JESUS was a scientific practitioner, one who never made a mistake either in theory or practise. Anointed by Spirit, God, and controlled by the Christ-power, he became the Wayshower who was to lead humanity out of the bondage of matter into the freedom of Mind. The student of Christian Science who grasps the divine Principle taught and practised by the Master, and who strives to apply it in his daily living, becomes a practical disciple of Truth; in other words, a practitioner of Christian Science.
Such a practitioner is no miracle worker in the generally accepted sense. He lays no claim to any supernatural power. He is not the representative of anything mystical or occult. He is not the agent of hypnotism or any of its aliases. He is the exponent of a demonstrable all-satisfying faith in Christ Jesus as the Saviour of the world. Through his understanding of God's willingness and ability to save to the uttermost, he heals the sick and reforms the sinner, thereby undermining the foundations of the belief in death. He lays no claim to any power apart from God; he claims to do nothing of himself, but humbly acknowledges the omnipotence of good, acting through the Christ-idea of perfect cause and perfect effect. He is never found looking for either cause or effect in matter. He is not a matter physician, but a Christian meta-physician. He works in and through Mind. He loves good supremely and eschews evil. He is a living exponent of right thinking. He is not an empiric. His work lies entirely above the plane of human experimentation. He has faith in an understood Principle, a Principle which reveals all cause and effect as mental, thereby instituting the divine remedy for every human discord. Whatever problem confronts him, he knows that the one thing needful is to establish in individual consciousness the spiritual fact that man, because of his perfect relationship to God, is and must forever be exempt from all evil. The moment this fact is realized, the sick are healed and the desire or inclination to sin is a thing of the past.
The dominant aim of the practitioner is to administer the divine corrective which reverses every mistaken or perverted sense and silences human thinking with the "Peace, be still," of Love. He does not live for the sole purpose of treating and healing diseases. His work lies wholly within mentality, and when this is properly adjusted the Christ-healing takes place. Thus it is that the healing of disease is only incidental to the keeping of the commandments of God. The medical practitioner in working to produce physical harmony, independent of mental and moral conditions, loses sight of the Christian's goal, and too often leaves his patient in the mistaken belief that matter can both cause disease and cure it. The effect of scientific mental practise is to arouse the patient to a higher order of thinking. This means both correction and instruction, leading to greater mental activity. Not until such activity is in evidence does any real healing take place.
