Mary Baker Eddy designates Principle as one of the synonyms for God because the meaning of Principle as fundamental basis, as that from which all that is real proceeds, as unlimited power which maintains the operation of divine law, rightly describes this aspect of Deity.
The operation of divine Principle maintains creation in undeviating harmony and unchanging perfection. Christian Science teaches that the understanding and utilization of God's law bring to light man's unchanging harmony. It teaches further that the material body is but the outward expression of a mistaken material concept of man, and that any sense of inharmony or imperfection has no reality, power, or history in the realm of Principle, or divine Mind, God.
Since the human body is constructed by mortal mind of false beliefs objectified as forms of matter, discords are not primarily in the body, but in the human mind which has accepted these false beliefs. To attain harmony, we do not deal with the body, but with the truth that Principle and its idea constitute reality. Then false beliefs and their effects are driven out of consciousness, and a harmonious body results.
Mortal beliefs are depicted upon the human body as picture slides on a screen. If the picture is to be changed, no amount of cutting or doctoring the screen will accomplish it, but the removal of the slide from the lantern will immediately remove the pictured image. Likewise, when the false concept is removed from thought, its pictured manifestation is removed from the body.
Christian Scientists have great respect for the many noble surgeons who are constantly endeavoring to improve their methods for benefiting those who call upon them for help, but they recognize that Christ Jesus' method is the better way, and they are humbly striving to emulate the great Exemplar, who healed all cases brought to him, including those which would from a medical viewpoint require the services of a surgeon. The surgeon takes cognizance in his treatment of a deformed, diseased, or hurt mortal body needing material ministration of some sort, while the Christian Science practitioner recognizes the difficulty as a mesmeric mental state, totally unreal, from which the patient needs to be awakened.
The raising of Jairus' little daughter from the dead through the spiritual ministration of the Master is a notable instance of the operation of divine Principle in awakening an individual. Jesus said to those who grieved (Matt. 9:24), "Give place: for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth." Another instance is the healing of Saul, later called Paul, who, while engaged in persecution of the Christians (Acts 9), became blinded by the effulgence of spiritual light which transformed both his nature and his mode of life. After his conversion Paul healed many instantaneously, including the congenital cripple of Lystra (Acts 14),
Mrs. Eddy permitted recourse to surgery for the setting of bones. But this is by no means a rendering to "Caesar the things which are Caesar's." Rather is it a compassionate "suffer it to be so now" until thought is more fully awakened to the better way of solving all problems spiritually and mentally through the operation of divine Principle. Our Leader says (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 401), "Until the advancing age admits the efficacy and supremacy of Mind, it is better for Christian Scientists to leave surgery and the adjustment of broken bones and dislocations to the fingers of a surgeon, while the mental healer confines himself chiefly to mental reconstruction and to the prevention of inflammation." Continuing on the next page, however, we find this: "Christian Science is always the most skilful surgeon, but surgery is the branch of its healing which will be last acknowledged."
A young student who had injured his ankle severely in a ski jump was brought to a Christian Science practitioner. He asked if an X ray should be taken, since the injury evidenced the breakage of bone structure. The practitioner said that she would let him decide. She read the above passage from Science and Health to him, and he instantly decided in favor of "the most skilful surgeon," or Christian Science. This student was willing to trust God, and in a short time he was not only healed physically, but had also strengthened his hold on the things of Spirit.
The practitioner pointed out that whether or not the seeming accident was brought about by carelessness, hurry, zeal without wisdom, overconfidence in human prowess, ambition to excel, or a disorderly state of thought, such as temper, anger, selfishness, ruthlessness, or self-will, none of these states of mortal consciousness were true and none could act as law or cause, since God is the only cause and lawmaker. She made it clear that the false mental state itself and whatever manifestation it claimed to picture upon the body were both unrealities, without law and Principle. She declared further that since both the false belief and its expression were unrealities, they were not part of man, were not sustained by law, and could not use him as a victim through which to manifest a lie; nor did they have any history and continuity. She dwelt on the uprightness of man, his immortality, innocence, and undeviating obedience to Principle; on the impossibility of his being separated for a moment from Principle and its unchanging order; and on his safety under God's beneficent laws. Both practitioner and patient rejoiced in bringing out the natural harmony and perfection of man in spite of the argument of mortal mind that man is matter and subject to injury and impairment.
Mrs. Eddy reiterates the point made in the passage quoted from page 401 of Science and Health when she says (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 345), "The work done by the surgeon is the last healing that will be vouchsafed to us, or rather attained by us, as we near a state of spiritual perfection." It is true that the world as a whole has not yet fully acknowledged the power of Truth to perform the work done by surgeons, but many individuals have not only acknowledged but demonstrated that "Christian Science is always the most skilful surgeon." Many an issue of the Journal and of the Christian Science Sentinel contains some remarkable instance of mental surgery. People speaking in Wednesday testimony meetings frequently express gratitude for mental surgery performed through the ministry of Christian Science. An inquirer has only to attend these meetings or visit a Christian Science Reading Room to become acquainted with the healings that are being accomplished.
At present the belief is common that there are some conditions which can be corrected only by medical surgery. This belief has become so fixed in human consciousness that it amounts to a state of mesmerism. The mesmerism is broken when thought is awakened from the illusion of oft-repeated evil suggestion by understanding the omnipotence of the action of divine Mind and the oneness of Mind and its idea, man.
A woman had an ugly growth on her face. Treatment was asked of several experienced practitioners with no apparent result. Then one day she decided to visit an old friend, who was also a practitioner. She poured out her heart to her, because she felt confident that her friend's love would not condemn her, but would help her to clarify and purify her thought. Through her childlike willingness to be corrected and taught of God she talked freely, and it was revealed to her that the difficulty was excessive vanity. Immediately she was willing to correct this false state of thought and establish her true innocence as a child of God. She rejoiced that Principle was operating in her consciousness to remove whatever was unlike the Christ. The next day the growth disappeared, and her face has remained smooth.
No condemnation should be put upon the student who has not yet been able to handle some distressing condition through the operation of Principle alone. We should, however, endeavor more and more to rise to the point of making better demonstrations in order to hasten the time when mental surgery will be more widely acknowledged and utilized. Mrs. Eddy says (ibid., p. 294), "Christian Scientists are yet in a large minority on the subject of divine metaphysics; but they improve the morals and the lives of men, and they heal the sick on the basis that God has all power, is omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent,, supreme over all." And she continues: "In a certain city the Master 'did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief,'—because of the mental counteracting elements, the startled or the unrighteous contradicting minds of mortals. And if he were personally with us to-day, he would rebuke whatever accords not with a full faith and spiritual knowledge of God. He would mightily rebuke a single doubt of the ever-present power of divine Spirit to control all the conditions of man and the universe."
