To the casual reader or the unenlightened thought, some passages in the Scriptures may sound contradictory and confusing. Why did Christ Jesus at times command those whom he had healed to "tell no man," while on other occasions he asked that the healings should be proclaimed? Christian Science illumines each Biblical text and brings light into the obscurity of material thinking. It teaches that the Biblical commands, promises, and healings are to be interpreted spiritually instead of from a material viewpoint. It helps us to think as Jesus taught his followers to think, and to heal spiritually, as Jesus healed, thus to show forth the signs promised by the Master.
"Tell no man," bade the Nazarene when he healed a man of leprosy. When raising Jairus' daughter, he charged the parents not to tell what was done. In Bethsaida, when Jesus restored the blind man's sight, he sent him home, but forbade him to go into the town or to talk about his healing to anyone.
In the third chapter of Ecclesiastes we read, "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: . . . a time to keep silence, and a time to speak." On one occasion a young Christian Scientist was bitten by a poisonous reptile. As she walked along rejoicing, conscious of the truth and the ever-presence of God's love and protection as brought out so beautifully in the week's Lesson-Sermon in the Christian Science Quarterly, which she had made her daily study, no thought of fear or resentment touched her in this seemingly trying experience. She knew that she loved all God's perfect creation, and she knew that, humanly speaking, she had not meant to frighten the snake or to harm it. No ill effects were experienced as, returning to her friends, she obeyed the Christly demand to "tell no man." Later on, as she thought over the wonder of the healing, she could not resist speaking of what had happened. Shortly afterwards she felt her ankle swelling and saw discoloration set in. It was necessary to work in Christian Science for some time, declaring the allness of good, before a complete healing followed.
