Scientific healing prayer in Christian Science, or what is termed a Christian Science treatment, is the bearing witness to the truth of being in one's consciousness. It is communing with God in the calm and clear realization of Immanuel, "God with us," knowing and proving that which is divinely real. A Christian Science treatment casts out fear and brings the light which is Christ to the human consciousness. The result is seen in the demonstration of Love's potency in the healing of all manner of fleshly ills.
It is truly significant that the method of healing as practiced by the blessed Master, Christ Jesus, is exactly the same as that employed by our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy. Often the Master was called upon to assuage grief and mental anguish, or to comfort those who were in the throes of some physical difficulty, and there always followed the healing of whatever appeared as a sick man, or a sinner, or a dead man. The evil was cast out—with never a failure.
No sweeter or more comforting words ever went forth from the Master to those to whom he ministered than these: "Be not afraid." Whether to assure the ruler of the synagogue that his daughter was not dead or to encourage those fearful disciples in their small craft battling with the winds and waves, those powerful words were always immediately effective. It is recorded that even upon the mount of transfiguration —where Peter, James, and John had accompanied the blessed Master, and where one would think there would have been no occasion to fear—when the disciples heard the benediction (Matt. 17:5), "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased," they fell on their faces in great terror. Again the Master reassured them; he touched them and exclaimed, "Arise, and be not afraid." Herein is the secret of all healing. It is indeed the divine fiat of the Christ which speaks to human thought and obliterates the darkened sense with the light. And fear is felt no more, because thought is lifted to discern only the truth of being, or divine reality.
Following closely in the footsteps of the Master and ever bearing witness to the truth, our beloved Leader reiterates these words of his. In the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," she states (p. 410), "Christian scientific practice begins with Christ's keynote of harmony, 'Be not afraid!' " Fear often tends to neutralize one's efforts toward demonstration, toward the elimination of erroneous conditions and the establishment of harmony and healing. Treatment where there are merely declarations without the fearless realization of the truth is simply the letter without the spirit and is what the Master speaks of as the flesh profiting nothing because that which quickeneth is Spirit. He knew the power of what he knew!
In order to make one's faith work, thought must be freed from the mesmerism of fear by uniting it with God through the understanding of man's eternal oneness with the Father. It is to know, as our Leader tells us, that "the scientific man and his Maker are here; and you would be none other than this man, if you would subordinate the fleshly perceptions to the spiritual sense and source of being" (Unity of Good, p. 46). Then we find the living, healing faith rising into the spiritual understanding of the absolute truth that heals instantaneously.
Scientific healing prayer is designed not only to cast out fear, but to restore one's freedom and to protect him in the continuous expression of this freedom. Spiritualization of thought gives one understanding of God's presence and power and enables him to bear witness to Truth. It testifies to that which is divinely real. It touches upon and reveals things unseen. It is that faith and understanding which is the substance of things hoped for.
On one occasion when he was being challenged by the Pharisees the Master gave a most comprehensive explanation of his healing method. He said (Matt. 12:28, 29): "If I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you. Or else how can one enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man?"
The "strong man" is a figurative expression for mortal mind, the usurper of power: it is personal sense; it is egotism counterfeiting activity; it is mortality, wholly in the realm of illusion, or mortal concepts. Prayer in Christian Science uncovers the belief that there is a "strong man," or mortal mind; and the realization of God's all-power looses the victim from those binding fetters. One's ability to uncover this false belief and spiritually to diagnose a situation comes from the consecration and purity of thought which enables one to reflect Soul. This discernment is immortal Mind-reading. It unfailingly uncovers the error and helps bind the so-called strong man, mortal mind, and "spoil his goods"—destroy the effects, the conditions which are the furnishings of this house of personal sense.
On another occasion mortal mind argued to Jesus that its name was legion. "For we are many," it suggested (Mark 5:9). When error comes, it is not always just one or two, but rather it is oftentimes a vast array of suggestions. We recall that Jesus rebuked and silenced this lie which called itself legion, however many that legion seemed to be. Our work in Christian Science is directed to the thinking of the one who is seeking help. To establish harmony and peace in thought is to silence the so-called physical ills, the pains of mortal sense. This is the true witness-bearing, the true healing modus, and it was that of the Master, Christ Jesus.
When thought-disturbing beliefs present themselves to our darkened sense, we need to let the light of divine Love illumine consciousness. When we turn the searchlight of Truth upon these errors clamoring for recognition, they vanish into their native nothingness. As we work together for our beloved Cause or work individually on some problem of our own, we need to handle animal magnetism when it seeks to assail us in the guise of fear or some other false belief of mortal mind. Right on the spot we must challenge these workings of evil. It may be simply the timidity—the latent fear—that would keep us from serving in some important church activity, or the unwillingness to let go of some unscientific or erroneous habit of mortal mind indulgence. Whatever it may be that is erroneous in ourselves or in our church, we can know that man reflects the infinite power of God and thus we can prove that we have courage and strength with which to meet and overcome these beliefs, sins, doubts, and fears, and to annihilate false concepts of all sorts.
The goal of all our endeavors is to demonstrate the spiritual fact of man's perfection as a child of God. In all our work we need to begin "with Christ's keynote of harmony. 'Be not afraid!' " Why? Simply because we know that our starting point in all demonstration is in knowing the allness and eternal perfection of our God. We need to feel the divine presence ever with us, for the mere declaration of the truth without the realization thereof is without fruition. Our need is to see spiritual man as the only man there is. It is to work, watch, and pray for that Mind to be reflected in us which was expressed by the Master and our beloved Leader. Our need is to listen to the voice of God, to see and touch and breathe spiritual things, to hold ever as our objective, or destination the perfection of being. When the blessed Master was walking on the water to the disciples in the storm-tossed ship, he did not let the winds or the waves thwart him; his objective was to reach the ship. So it should be with us in our journey through the storms of this so-called earth life.
As we watch and pray—pray with faith that all things are possible to God, and with the spiritual understanding and un-selfed love which are the requisites of all healing—our goal of demonstration will be reached; we shall have fulfilled our mission as followers of him who said (John 18: 37), "To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth."
