IN that wonderful fourteenth chapter of John's Gospei, wherein are recorded those inspiring promises which have brought comfort and courage to so many troubled hearts, there is one declaration of the Master that is of deep significance to Christian Scientists, the authority, as it were, for their endeavor to heal the sick and the sinning: "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also." We should not he unmindful, however, of the Master's frank acknowledgment that of himself he could do nothing, — "the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works;" nor of his prayer that his disciples — and "them also which shall believe on me through their word" — might have that oneness with the Father which was the source of his power: "As thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: ... that they may be one, even as we are one."
It follows, therefore, that if all Christian Scientists had attained to this oneness with the Father, if they were as absolutely attuned to the divine good as was Christ Jesus, there would be no failure on their part to heal instantaneously all manner of sickness and all manner of disease, just as he healed these false beliefs of mortality. But, surrounded as they are by the myriad beliefs of life, substance, and intelligence in matter, in which all mankind indulges itself more or less, it sometimes seems necessary for those who attempt to heal themselves and others, to begin this undertaking through argument, along the line of proceeding which Mrs. Eddy has so fully set forth in the chapter on "Christian Science Practice" in our text-book, Science and Health. In the following chapter, however, she explains the reason for the use of the argument, that it is simply preparatory, the while making clear its subordination to the healing truth, in these words: "Remember that the letter and mental argument are only human auxiliaries to aid in bringing thought into accord with he spirit of Truth and Love, which heals the sick and the sinner" (p. 454).
Unfortunately, Christian Scientists sometimes act as though they believed that these auxiliaries were the healing power instead of the divine Mind, — that Mind "which was also in Christ Jesus" and which alone heals; a mistaken belief which largely lends to the establishment of a dependence on personality instead of Principle in the thought of both patient and practitioner. In line with this thought we may cite Mrs. Eddy's words on page 138 of Science and Health, wherein she explains Peter's answer to Jesus' question. "Whom say ye that I am?" She writes: "It was now evident to Peter that divine Life. Truth, and Love, and not a human personality, was the healer of the sick and a rock, a firm foundation in the realm of harmony. On this spiritually scientific basis Jesus explained his cures, which appeared miraculous to outsiders. He showed that diseases were cast out neither by corporeality, by materia medica, nor by hygiene, but by the divine Spirit, casting out the errors of mortal mind."
