had
bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived."
Among the old Egyptians, it was especially Isis who discovered many
remedies and had been much experienced in medicine, and after having
become immortal, it was her greatest pleasure to cure the sick and to
announce the right remedies in dreams to those who came to sleep in her
temples. Many who could not be cured by any physician, and who had lost
their sight and hearing or could not move their limbs, became well again
when they took refuge in her temples. The same holds true for the
Serapis temple; even the best known men go there to sleep to get from
the goddess cures for themselves or for their friends. It is well known
again that in other ways the old Greeks attached medical influence to
temples and sacred springs and rivers and tombs. There were sacred
springs which cured everybody who drank from them, there were statues
which removed every disease when offerings were brought to them. Here
again the most frequent is the cure of paralytic symptoms and of
obsessions. The Orphic priests of old Greece most nearly resembled the
shamans of the savages.
Those who are inclined to give to the life of Christ a rationalistic
interpretation have often pointed out that the therapeutic effects
described in the Gospels might also be understood as effects of
suggestion by word and tactual impressions, produced especially on
hysterics, epileptics, paralytics, and psychasthenics. Such
rationalistic interpretations could also explain in the same way through
the suggestive influence in the minds of the sick, those cures which
Christ effected through others without being present himself. Here
belongs perhaps the cure of the servant of the centurion in Capernaum or
the cure of the daughter of the woman of Canaan. "And when he had called
unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean
spirits to cast them out and to heal all manner of sickness and all
manner of disease." The Acts give us the full details of how Peter and
Paul cured the lame and how special miracles were performed by their
hands. No doubt this belief in the curative effect of the disciples and
their successors fills the first centuries after Christ. Eusebius tells
us how they healed the sick by laying on of hands. The forms were
frequently changing through the history of Christianity but the essence
remains the same. Sometimes more emphasis is laid on the personal factor
of the priest, sometimes more on the sacred origin of the symbol as in
the case of the relics, sometimes more on prayer and godly works, but it
is always the religious belief which cures. Typical are the therapeutic
wonders of Francis de Assisi. He banishes devils, cures gout, lameness,
and blindness. The traditional means of suggestion, prayer and the
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