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.
Christian Science, embodying as it does all science, all true knowledge, must and does include the correct, scientific understanding of medicine and its use, and this is gained and practised from a spiritual standpoint alone, with no material aid or element.
From a strictly metaphysical basis disease is not treated as disease, in Christian Science. It is recognized as a false sense, which disappears when the true sense of man's rightful health and harmony is brought to light, but as an illustration of the power and effect of right mental action upon physical ills, the term treatment of disease is reasonably applied to Christian Science practice.
The knowledge and use of medicine in the early ages, as limited to the most absurd decoctions, aided by various forms of superstition and incantation, is considered foolish and worthless at the present time. Might it not also be admitted that the increase in the variety and use of drugs to-day, does not prove the virtue or superiority of materia medica, so much as it emphasizes the inefficacy of those already employed and the endeavor to find a more effective remedy. This must be true, in view of the fact that diseases have not diminished but multiplied with the increased knowledge of drugs and their use.
The medical world at large has for ages been honestly searching for a more certain knowledge of the cause and cure of disease, and the noble men and women thus devoted to the effort to relieve mankind of its suffering deserve our highest respect but in view of the many and continued failures of medical experimentation to prove satisfactory as a whole, and the long list of diseases still admitted to be incurable, it must be conceded that the desired knowledge is far from being attained by them. A noted physician was known to say, after retiring from practice, that he had spent many wakeful nights trying to think of some medicine he could prescribe for his patients that would not harm them. An instance is also known of a diseased eye, regarding which a physician stated that there was no medicine which would cure the disease which would not also destroy the sight. This case was readily healed by Christian Science.
In deference to those who adhere to materia medica, in their desire to benefit the race, we can respect the manifest endeavor to make mankind better, even though it be from a mortal, material standpoint. It designates a healthy, perfectly formed organism as normal or natural, and any part thereof which is sickly or deformed as abnormal or morbid. A diseased eye is not properly an eye, even from a physiological logical viewpoint it loses its identity when disease controls or destroys its functions, and the organ is thereafter usually designated by the name of the disease.
Through all of these speculations regarding human ills we are reminded of the statement in Science and Health, p. 186, line 28, concerning mortal mind. We see how hopelessly this false claim of mind is entangled in its own erroneous beliefs, and how impossible it is for it to confer upon mankind any knowledge that can save it from the supposed laws of sickness, suffering, and sin. If a physician always knew just what to do to heal his patient, just what remedy to use and where to find it, there would no longer exist the hopeless fear of incurable disease. Right knowledge then must be recognized as the only means whereby humanity can escape from the bondage of its long continued suffering from ignorance, fear, disease, and sin, -all the myriad ills of mankind.
Christian Science claims to present to the world the true knowledge of God, as the one infinite Mind or consciousness, the only creator and Principle of the universe and man it also reveals the fact that man is spiritual and governed by spiritual law. This knowledge being right knowledge, must necessarily destroy and elliminate all wrong sense about everything, in the degree that it is understood and applied. Right here we find in Christian Science what all humanity, all physicians have longed and prayed for, the great point of difference being that the world has expected the desired knowledge to come through materialism. The knowledge of what really constitutes health is the basis of all spiritual healing, otherwise it would be useless to attempt to heal disease by Christian Science. The healing of disease through spiritual law proves that all disease is mental in its origin and manifestation; if the cause were in matter, or if matter had to be treated, Christian Science would have no effect upon it, for matter cannot think or know anything. Every case of healing in Christian Science, no matter how simple the form of disease, proves the divinity of its Principle, because through the knowledge of God and man, as gained in Christian Science, the spiritual law becomes operative in human thought and effects the destruction of whatever supposed law of disease or sin may be at work in the patient's case. This is just as true in the healing of a simple headache as in the healing of a cancer. When mortals recognize the availability of the law of Spirit and its application to human need, they will have more faith in Christian Science healing and will understand why organic and supposedly incurable diseases, as well as chronic or inherited sin, are overcome by the same Principle.
The only virtue in a drug is in its supposed action and the effect thereof. Action is, always a manifestation of Mind not matter, and it is harmonious or discordant according to the condition of thought that governs it. If the action of the system were always right, there could be no disease. The basis of all right action must be the one infinite Mind. Omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent intelligence must also be omni-active. Right knowledge of the divine Mind must demonstrate right action in so-called physical conditions as well as in the spiritual, by correcting the wrong sense and establishing the right. For instance, a man who consciously knows he is well, cannot be made to think he is sick, just so long as he knows he is well. No one can deny that if the sense of a sick stomach were replaced by the sense of a well one, the sick stomach would be healed. Consciousness cannot be conscious of two opposite conditions at the same time, hence the consciousness of health replaces the false sense of sickness, even though the patient may not know how the change has been wrought, as in the case of the man blind from birth, who said, "One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see."
Health, harmony, perfection, as the normal condition of man ordained by his Maker, is the only foundation for healing. While materia medica seeks to restore health through a knowledge of disease, assuming its cause to be physical, Christian Science reveals the spiritual understanding of health, and begins at once to alleviate the fear of the patient by reversing the evidence of the corporeal senses, thus bringing into manifestation the true individual consciousness which reflects the divine government.
By scientific mental argument a condition of disease can be overcome, and contrary argument, from the impulsion of mesmeric, mortal thought, cannot induce disease if the individual thought is fortified by Truth, and dwells in the scientific understanding of health and righteousness. Sickness is always the result of wrong thinking, either on the part of the individual, or the world at large; it is always error externalized, and all that error or mortal mind can do is to think wrong; then where is our safety but in right knowing!
There is a saying that nature has provided an antidote for every poison. In the spiritually scientific knowledge of God and man there is a saviour or saving sense always at hand; it is everywhere that man is, and is always sufficient to overcome every claim of evil that can confront one, when understood and relied upon.
Disease is always the effect of something, it always claims to have cause, substance, law. The claim of cause includes not only all that might be termed hereditary, constitutional, and physical conditions conducive to disease, but also all mental traits not bearing the God-likeness. The claim of substance includes all that is termed matter, while the claim of law includes the so-called action or operation of disease, together with its symptoms, stages, duration, and outcome. These claims, as well as disease itself, find lodgment in human thought through misconceptions of God and His government, and ignorance of man's true nature. Right knowledge carries with it the spiritual understanding of cause, substance, law, as belonging to and expressing the one infinite Principle of all being.
The true understanding of substance as divine Mind, Spirit, manifesting itself in man and the universe, in indestructible, perfect ideas, has often, in one treatment, dispelled the illusion of sick matter from a patient's thought, and enabled him to say, "I am well."
This right sense of substance will obtain more and more in every individual consciousness which turns to God for enlightenment, until all fear of matter and all belief in it will give place to that which is forever and altogether lovely and enduring.—even "the substance of things hoped for."
The true knowledge of cause loosens the shackles of ignorance, fear, and sin, and enables those who are spiritually awakening to know that they do not need to suffer for the sins of others, that they do not need to be sick, inasmuch as their birthright is health, harmony, righteousness.
The true knowledge of law as spiritual, unchanging, universal, manifesting the harmonious operation and activity of infinite Principle, uncovers and abolishes the false sense of law and brings freedom and deliverance from sickness as well as sin. Through the right knowledge of law, fevers have been checked without running their traditional course, and with no harm to the patient; the progress of diseases considered fatal, such as cancer and consumption, has been arrested and the patients restored to health, proving practically Paul's statement, "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death."
Christian Science not only heals the sick and reforms the sinner, but it offers a practical solution for every problem that presents itself in each individual experience, inasmuch as right knowledge is always demonstrable, and demonstration proves its correctness. Every healing in Christian Science proves the divinity of its Principle. There is no remedial benefit claimed to be obtained from drugs that cannot be secured through Christian Science.
While it is true that no visible proof could convince a condition of thought which is determined not to believe, the patient healed knows what has been done, and the practitioner knows how it is done and what is doing it. However, in cases where materia medica demands a specific remedy, malarial fever, for instance, or blood-poison, it must be evident to all, when such conditions are healed through Christian Science, that something is at work removing the morbid secretions, neutralizing the poison, and building up healthful conditions; or else it must be admitted that these and other similar forms of disease are not serious and do not indicate any need of medical treatment.
Christian Science does not encourage sick people to expose themselves unnecessarily to unfavorable conditions, or to go beyond their understanding in anything. This would be just as foolish in a Christian Scientist as for a beginner in mathematics to try to solve a problem in algebra. An old saying, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," is just as applicable to believers in Christian Science as it is to others. A prominent physician being once asked how to cure a cold, replied. "It is worth more to know how to keep from taking cold than to cure it." Christian Science is protective as well as restorative, hence patients under Christian Science treatment may do things without harm that could not be done otherwise. There is no reasonable precaution, considered necessary for one's health and safety, that Christian Science does not teach its adherents to observe, only on a mental or spiritual basis, rather than a material.
The freedom from sickness and suffering enjoyed by Christian Scientists, as compared with their former years of invalidism, is ample proof that their right knowledge of what constitutes health, their right knowledge of God, man, and all things, is the way of salvation out of the flesh, and is the open door to heaven. They do not claim to have already reached the heights of this spiritual knowledge, which would make them wholly superior to sickness or sin, as spiritual knowledge must always be progressive in its attainment and demonstration. It is overcoming that takes one to heaven, and as each ill is overcome, a higher position is reached, from which standpoint of spiritual assurance, meekness, and might, errors that had formerly gained entrance will be rejected before they can be externalized.
Each individual Christian Scientist alone knows the overcoming that is taking place daily in his consciousness; he alone who is striving to be governed wholly by God, knows to what extent this divine government is being established in mind and body. He knows, too, that the truth which keeps him in true harmony is typified by that tree whose leaves are "for the healing of the nations."
