IN a variety of ways disease tries to pretend that it is necessary to the welfare of mankind, that it forms a legitimate part of God's plan. Unfortunately both scholastic theology and materia medica unite in seconding these pretensions by describing disease alternately as the result of God's will or as due to the violation of so-called natural and divinely sanctioned law. Unless instructed by Christian Science, the sick have no opportunity of escaping from the cruel grasp of these false views.
It should be understood that disease is discord, and since God always expresses Himself in absolute harmony, in perpetual divine order, He cannot be the author of disease. Divine Principle cannot produce disorder. Omnipotent Mind cannot entertain discord, else chaos would long since have overtaken the universe, including man. To pretend that God sends disease as divine chastisement, judgment, rebuke, correction, or even as a reminder, is to assume that God deals in disorder, and purposely inflicts it upon defenseless men, women, and children. It is quite unprofitable to speculate as to what precise purpose God might or could have in distributing disease to mankind, for if disease proceeded from Him at all, either directly or indirectly, mankind would be obliged to submit, or else be found fighting against God.
On the other hand it is claimed that disease is the penalty for the violation of so-called natural laws, and that God sanctions these so-called laws. But Paul was able to declare, "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." Moreover, when examined in the light of Christian Science these so-called natural laws, ultimating in sin, sickness, and death, are found to be mere human beliefs. In no case are they emanations of the divine Mind. When closely scrutinized, so-called laws of health, as enunciated from time to time by believers in material medicine, are discovered to be only laws of disease, i.e.. of disorder. Hence, strictly speaking, such beliefs are not laws at all. They are self-contradictory, unlawful, and illegitimate assumptions, having no firm basis, because disease or disorder can have no stability or fixity, but is shown by Christian Science to be a lawless falsity. If it could be proven that these so-called natural laws, the violation of which produces disease, are of divine origin, then it would be wrong to resist them, and it would be the duty of every Christian to let them take their course, unchecked by any preventive measures.
