"IN different ages the divine idea assumes different forms, according to humanity's needs. In this age it assumes, more intelligently than ever before, the form of Christian healing. This is the babe we are to cherish. This is the babe that twines its loving arms about the neck of omnipotence, and calls forth infinite care from His loving heart." So states Mary Baker Eddy on page 370 of her "Miscellaneous Writings."
Isaiah prophesied (Isa. 9:6), "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." This prophecy was fulfilled in the birth of Christ Jesus, who grew to manhood and taught not only in the synagogue, but by the wayside, the truth of man's spiritual sonship with God.
John, the beloved disciple, while a prisoner on the Isle of Patmos, visioned a woman to whom would be born a man child who was to rule the earth with "a rod of iron." And thus it was that in the fullness of time the forever truth that God is the only author of man, and that man's continuity with his Father-Mother God is never broken, dawned on the waiting thought of a spiritually-minded woman.
Mrs. Eddy for many years had been searching for the understanding of the Christ-healing taught and practiced by Christ Jesus. In the year 1866, when standing within the valley of the shadow of death, she turned, as she had done from early childhood, to her Bible for consolation and help. While reading Matthew's account of the healing by Jesus of the man sick of the palsy, she glimpsed the import of the Master's words in connection with that healing and was instantaneously healed of the injury caused by an accident.
Thus was born the "man child"— Christian Science. In the year 1875 Mrs. Eddy made available this Science to all the world through her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," which is destined to preach the gospel of good tidings to all mankind, to heal the sick, and to reform the sinner. This Science reveals God's healing power—the Christ-healing, or "babe we are to cherish," the "babe that twines its loving arms about the neck of omnipotence, and calls forth infinite care from His loving heart."
In her "Christmas Sermon" in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 164) Mrs. Eddy says, "At first, the babe Jesus seemed small to mortals; but from the mount of revelation, the prophet beheld it from the beginning as the Redeemer, who would present a wonderful manifestation of Truth and Love." The recognition and acknowledgment of his oneness with his heavenly Father, divine Love, Truth, and Life, was the basis of Christ Jesus' thinking and the divine impulsion that was behind his wonderful healing works. He declared (John 14:10), "The Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works." It was his spirituality, his reflection of the divine nature, which gave him mastery over sin, disease, and death. Christian healing rests on no other basis.
The realization and demonstration in daily living of our oneness with our divine Principle, God, results in the healing of discord, pain, and sorrow. The activity of the "babe," the spiritual idea of Christian healing, in individual human consciousness removes all that is unlike God, good, and reveals man in his original, spotless purity as the son of God. We do not have to wait until our "babe" has grown to manhood— until our understanding of the Christ, Truth, has become more mature—before receiving its blessed ministrations. Our understanding, even in small degree, of the truth that man is never born and never dies, but is eternally coexistent with his creator, Spirit, protects us and all upon whom our thought rests.
Christ Jesus commanded his followers to go "into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature," to heal the sick, and to love one's neighbor as oneself. We are obedient to these commands as we cherish the "babe," the scientific Christian healing practiced by our Master and revealed to this age by Mrs. Eddy, in demonstrating the truths set forth in Christian Science.
The application of our understanding of the eternal unity of God and His idea, man, should be universal. The spiritual perception that in reality we are all the children of one Parent, even God, is the only way the brotherhood of man will be established on earth. Divisions of race, color, creed, and differing ideologies are unknown to God, who has made man in His own image, spiritual and perfect.
The full and final revelation of man's spiritual sonship with the Father today "assumes, more intelligently than ever before, the form of Christian healing." Wakeful shepherds of the twentieth century hear distinctly the angel message, "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."
