In common with most people the writer was brought up to believe that disease is a physical condition of the material body. In consequence of this false teaching he was subject to many forms of fear and sickness throughout childhood, and until he later became interested in the teachings of Mary Baker Eddy, the revelator of Truth to this age. Christian Science reveals the remarkable fact that the teachings and practice of Christ Jesus in the overcoming of fear and disease are as available and effective today as when he was on earth, and when his disciples healed all manner of disease and raised the dead to life in proof of what he taught them.
Let us, therefore, consider what Jesus taught concerning disease. Obviously he did not teach that it is a physical condition of the material body, for his practice was contrary to such belief. The Bible records that blind Bartimaeus cried out to the Master to have mercy on him, and it is stated that Jesus asked (Mark 10:51), "What wilt thou that I should do unto thee?" The record continues: "The blind man said unto him. Lord, that I might receive my sight. And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way." Such practice did not imply that blindness is a physical condition.
What constituted the blindness must have been some phase of mental misconception, for Jesus healed the apparently physical condition with a word. Is it not obvious that Jesus had a knowledge of God and of His present government of man that was vastly different from the concept of other human beings? It is evident that it was Jesus' knowledge of God as infinite Spirit and Truth and of man as His likeness, or perfect expression, that made Bartimaeus free from his affliction.
