Where even two or three meet together the subject of health is almost invariably commented upon or seriously discussed, so intimately is it associated with our day to day activities, so necessary is it to our mental peace. Health is usually considered as pertaining to one's physical condition; but it is also becoming recognized by an increasing number of people as a state of conscious or unconscious well-being,—moral, mental, and physical. It is so closely linked in the thought of humanity with existence, that any seeming impairment of physical health immediately creates fear of pain, discomfort, or even death.
Health has long been recognized, in some degree, as mental. Job recognized this; for he said, "The thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me." Jesus emphasized the mental nature of health in many of his statements, but notably in the declaration, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." The mental nature of health has also been perceived by many thinkers since Jesus' time, Shakespeare expressing it thus: "There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so."
Jesus, however, perceived that real health is not only mental, but primarily a spiritual manifestation, therefore eternal and ever present, and governed by spiritual law,—the invariable, unchangeable law of God. He proved this in restoring health in a multitude of cases. Elijah, many years before Jesus, used this law in raising the widow's son at Zarephath; and Elisha, also, in healing the leprosy of Naaman. Both instances are proofs that spiritual law has always been available.
