The question may sometimes arise, What is the patient's duty or responsibility when turning to Christian Science for help? Has he done his part if he turns to an experienced Christian Scientist for treatment and studies the Scriptures and the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy? The patient's attitude of thought has an important bearing on the outcome. There are times when one's mere willingness to ask for help in Christian Science, or to read authorized Christian Science literature, denotes enough expectancy of good to help bring about a healing. But besides expectancy of receiving help, such attitudes as the desire for a right solution of a problem, regardless of one's own predilections, an uncritical, childlike, receptive thought, and the willingness to be shown what needs correcting are all most helpful.
It would appear from the record that during his three-year ministry Christ Jesus always healed those who, mentally and sometimes audibly, turned to him for healing. He said when healing the two blind men (Matt. 9:29), "According to your faith be it unto you." To the woman who touched the hem of his garment in the throng, expecting to be healed, he said (Matt. 9:22), "Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole." And to the father whose son had "a dumb spirit" Jesus said (Mark 9:23), "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth." It is related in the thirteenth chapter of Matthew that in his home town, Nazareth, Jesus found among his fellows a lack of faith in his healing power. Consequently "he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief."
How perfectly the relationship of the patient to the healing Christ is portrayed in Revelation (3:20): "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door. I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." The Christ, Truth, is ever speaking to the human consciousness, revealing to each individual the truth of his real self as the perfect child of God, living, moving, and having his being in divine Mind. However, mortal man, that graven image of the carnal mind, sits in the darkness of his own finite misconceptions of God and man. He is listening for and hearing the voice of the serpent, corporeal sense, which is witnessing to sin, disease, and death. His existence is a dream of life in matter. Sometime, through Science or suffering, every mortal will awaken to hear the voice of Truth. He will open the door of consciousness to the inflow of divine ideas.
Our Leader writes in Science and Health (p. 22): "Waking to Christ's demand, mortals experience suffering. This causes them, even as drowning men, to make vigorous efforts to save themselves; and through Christ's precious love these efforts are crowned with success." Here Mrs. Eddy tells us that mortals must make "vigorous efforts to save themselves," and that they are impelled to make these efforts because of the suffering of an awakening sense. It is clear, then, that the impulse and desire to awaken and to be healed must come from within the patient's own thought. To admit the healing Christ, with its demand for perfection, the door of the human understanding must be opened from the inside. Then will the receptive one experience the healing and inspiration resulting from partaking of the bread of heaven and the water of life. We read, "I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me."
How patiently, hour by hour, the student of Christian Science must cleanse his thinking from worldliness through acknowledging Spirit's omnipresence. Material sense apparently closes the door of thought because this sense is conscious only of what is unreal. Seeing the unreality of corporeal sense, we can turn from it as valueless. On the other hand, all that spiritual sense comprehends is eternal, substantial, beautiful, and true. Nothing actually exists outside spiritual sense. Therefore in awakening to the truth whole-heartedly we lose nothing but error; we gain an understanding of all that is true.
Speaking of the need of receptivity, Mrs. Eddy refers to Jesus' instruction that his disciples prepare for the Passover in "a large upper room furnished." She writes (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 156): "In obedience to this command may these communicants come with the upper chambers of thought prepared for the reception of Truth—with hope, faith, and love ready to partake of the bread that cometh down from heaven, and to 'drink of his blood'—to receive into their affections and lives the inspiration which giveth victory over sin, disease, and death." The practitioner may have a vital part to play in this preparation of these upper chambers of thought. Through his purified consciousness the Christ, Truth, can be revealed to the patient, and healing may result instantaneously, even as one awakens from a dream.
A teacher of music or mathematics can help his pupils to understand their textbooks and put into practice what they learn. But he cannot substitute his own understanding for theirs. And we read in Science and Health (p. 18): "Jesus of Nazareth taught and demonstrated man's oneness with the Father, and for this we owe him endless homage. His mission was both individual and collective. He did life's work aright not only in justice to himself, but in mercy to mortals,—to show them how to do theirs, but not to do it for them nor to relieve them of a single responsibility."
Among the many provisions our Leader has made for us along the way, practitioners listed in The Christian Science Journal have an important place. Through their own purity of thought, these practitioners help to awaken in their patients' consciousness a spiritual response and understanding of the truth which nullifies the belief in disease, sin, sorrow, and death.
Many are healed through reading Science and Health, as the final chapter, entitled "Fruitage," shows. Many are healed through the faithful work of practitioners. These healings occur, however, not because of the mere act of reading the textbook, but because of some glimpse and acceptance of the truth therein expressed: not only because a practitioner knows the truth for a patient, but also because the patient is receptive to the truth that is known. Christ, Truth, is ever speaking to the human consciousness. It is a divine message. Blessed is that individual who heeds, is receptive, and understands. His mental door is open. Truth, Life, and Love will meet his every human need.
