Much has been said of late years concerning the prevention and treatment of so-called contagious or infectious diseases by various material methods, and it is to be noted in this connection that whatever results may be claimed by the advocates of these methods, the area of such diseases, according to medical opinion, is steadily widening. It is held, on the basis of the germ theory, that nearly all diseases are communicable, consequently the segregation of sufferers is coming to be insisted upon as a means of prevention; this, too, in spite of the general admission that fear is a preponderating element in all diseases, and that separation from home and friends would have a disastrous effect by inducing the hopelessness which more than almost anything else needs to be guarded against. There are few thoughtful physicians who would deny that epidemics are largely due to intense fear, yet in spite of this no rational attempts are made to overcome the fear, indeed this can never be done except by an appeal to the higher nature, which can always be relied upon to dominate the fearful and selfish tendencies of the material nature, — "the fleshly mind," — to quote St. Paul.
Many years ago, Mrs. Eddy began her great work for humanity by declaring that the truth of being is available in all trouble, and that every form of disease can be cured by the understanding of God and of man's relation to Him. It is of course inevitable that if all disease can be overcome, disease and death must disappear. Christ Jesus demonstrated the truth of the first proposition and promised that the demonstration of the second would follow in its proper order. He said, "If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death;" and he also said, "Because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not." His hearers responded to this, "Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil?" The Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science met with no less opposition than this from the mortal belief of the present day, but, like the Master, she was not seeking her "own glory," and she went fearlessly on, with the result that thousands of otherwise hopeless sufferers have been healed in Christian Science of "all manner of sickness and all manner of disease," as in Jesus' ministry and that of his students. It is no small thing that now the narrow enclosure of mortal belief is widening, and some dread diseases, once held to be incurable, are now said to be curable. This would certainly appear to be a step in advance, but if the method of treatment turns thought away from God, from Spirit, to matter, nothing has been gained. We must come to Life for life — and Christian Science teaches that God is "the only Life" (Science and Health, p. 330). This one statement lifts Christian Science far above human opinion, and indicates the wide gulf between its teachings and every material hypothesis. In the treatment of every form of disease Christian Science holds tenaciously to the scientific fact that disease and sin are not manifestations of Life, that they consequently lack entity, and that the perpetuation of evil is limited by its very nature,—it is self-destructive, while health and holiness are self-perpetuating.
Too long has it been erroneously believed that opposites combine in man and the universe, but this falsity is fast disappearing before the light of Science. The ideas of the divine Mind undoubtedly manifest infinite variety, but this does not imply or include contradictory qualities, such as good and evil. In Genesis we read that God saw "good" and only good at each advancing unfoldment of creation, and the same holds true to-day.
