THOSE who have observed the healing accomplished by Christian Science may wonder why the affirmation of spirituality and the denial of materiality should produce better health. To them it appears as though, in order to produce a better state of health, the physical body should be closely watched, its conditions diagnosed and catered to by material means. Yet such undue concern for one's physical state is apt to increase bodily discomfort. Why? Because, generally speaking, one who becomes engrossed in the care of his body is apt to overlook the larger things of life. He is likely to fall a prey to the tyrants of fear and self-centeredness, which are detrimental to health. Paul said that we should be "willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord."
Whatever spiritualizes the tenor of one's thinking decreases selfishness, stimulates higher, purer, more intelligent activity, and so relieves the cramping oppression and depression by which mortal thought is starved and the physical body depleted. Mortal thought is starved because, egotistically and parasitically, it attempts to feed on its own finite beliefs. But the study of Christian Science feeds human consciousness with eternal Truth, and so offers the complete remedy for the atrophy of mortal mind and body.
In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 265) Mrs. Eddy states that the "scientific sense of being, forsaking matter for Spirit, by no means suggests man's absorption into Deity and the loss of his identity, but confers upon man enlarged individuality, a wider sphere of thought and action, a more expansive love, a higher and more permanent peace." Human consciousness is immeasurably enriched by turning away from materiality and dwelling on the grandeur of man's outlook, his scope, and his ability to reflect the creative Mind, God. There is nothing petty, personal, or selfish about spiritual man; nothing sad, anxious, sensual, or cramped. Spiritual man, the embodiment of good, expresses Life's eternality and Love's universality. He enjoys the range of infinite Mind in which to "go in and out, and find pasture."
