Mary Baker Eddy says on page 412 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures": "Mentally and silently plead the case scientifically for Truth. You may vary the arguments to meet the peculiar or general symptoms of the case you treat, but be thoroughly persuaded in your own mind concerning the truth which you think or speak, and you will be the victor." And on the same page she continues, "To heal by argument, find the type of the ailment, get its name, and array your mental plea against the physical."
It seems evident in the light of the foregoing passages from the Christian Science textbook that its author recognized the necessity in some instances, possible in most instances, of arguing against the claims made by mortal mind that disease is real, and sometimes a very stubborn reality. It also seems clear that Mrs. Eddy recognized the need for making the argument, the affirmation of Truth and the denial of error, sufficiently thorough to deal specifically with the claims advanced by mortal mind.
Other passages in Science and Health indicate that the mental or audible argument, that is, the treatment, serves to lift the thought of the practitioner above the belief that disease is real to the recognition of health as the ever-present reality. But if a student of Christian Science were able always to abide in the absolute consciousness of God's omnipresence and omnipotence, he would have no need for argument. He would be able to heal spontaneously, without argument and without effort. In other words, he would in all cases rise spontaneously to the spiritual altitude where Christ Jesus dwelt habitually, and which enabled him instantly to heal "all manner of sickness and all manner of disease." It is recorded in Luke's Gospel that upon one occasion, after asking the lawyers if it was lawful to heal on the Sabbath day, and receiving no reply, he instantaneously healed a man of dropsy. The record simply states, "And he took him, and healed him, and let him go."
