THE distinction between Christian Science and all non-Christian methods of healing is important in constitutional law. A quotation from "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, will make this distinction clear (pp. 482, 483): "Christian Science is the law of Truth, which heals the sick on the basis of the one Mind or God. It can heal in no other way, since the human, mortal mind so-called is not a healer, but causes the belief in disease. . . . We classify disease as error, which nothing but Truth or Mind can heal, and this Mind must be divine, not human." In other words, the healing which results from the practice of Christian Science is due to the presence, power, and action of God. In fine, the saving and healing Principle is not material or human, but spiritual and divine.
In this situation the efforts of men who exercise the powers of human government to hinder the practice of Christian Science, are in their nature excessive and unjust; hence, their acts are apt to show the processes of human law at the worst. Take, for illustration, four prosecutions of recent date. In one case the immediate occasion for the prosecution was the healing, through the defendant's ministration, of a well-known instance of paralysis, this being only one of several notable healings which had followed her work in a village or small city on the western plains. It is also worthy of comment that this Christian woman's counsel at her trial were two members of the bar who had been restored to moral or physical health in the course of her service to humanity. Although she was acquitted by a jury, the local medical society insisted on another prosecution immediately afterward.
In another case the defendant was adjudged guilty of doing what was farthest from his thoughts, namely, practising medicine without a license. He had been cured by Christian Science after years of illness which medicine had been unable to relieve, and he had therefore studied Christian Science and entered upon the work of sharing with others the benefits which he had himself received. In this case also the attention of the local medical society had been attracted by the success of his healing work, and the prosecution was begun and mainly conducted by its agents.
