A DREAMER passes through various fictitious experiences; but the sleeping dream ceases the moment the dreamer awakens, and he carries about with him no physical after effects of his dream.
On page 346 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy writes, "If a dream ceases, it is self-destroyed, and the terror is over." Spiritual awakening alone causes the dream of materiality and its attendant discords to cease. "When shall I awake?" asks the wise man. Christian Science rouses every faithful student to prove that spiritual awakening is not a matter for speculation, but for daily demonstration, "here a little, and there a little," until step by step the eternality of Life is discerned and demonstrated. Its scientific and compassionate ministry awakens the sufferer from his waking dream of sickness, and the result is known as healing, healing brought about through seeking and finding in God, Spirit, all that was believed to have been inherent in and at the mercy of matter. According as this awakening is rapid or gradual, it is referred to as quick or slow healing. In either case, healing and awakening are allied; and they may be simultaneous.
Christian Science has a message of comfort for one who has been what is termed a chronic sufferer. Such a one need not anticipate that the period required for his healing through awakening need be a long one. The woman referred to in Scripture, who was bowed with what nowadays would probably be called rheumatism, was instantaneously awakened from the bad dream which had kept her in bondage during eighteen solar years. The man at the pool of Bethesda who had been bedridden for thirty-eight years, and who delayed his healing by sinking his faith in a pool of water, was restored to normal strength and activity instantaneously. In his case we gather from the Bible narrative that Jesus healed him of sin. There was no further condemnation and, moreover, no period of convalescence, no gradual gaining of strength and action, for spiritual reflection can call these into manifestation instantly.
