Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes in her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 369), "The prophylactic and therapeutic (that is, the preventive and curative) arts belong emphatically to Christian Science, as would be readily seen, if psychology, or the Science of Spirit, God, was understood." Knowing, as a result of her discovery, the allness and ever-presence of God, Mrs. Eddy demonstrated the facts of being, and thus again and again peace and harmony were maintained in her own experience and in that of others. She knew with a confidence born of practical experience that in proportion as thought becomes aware of "the Science of Spirit, God," the discordant testimony of physical sense is rendered null and void.
This "psychology, or the Science of Spirit, God," is in no way dependent upon the evidence of material sense or mortal belief. It is apart from and wholly transcends all the claims and suggestions of material scholasticism, philosophy, materia medica. This "psychology" was understood and applied by Christ Jesus, who at the close of his ministry gave to the students who had listened to his teaching during those three years these arresting assurances: "These signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." Such are the outward and visible signs, the natural, inevitable effects of the true "psychology, or the Science of Spirit, God," which Jesus constantly employed.
Jesus, however, was not a psychologist in the sense in which the word is generally used today. When he gave a command, or made a promise to his followers, he knew and spoke only of things that were absolutely true, and therefore capable of demonstration. His true understanding of "psychology, or the Science of Spirit, God," not only cured sickness and sin, but elevated human thought and experience.
When he was called upon to face manifestations of sickness, of sin, or even of death, Jesus rarely inquired as to material conditions. Nor did he give a moment's credence to what seemed to be manifested humanly. On one occasion he asked the name of a disease. It was a case of insanity. On another occasion, in regard to a case of epilepsy, he asked how long the young man had been in that condition. Both these violent conditions were met and mastered in a moment of time, and vigor, vitality, and intelligence were instantaneously manifested by those healed before the wondering gaze of the people.
When Jesus stood face to face with the self righteous scribes and Pharisees who had brought the adulterous woman into the temple, the words of the Mosaic law upon their lips, seeking his condemnation of her conduct, his reply, based upon "the Science of Spirit, God," so rebuked their materiality and hypocrisy that they, "being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst." As he lifted himself up from writing on the ground, he asked the woman if no man had condemned her; he asked her no question as to herself. Then he dismissed her gently, without condemnation, bidding her, "Go, and sin no more."
"Psychology, or the Science of Spirit, God," as it was understood and practiced by Jesus, did not depend upon the evidence of material sense, upon material observation, deduction, or analysis, but it enabled him to heal mankind of sin and sickness, and he bade his faithful followers in every age to go and do likewise.
Again, we can see the same absolute refusal to accept material sense testimony as true or worthy of consideration on that memorable occasion when Jesus stopped the funeral procession of the son of the widow of Nain. His understanding enabled him instantly to say with unchallengeable authority, "Young man, I say unto thee, Arise." And we are told that "he that was dead sat up, and began to speak. And he delivered him to his mother." These mighty works of healing are recorded with an extraordinary simplicity, but behind them lies the secret of Mind-healing, as set forth in the teachings of Christian Science.
Mrs. Eddy writes (ibid.,p. 147): "Our Master healed the sick, practised Christian healing, and taught the generalities of its divine Principle to his students; but he left no definite rule for demonstrating this Principle of healing and preventing disease. This rule remained to be discovered in Christian Science." It is the definite rule which Christian Science reveals for scientific demonstration. On the same page Mrs. Eddy writes: "Late in the nineteenth century I demonstrated the divine rules of Christian Science. They were submitted to the broadest practical test, and everywhere, when honestly applied under circumstances where demonstration was humanly possible, this Science showed that Truth had lost none of its divine and healing efficacy, even though centuries had passed away since Jesus practised these rules on the hills of Judaea and in the valleys of Galilee."
And so it is that, since the publication of the Christian Science textbook in 1875, receptive thinkers the world over have with joy and gratitude found these definite rules, as a result of a faithful study of the Bible and of the Christian Science textbook and other writings by Mrs. Eddy. With humble gratitude these students of Christian Science acknowledge that they too are learning step by step how to turn away mentally from the testimony of material sense, in whatever form or phase it may present itself, and refuse to give a moment's credence to evil as having any reality. Thus, as they learn to apply the rules of Christian Science, disease and discord are cast off as unreal, fears and doubts fall away, faults and failings which claimed to be insurmountable are finally overcome. Thus do they rise in the strength of this understanding of "the Science of Spirit, God," and learn progressively day by day how to claim and prove their inalienable rights as children of God.
And so they go on their way rejoicing, singing, in the words of a hymn (Christian Science Hymnal, No. 64):
From sense to Soul my pathway lies before me,
From mist and shadow into Truth's clear day;
The dawn of all things real is breaking o'er me.
My heart is singing: I have found the way.
