In the textbook of Christian Science, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mrs. Eddy says, on page 264, "The crude creations of mortal thought must finally give place to the glorious forms which we sometimes behold in the camera of divine Mind, when the mental picture is spiritual and eternal." In the practice of Christian Science we learn that the only healing power is the divine Mind, and that the spiritual light of a right idea—Mind's idea— always quenches the darkness of a false belief. So, whenever we discern the right idea or correct spiritual view of anything, the result should be healing.
When Christ Jesus was on earth people came to him to be healed. It was his own correct view or Mind picture of man, as God's likeness, that destroyed sickness and sin and met their need: he appeared in that era as the personal Saviour. In this age Christian Science has come to us as the impersonal savior, and whenever we come in contact with any of the authorized activities of the Christian Science movement, such as the church services, the treatments given by its loyal practitioners, the lectures given by members of the Board of Lectureship of The Mother Church, or class instruction by its authorized teachers, we are touching the hem of the garment of Christ. And if our heart is made open and our consciousness receptive by the faith that Jesus recommended, we shall gain the same correct view of God and man that he taught centuries ago; and we shall be healed and blessed.
There are two ways of taking a photograph, one is to take a snapshot, the other is to make a time exposure. These two methods may be compared to intuition, which gives an instantaneous impression of anything, and analysis, which involves a thought process and should reveal the same mental picture or idea. We learn in Christian Science that in healing the sick there is the inspirational realization, when the presence of divine Love is felt to such an extent that the lie is immediately dissolved; and again, through argument, the same realization of spiritual consciousness is reached by affirming the truth and denying the lies about any specific situation. Mrs. Eddy makes this clear in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 352), where she says, "Through the divine energies alone one must either get out of himself and into God so far that his consciousness is the reflection of the divine, or he must, through argument and the human consciousness of both evil and good, overcome evil."
