IN our Christian Science periodicals and in the Wednesday meetings in our churches many testimonies of gratitude for physical healings accomplished through the application of Christian Science are .given. The writer has experienced such healings. But in actual fact Christian Science does not heal matter. Rather does it replace mortal mind with the Mind "which was also in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 2:5), and this results in mental, moral, and physical healings.
To understand the reality of being, namely, man's oneness with God. sometimes seems difficult. Jesus taught this great verity. He demonstrated it by healing both sin and sickness; yet, as Mary Baker Eddy points out in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 350), "The Master often refused to explain his words, because it was difficult in a material age to apprehend spiritual Truth." Even his disciples had difficulty in understanding his teaching and following in his footsteps, but they persisted until they too were able to understand and demonstrate in a measure as he did.
We of this age are doubly blessed, for in the solution of our daily problems we have two invaluable aids to help us discern the truth about God, man, and the universe. These are the Bible and the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health. We learn from these two books that any problem in human experience is sure of solution when we gain and maintain the correct concept of God and of man as His expression. In the proportion that we understand spiritual reality and listen for God's guidance will blessings appear in our experience, not only in the form of physical healing but in the unfoldment of proper occupation, adequate supply, right companionship, and other human necessities. We must hold fast to the truth of being through daily prayer and faithful study of our textbooks, lest we be deceived by the false suggestions of mortal mind.
During wrestling practice in a university my son was dropped headfirst to the mat, and a loud cracking sound was heard. The coach, who had a medical degree, diagnosed a broken neck and insisted upon X rays being taken immediately. At the same time a telegram, followed by a letter, was sent to a Christian Science practitioner twelve hundred miles away, asking for help.
I too was attending the university, and the following day my son and I were called before the university officials. The medical director showed the group eight X-ray plates, each of which showed a decided break in the third vertebra. He insisted that the boy wear a brace. We thanked the authorities, but declined the brace and released the university from responsibility. While not unmindful of the wise and loving sanction given by our Leader in regard to resorting to surgical aid where it seems necessary (Science and Health, pp. 401, 402), we were confident of Mind's ability to heal this situation and had no desire to rely on any lesser helper.
My son was holding his head at an unnatural angle. A week passed with no noticeable improvement. During that week I was subjected to a great deal of severe criticism, and he to much misleading sympathy. At the end of the week, during which we had all had time for individual study of our textbooks and for earnest contemplation of the truths they reveal, a conference of the adult members of the family was held.
My wife began by saying that she had been fearful for our son, but through her study had learned that he was in truth the son of God, perfect and indestructible. She had realized, too, that when prayer is answered in Christian Science there is no change in God's law or in His universe; that when the Christian Scientist prays, it is not with the intent of changing material conditions or mortal existence to meet any personal demands, but with the fervent desire to know what God's omnipotent laws really are, to discern His universe here and now, and to prove the present truth about every situation. In this prayer, or metaphysical work, each improved thought leading out of darkness into the light of spiritual understanding is a step in the demonstration of perfection. There is no darkness in light. There can be no fear in God, Truth. She ended with the rousing quotation (Ps. 31:5), "Into thine hand I commit my spirit: thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth."
I in turn said that I expected the apparent injury to be instantaneously cured, for I had learned in my study that there is no such thing as injury or accident. As the nothingness of error became more apparent, I too had clearly seen that our son was in reality a perfect son of God. The Concordance to Science and Health gives twelve references under the heading of accident or accidents, and the Concordance to Prose Works by Mrs. Eddy adds five more. I had found that nowhere does our beloved Leader concede reality to the human belief in accidents. Instead, she clearly states (Science and Health, p. 424), "Accidents are unknown to God, or immortal Mind, and we must leave the mortal basis of belief and unite with the one Mind, in order to change the notion of chance to the proper sense of God's unerring direction and thus bring out harmony."
I said that I felt humility was of the utmost importance in our work of refuting evil's suggestions in this case, and that we must not be impatient or lose faith in demonstrating the truth. By realizing man's true spiritual selfhood, we should be enabled to trust God and to abandon a false sense of self. We must be alert and instant porters at the door of consciousness, and not admit what was being presented through material sense.
Our son said that while he had wanted most of all to prove to his doctor-coach how wonderful Christian Science was, he had learned that his job was to obtain victory over error—nothing else. He realized that in order to overcome difficulties it is necessary to hold to the right concept of oneself as spiritual idea, reflecting the perfection of God. To listen to or spend any time in condemnation, criticism, or commiseration would be to perpetuate the false belief in a material man and mortal existence. He knew that, like Jesus' disciples, we must persist in rejecting this false sense of existence and insistently claim spiritual existence as the one true existence.
At the close of the little conference the young man put on his sweater, and as he pulled it over his head he exclaimed that he was all right—entirely free! However, the university authorities would not allow him to engage in any athletics for ten weeks. Then he asked to be allowed to enter intramural wrestling contests. X rays were required, and eight more plates were taken. These had to be retaken because the roentgenologists examining the plates thought that the wrong man had been X-rayed. The final diagnosis was to the effect that the upper cervical vertebrae did not show the original fracture.
In gratitude to God we quickly recognized three blessings which this experience had brought us: first, the realization that neither time nor distance can limit God's power; secondly, the conviction that God's will, not human will, prevails; thirdly, the understanding that God's love is available to us whenever we confidently claim it.
In proportion as we rely on God and instantly deny reality to sin, sickness, discord, lack, and every inharmony we shall recognize and acknowledge our blessings.
A dictionary defines blessing in part as "any temporal or spiritual gift calling for gratitude; especially, a divine favor." Gratitude is a necessity as well as a privilege. As we hourly express gratitude for God's love, there is no room for fear, impatience, or human vanity. Thus the Master's words are proved as true today as when he said to his disciples (John 8:32), "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
Everything that God knows is forever present where man is. for man is God's expression and likeness. Human thought argues for a process that requires time to discern and consent to spiritual facts; but spiritual knowledge, the ever-presence of right ideas, is immediate being. God is infinite, eternal, perfect—without any limitations of place, time, or ability. To understand these spiritual verities brings to light man's infinite possibilities here and now.
As Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health (Pref., p. xi), "The physical healing of Christian Science results now, as in Jesus' time, from the operation of divine Principle, before which sin and disease lose their reality in human consciousness and disappear as naturally and as necessarily as darkness gives place to light and sin to reformation."
