In industrial, trade, or health matters, measures and means designed to prevent accidents and illnesses are being generally adopted. One cannot deny the loving purpose which prompts them, but at the same time one must admit that this preventive care, like all that the human mind promotes, is limited. Mary Baker Eddy states in her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 369): "The prophylactic and therapeutic (that is, the preventive and curative) arts belong emphatically to Christian Science, as would be readily seen, if psychology, or the Science of Spirit, God, was understood."
Of what then does the art of true and therefore lasting prevention consist in Christian Science? It lies in a constant observance of the Ten Commandments, in praying "without ceasing," and in the continual cultivation of spiritual sense. It means under all circumstances to trust good, to practice constant watchfulness and patience. In short, the true art of prevention lies in being spiritually uplifted at all times.
In the sixteenth chapter of Luke's Gospel we find the parable, familiar to all Christians, of the rich man and Lazarus the beggar. According to the parable the rich man, who on earth had lived sumptuously and pleasurably, found himself after death in a condition of torment, whereas Lazarus, who had met with evil on earth, after he died rested in Abraham's bosom. To forestall the possibility that his brothers might also come into this "place of torment," the rich man asked Abraham to send Lazarus to testify unto them. Abraham refused this request in the words, "They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them."
