On the other hand, it was said of him that at his own home he failed to do many mighty works, "because of their unbelief." The condition was absent there, because the people had known him from boyhood, and could not believe that the "carpenter's son" could do any mighty works. Besides, as Jesus himself remarked, "a prophet is not without honor save in his own country." Faith was the essential prerequisite to the exercise of all the power that he possessed, and it was the condition precedent to its inheritance by those who were to come after him. "And 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."[47] Again,-- "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father."[48] Christ transmitted his power as a sacred heritage to all mankind. He had taught his followers, by precept and example, the conditions necessary to its exercise. Those conditions were expressed in the one word, _faith_. He never intimated to them that he healed by any other method than that which he transmitted to them. His example would have been lost to mankind if it were not illustrative of his precepts. It would be valueless to the world if it did not illustrate the principles of the science which he taught. To seek to cast a shade of doubt upon the verity of his teachings, to intimate a want of harmony between his practice and his precepts, is to attempt to rob him of the glory and honor due to one who was able to divine the fundamental laws of our being, nineteen hundred years before his teachings could be verified by the inductive process of science, and to destroy the force of the strongest internal evidence of the truth of sacred history. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 39: Matthew xiii. 10, 11, 13, 15, 34, 35.] [Footnote 40: John xvi. 12.] [Footnote 41: John xvi. 13.] [Footnote 42: John xv. 26, 27.] [Footnote 43: Matthew xvii. 20.] [Footnote 44: Luke xvii. 12-19.] [Footnote 45: See the chapters on Mental Therapeutics.] [Footnote 46: Mark v. 35-43.] [Footnote 47: Mark xvi. 17, 18.] [Footnote 48: John xiv. 12.] [Illustration] CHAPTER XXIV. THE PHYSICAL MANIFESTATIONS OF CHRIST (_continued_).