Christian Science teaches that a vociferous appeal to what some seem to think God to be, has no more efficacy in destroying a disease than would a loud cry to the basic law of mathematics have in solving a problem in arithmetic. To help his pupil the teacher must apply his knowledge of this law of numbers by mentally solving the problem in his own thought, and as this solution proceeds in his own mind, he would make visibly manifest on the board his mental concept of the rule and method which necessarily precedes the visible expression. Thus the prayer of the Christian Scientist is the spiritual or mental application of his previously acquired and demonstrated knowledge of the divine, ever-present, ever-active Word or law of the divine Spirit, Mind, called God, which Word or law is the quickening energy of Life that brings health to man in the degree it is comprehended. This energy of immortal Life, reflected by the patient, quickens and encourages him to overcome the obstructive conditions of the disease. The law of God is the law of health and holiness, as Jesus and his apostles proved; and as they applied it mentally, so must it be applied now. This law or Word is as present and responsive to spiritual understanding as is the law of mathematics to the thought that understands it, though far away to one ignorant of its potency.
