What is healing? The notion that Christian Science is but a system of healing sickness without resort to drugs, or other material aids, is a wholly mistaken one.
It is true that healing sickness is included in the Christian Science system, and that it is an important feature; but the term "healing" as used in Christian Science means vastly more than curing sickness, as sickness is usually defined. There is, however, a broader definition of the word sickness than that ordinarily accorded it. This larger definition is sometimes expressed by the term "soul-sickness," thus distinguishing it from mere physical ills. "Sin-sickness" is yet another term.
In Christian Science these different designations mean one and the same thing. Were there no "soul-sickness" or "sinsickness" there would be no body-sickness, or physical ills. This remark, nevertheless, must be taken in a qualified sense. It is not intended to imply that in each individual case a particular form of sickness is due to a particular form of sin, nor even that any conscious sinful conduct, or line of conduct, has been productive of the sickness. However true it may be that much of humanity's sickness is the direct result of wilful sin, it is not true in the most general sense. It is rather true that the individual suffers as a consequence of the racial belief in the inevitability of sickness, and the general mortal fault of believing in powers apart from God.
