l of instances in which He bade His poor fishermen friends (who had
been unfortunate in their day's haul) to let down their nets at some
point indicated by Him, when to their surprise and joy their nets
would be filled to overflowing.
Little acts of kindness bestowed here and there among the humbler
classes tended to have Jesus looked upon and spoken of as a friend of
the people, but which reputation excited the jealousy of the
authorities who held that such acts could be prompted by none other
than a selfish motive, and that motive the incitement of the masses to
rebellion in the interest of Himself as a Messiah. And so, we see His
very acts of kindness and compassion served to increase the suspicion
and hatred which the authorities, both ecclesiastical and temporal,
had always felt toward Him.
His desire to alleviate the sufferings of the poor and wretched took
Him much among these people and away from the so-called higher
classes. The "plain people" were regarded by Him as the salt of the
earth, and they, in turn, regarded Him as their champion and advisor.
And especially to the sick did He devote His time and powers. He made
many marvellous cures, a few only of which were recorded in the New
Testament narratives. The occult legends state that these cures were
of daily occurrence and that wherever He went He left behind Him a
trail of people healed of all kinds of disorders, and that people
flocked for miles to be healed of their infirmities. The Gospels
relate that He cured great numbers of people by the simple process of
laying on of hands (a favorite method of occult healers) "he laid his
hands on every one of them and healed them."
It is related that at Capernaum his attention was directed toward a
madman, who suddenly cried out, "I know Thee, Thou Holy One of God,"
whereupon Jesus spoke a few authoritative words and cured him of his
malady, by methods that will describe the nature of the man's psychic
disturbance to any advanced student of occultism. Demoniac possession
is not believed in by orthodox Christians of today, but Jesus
evidently shared the belief in obsession held by students of Psychism
and similar subjects, judging from the words He used in relieving this
man from his malady. We advise our students to read the Gospel records
in connection with these lessons, in order to follow the subject along
the old familiar paths, but with the additional light of the
interpretation of Mystic Christianity.
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