The real significance of the healing work of Christian Science is that it awakens mankind to the spiritual realities of being and to the knowledge of man's true individuality as the idea of God. Healing brings to human consciousness the proof that the truth of being is understood. Although we may as yet have proved it in only a small degree, yet that proof is a bow of promise spanning the heavens of thought with the assurance that there is a way out of all discord. The healed and restored body is therefore the outward sign that the spiritual facts of being have been in some measure established in consciousness.
One of these facts—a primal one—is that man is incorporeal because he is the image and likeness of God, Spirit. The perception of this basic truth is evidenced in evergrowing measure in what appears to be a more harmonious body and happier human surroundings. But its greatest significance lies in the destruction of material beliefs by spiritual understanding.
In the measure that spiritual sense fills consciousness with harmony and joy, the fret and disturbances of material existence cease to be manifested in our lives. As the truth that man is spiritual is laid firm hold of, the ills of the flesh do not possess and control us. When the ever-present abundance of God's goodness is realized, our environment expresses fullness and abundance. Because we have grasped something of the significance of man as the image and likeness of God, and therefore the reflection of the divine nature, we recognize faults of character and endeavor to overcome them.
