Throughout the world there is the call for healing. As Moses cried out to God when his sister Miriam was leprous (Num. 12:13), "Heal her now, O God, I beseech thee," so are any number of people today crying out for the healing of themselves or their loved ones from various ills.
The belief that disease is a physical condition of a material body has not decreased disease. It is a step of progress that in recent years some schools of materia medica have turned attention more to the mind of the patient than to his body. When it is generally found and accepted that disease is mental and not physical, the number of diseases will greatly decrease.
Christian Science teaches that disease is mental, a concept of the so-called mortal mind objectified on the body, and that it is healed not by matter or by the human mind but by divine Mind. While seeking a healing through Christian Science, one may sometimes find himself accepting the suggestion that it would be helpful if he knew the name of the ailment which troubled him, thus agreeing with the thought processes of materia medica. He may find himself thinking that it would be most advantageous to have a physical check-up to assist his healing. He should understand that this is not his own thought, but a direct suggestion of material thought, and that it should never be considered otherwise. Nothing is of greater protection than the realization that such a thought does not originate in God. It is not a spiritual idea, but a material suggestion stemming from belief in the material nature of disease. The student should guard his thought vigilantly against the acceptance of this lying suggestion, coming in the guise of helping out the Christian Science treatment.