Should I submit to a medical examination if suffering from a disease which has not yielded to Christian Science treatment? Occasionally such a decision must be made by a student of this Science, and just what to do may seem perplexing. It is not recorded that Jesus of Nazareth, the master Metaphysician, ever inquired of a sick man which foot, or ear, or eye, or hand, or other part of the body was in distress. He read the thoughts of those around him, and he healed their diverse ills by lifting their thoughts above their bodies to God, the source of all true thoughts and of health. That he expected his followers to heal is supported by his assurance to his disciples (Mark 16:17, 18): "These signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; . . . they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover."
In each generation there have been some who have glimpsed with a degree of inspiration the manner in which healing really takes place, and they have attempted to pass this inspiration on to others. As early as 1759, John Wesley wrote in his Journal the story of a woman who suffered from a continuous pain in her stomach, for which doctors prescribed drugs without avail. Wesley found that it resulted "from fretting ..." and when she was comforted her physical disorder left. "Why, then," asked Wesley, "do not all physicians consider how far bodily disorders are caused or influenced by the mind?"
There is a trend today to look away from the body for the cause of our ills. The medical profession is increasingly taking into consideration the thoughts of its patients in an attempt to find out where the physical machinery has become clogged. A substantial number of medical practitioners are today willing to admit that one's health is largely determined by one's mental state. There has, in fact, been established in the curriculum of some of the larger medical schools a course of study called psychosomatic medicine, a subject which takes into account the thoughts of the patient in relation to his illnesses, or the uniting of mind and body as a unit. This study accepts the premise that a patient's problems, his disposition, fears, restrictions, worries, limitations, frustrations, have a tendency to excite the emotions and thereby bring about what appear on the body as organic or functional disturbances.
A student who was new in the study of Christian Science was battling with a physical illness which stubbornly resisted all the efforts both of a Christian Science practitioner and of himself. One day he expressed the thought that perhaps a medical diagnosis might determine the actual name of the disturbing ailment. With sympathetic understanding the practitioner asked the patient if he would be willing first of all to do some self-diagnosing, to ask himself certain questions basic to the study of Christian Science, such as: Do I believe that God is Love, illimitable power? Do I believe that God is Truth, infinite reality? Am I proving that God is Life, immeasurable and all-inclusive? Do I express God, who is Mind, all-permeating intelligence? Do I comprehend that God is Spirit, the eternal Principle of all being? Do I understand that God is Soul, immortal substance? If the answers to these questions are in the affirmative, what, then, is there to fear from the body? The practitioner further encouraged the patient with this reassuring statement by Mary Baker Eddy from "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 268): "God's preparations for the sick are potions of His own qualities. His therapeutics are antidotes for the ailments of mortal mind and body. Then let us not adulterate His preparations for the sick with material means."
This counsel was enough for the new student, for he had already learned, as all students of Christian Science do, that healing takes place first in the thinking of the individual. Here, then, must be the place for true diagnosis. He believed that "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good" (Gen. 1:31). He now realized that man, too, as the image and likeness of God, possessed only good. From searching his own thoughts about God and man's relationship to Him, he comprehended more clearly that freedom from sin, sickness, and death comes not through a mortal's diagnosis of what the physical sense testimony presents on the body, but rather through the renewing of the mind.
The Biblical statement (Phil. 2:5), "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus," now carried new meaning to his joyous heart. As he set to work to look away from the body to perceive the man of God's creating, he learned that man continually abides in the realm of happiness, health, and peace. As faith became anchored in spiritual understanding, the fears, doubts, and anxieties so frequently entertained in the beginning gradually disappeared. When he began to realize the spiritual fact of man's Godlike being, the patient became fully conscious of his true identity as the perfect child of God, and healing was the result.
In the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," our Leader gives a short summary of what divine Science does for all mankind. "Christian Science," she declares (p. 162), "brings to the body the sunlight of Truth, which invigorates and purifies. Christian Science acts as an alterative, neutralizing error with Truth. It changes the secretions, expels humors, dissolves tumors, relaxes rigid muscles, restores carious bones to soundness. The effect of this Science is to stir the human mind to a change of base, on which it may yield to the harmony of the divine Mind."
This statement was indeed encouraging and helpful to the writer, who on one occasion found himself in a serious plight. As a young man, he elected to study materia medica. He entered college, acquired his degree, and followed his chosen profession for several years. In the midst of a busy and interesting career, however, he was one day afflicted with a pernicious disease, complicated by nervous shock and physical collapse.
The condition resisted all the efforts of material medicine. Four well-informed physicians were in consultation on the case, and each rendered a different diagnosis and recommended a different procedure of treatment. Finally, after several weeks of suffering, with no apparent improvement, when even hope for recovery was despaired of, he was offered Christian Science by a dear one. With considerable reluctance the decision was made to dismiss the physicians and to resort to Christian Science treatment. Within one week the healing took place.
Soon thereafter the writer was healed in a single treatment of a troublesome hernia which had been an aggravation since youth. Shortly after that he was enabled to discard permanently eyeglasses which he had worn for years. In rapid succession many proofs of God's nearness and goodness were experienced. Fear, pride, self-will, and self-importance were but a few of the unlovely traits of character which were uprooted.
With all this good accomplished, still another mountainous obstacle now loomed ahead. What about the future? Should there be a continuation of the practice of medicine? With heavy thought the writer returned to his office to take up his duties where they had been dropped some weeks before. Again, he requested metaphysical aid in Christian Science, and much to his surprise he soon realized that not the slightest desire to resume the practice of medicine remained. A consecrated study of Christian Science was begun, and soon an opportunity opened for him to enter commercial life, and the practice of materia medica was abandoned for all time.
Here, indeed, was a human mind stirred to "a change of base," and the resultant harmonious living and working conditions have been an unending cause for gratitude. Here was no bodily condition which needed diagnosis, but a mental state which required "the sunlight of Truth" to invigorate and purify it. The writer learned that when his thinking was spiritually scientific he became free from the insidious argument called disease in the body. Through the constant application of spiritual truths, one will enjoy "the effect of this Science," which will stir him into action, so that the human mind will become obedient to divine Principle, Life, Truth, and Love, and every thought and action will "yield to the harmony of the divine Mind."
To "let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus," is a simple enough Scriptural command, yet it takes moral courage and an unrelenting faith in God as the only cause and creator to become obedient to it. But when this Mind is permitted to be in us, then is the door of consciousness open for spiritual inspiration to enter, control, and govern our thinking and action.
Through turning away from the material elements of belief, one will be inspired with the resplendent revelation that God is All-in-all; that man is spiritual, actually the image and likeness of the true, living God, here and now. When an honest effort and approach are made in this direction, the outcome is sure and will be accompanied by untold blessedness, joy, and harmony, for man's health and happiness are God-bestowed and maintained. "What a glorious inheritance is given to us through the understanding of omnipresent Love!" writes Mrs. Eddy (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 307). And she continues, "More we cannot ask: more we do not want: more we cannot have. This sweet assurance is the 'Peace, be still' to all human fears, to suffering of every sort."
