226 THE MIRACLE DOCTOR. 



hands, the most efficacious of all medicines. Among 

 the sins of Asa it is mentioned that having sore feet, 

 he went to a doctor instead of to the Lord. Jesus 

 informed those on whom he laid his hands that their 

 sins were forgiven them, and warned those he healed 

 to sin no more lest a worse thing should come upon 

 them. Such theological practitioners have always 

 existed in the East, and exist there at the present 

 day. A text from the Koran written on a board and 

 washed off into a cup of water is considered God's own 

 physic ; and as the patient believes in it, and as the 

 mind can sometimes influence the body, the disease is 

 occasionally healed upon the spot. The exploits of the 

 miracle doctor are exaggerated in his lifetime ; and 

 after his death it is declared that he restored sight to 

 men that were born blind, cleansed the lepers, made 

 the lame to walk, cured the incurable, and raised the 

 dead to life. 



In Jerusalem the scribe had succeeded to the seer. 

 The Jews had already a proverb, " A scholar is greater 

 than a prophet." The supernatural gift was regarded 

 with suspicion ; and if successful with the vulgar, 

 excited envy and indignation. In the East, at the 

 present day, there is a permanent hostility between 

 the mollah, or doctor of the law, and the dervish, or 

 illiterate " man of God." Jesus was, in point of fact, 

 a dervish ; and the learned Pharisees were not in- 

 clined to admit the authority of one who spoke a 

 rustic patois and misplaced the h, and who was no 

 doubt like other prophets, uncouth in his appearance 

 and uncleanly in his garb. At Jerusalem Jesus com- 

 pletely failed ; and this failure appears to have stung 

 him into bitter abuse of his successful rivals, the 

 missionary Pharisees, and into the wildest extravagance 



