Under the marginal heading "No healing in sin," Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, has written in her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (pp. 369, 370), "No man is physically healed in wilful error or by it, any more than he is morally saved in or by sin;" and, "To be every whit whole, man must be better spiritually as well as physically."
For centuries sermons have been preached about the crippled man at the pool of Bethesda, but only with the advent of Christian Science has there been a satisfactory explanation of how this healing was accomplished by the great Metaphysician, Christ Jesus. Doubtless there were, and are today, many grand Christian men and women who have wondered why Jesus, the most compassionate of men, did not ask others at the pool if they would be healed. To the thought enlightened in Christian Science the answer becomes clear. With his spiritual insight and perception our Master read the thought of the one who was ready to receive spiritual healing.
In this great multitude of "impotent folk" there was one whose heart was open to the regenerative influence of the healing Christ. One of the qualities necessary to receive spiritual healing is obedience. When this man was commanded, "Rise, take up thy bed, and walk," he did not stop to argue or say that he could not do it, or that he only wished that he could do so. He was obedient to the command uttered by God's faithful messenger. The healing appeared forthwith. Later on, our Master found the erstwhile cripple in the temple. This indicates that he had awakened to seek God. Jesus reminded him of his healing: "Behold, thou art made whole." Then came those compelling words which have been ringing down the centuries, addressed to the man but applicable to all men in every age, "Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee." Here is plainly indicated the cause of human suffering and woe, and the way out of it.
