OUR great Exemplar, Christ Jesus, defined our duty to our fellowmen in two sentences of three words each. Perhaps nowhere does language more tersely phrase man's right activity. Those two sentences are, "Preach the gospel;" "Heal the sick." In reality these two activities are one, because when we truly preach the gospel of divine Science, the sick are healed through the spoken word; and when we heal the sick through spiritual understanding, we truly unveil to benighted mortals the gospel of good tidings. The Master coordinated these two activities because they are essential activities, both necessary to the growth of the individual in scientific right understanding.
Unless the Christian grasps the gospel scientifically, he does not know how to advance systematically with confident steps; and unless he gains the power to heal the sick, he is likewise halted in his advance heavenward. "Disease," says Mrs. Eddy in "No and Yes" (p. 4), "is more than imagination; it is a human error, a constituent part of what comprise the whole of mortal existence, —namely, material sensation and mental delusion." Now, it is evident that mortal existence must be overcome, if mortals are to attain the indwelling harmony of the kingdom of God. How can we expect to advance in the scientific understanding of God if we preach the gospel only, and fail at the same time to destroy that which is "a constituent part of . . . the whole of mortal existence"?
The children of Israel endured great hardships in the wilderness, but that did not end their trials. When they came in sight of the promised land, great obstacles confronted them, barring the way to that land of "milk and honey." These obstacles could not be avoided. They had to be met and overcome, or a return to the wilderness was inevitable and unavoidable. So, likewise, when Christian Science leads us away from materiality to spirituality, we may find before us the obstacle of sickness, a constituent part of error, which cannot be avoided. It is an implacable enemy, which must be destroyed before we can gain the divine consciousness of man's at-one-ment with God.
