To those who are satisfied with the use of drugs, or who fear to abandon what has always been their only means of relief, Christian Science may seem a visionary and intangible method of healing. Knowing that all material remedies are discarded, the false conclusion is easily reached, by such as these, that one who relies upon Christian Science treatment gives up something and receives nothing in its place; that he is running great risks; that he is being grossly neglected, and not infrequently the opinion is offered that one who refuses medical aid and depends wholly on God to heal him, ought to die.
In ignorance of the availability of spiritual power for human needs, and knowing that materia medica stands high in the world's thought as essential to the cure of disease, it is not strange that such wrong apprehensions exist; indeed it would be difficult to conceive of greater consternation and fear than would doubtless ensue if all material medicine were instantly removed from the reach of mankind. Christian Scientists, though not believing in drugs and having no use for them, would be loth to precipitate such a condition upon humanity before it is ready to recognize and welcome a better way to get rid of disease, while those who have experienced the benefits of healing through Christian Science, and the reformation and transformation of thought attending it, are firm in their conviction that something was done for them, even this, that the most powerful and efficacious remedy they have ever known has been at work, in healing both mind and body.
Looking more deeply into the word medicine and the purpose it represents, we find nothing to substantiate the belief that it must necessarily be material. The Standard Dictionary defines the practice of medicine as "the healing art; the science of the preservation of health and of treating disease for the purpose of cure." The same definition will apply to the word therapeutics; any demonstrable knowledge that relates to the treatment of disease, and that effects healing, may properly be termed therapeutical, even though no material drugs or methods are included in its application. Rightly understood, the term medicine can mean nothing less than the divine Mind and its purifying, health-giving influence upon human thought.
