Christians have always admitted the power of God to heal sin, but from about the third century until the present era they have, with a few exceptions, either denied the possibility of the Christian healing of sickness or attempted to use it merely as an adjunct to the current form of materia medica. It remained for Mary Baker Eddy to discover in the latter half of the nineteenth century the underlying Principle which Christ Jesus demonstrated and to give her discovery to the world as Christian Science.
Some might question why, if there are definite rules for healing, Jesus did not state them. The answer is that the unfoldments of Mind, God, must appear to humanity in terms of its present thinking. The absolute statement of scientific Christianity would not have been intelligible to the general thought which Jesus addressed, but his teachings show that he expected the spiritual truth he taught to unfold later as complete revelation. Christian Science presents the promised Comforter, which is enabling men to understand fully Jesus' teachings and to carry on the works which he required as proofs of discipleship.
To heal physical disease by purely spiritual means, as taught in Christian Science, one must understand that being is spiritual, not physical, and that the material body is but the embodiment of a false concept of man. Actually, man is the idea of God, reflecting the infinite, indestructible substance of Spirit. He is governed by Mind and is subject to no power other than that of his all-wise, all-loving creator, his Father-Mother God. Man was never born into matter; therefore he never dies out of matter. He lives now and forever at the standpoint of perfection, his faculties, intelligence, and energies never impaired by time, the substance of his being immune from disease and decay.
