IT is simply astonishing, how surely and quickly Christian Science breaks the spell of human fear, which is largely induced by belief in disease laws that have not the sanction of divine authority, and sets sufferers free to work out their own salvation in the Christ-way. Most people have witnessed the distressing spectacle of a bird so paralyzed before a cat that it will remain motionless in the presence of its enemy, and presently drop helplessly to the ground, a prey to that from which it seemingly could easily have escaped. The effect that a serpent is said to have in a similar case is even better known. These instances serve to illustrate the terror which holds mortals in bondage to medical laws.
Such is the fear induced by medical verdicts that many persons are entirely resigned "to what they have been led to look upon as inevitable, and they finally abandon any attempt to escape their prescribed fate. Not only are the patients themselves resigned, but their conscientious and kind-hearted medical advisers, their relatives, and their friends are also resigned. The bird yields itself to the cat in the same way. and under the influence of fear it is caught by its own consent, notwithstanding the fact that it has wings, and could escape at any moment. We do not presume to hold the medical faculty responsible for this state of things, and perhaps it is their very compassion which has led them to adopt the practice of medicine. Yet this cannot alter the fact that individuals are lending themselves to the propagation of a materialistic method which must remain forever unsanctioned by the Christianity of Christ Jesus.
None will question that, owing to humanity's lack of spiritual perception, medicine has heretofore played an important part in the world's history, but progress is demanding that matter shall relinquish its claims either to kill or to cure. It is but natural that there should be some radical advance in this, as in all other directions, and there is deep cause for rejoicing in the fact that escape from sickness is again established upon the one true basis, the spiritual. Note here the encouraging words of the Christian Science text-hook: "Instead of blind and calm submission to the incipient or advanced stages of disease, rise in rebellion against them"(Science and Health, p. 391).
