The theology of Christian Science includes the healing of sickness as well as of sin and by the same spiritual means. Physical healing is not the more important, but it does illustrate the signs which follow the reformation of thought and action. With the Apostle James, Christian Science says (2:18), "Shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works."
Basic in the theology of Christian Science is the teaching that sick bodies are the effect of sick thoughts and that in order to heal the body, we must first heal, or correct, the thoughts causing the error. This process is sometimes difficult for mankind to accept, since the body is usually considered as something entirely separate from the mind. But the fact is that we embrace the body in our thinking.
Christian Science goes a step further by declaring that all wrong thinking, including sickness, is an element of sinful sense and denies the omnipotence and omnipresence of God, divine Mind. This teaching too is a departure from ordinary theological views, which classify sin as pertaining to fleshly lusts only, while sickness is often regarded as a punishment or test sent by God. Does this mean that Christian Science considers the sick man more sinful than others because he is sick? To tell someone in need of physical healing that he is a sinner would be neither just nor kind unless a scientific explanation were given. Mary Baker Eddy answers this question in the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." She writes (p. 318): "Is the sick man sinful above all others? No! but so far as he is discordant, he is not the image of God."
Man is created by God in His image and likeness. A mortal, whether he appears to other mortals as healthy or as sick and discordant, is not God's reflection. Spiritual man alone represents the truth of being, and he includes health, harmony, joy, abundance—all good—because these are his natural qualities bestowed by God, Spirit, Love. We can no more say that a person is truly healthy if he is indulging sinful thinking than we can say that a sick person is truly sinful, and more so than others, because he is momentarily manifesting sickness.
The question whether or not the sick man is more sinful than others apparently bothered the disciples when they saw a man who was blind from birth. They asked Christ Jesus this question: Who sinned, the parents or the man who was born blind? Jesus told them that neither the man nor his parents had sinned, "but that the works of God should be made manifest in him" (John 9:3). The Master refused to attach error to any person, condition, or circumstance, and he denied all laws of matter, including prenatal and hereditary laws.
The blind man was healed, and although those who were unenlightened could not explain how it had happened, the proof that he could see was undeniable. The one who had been healed caught a glimpse of the Christ, however, when he said of Jesus (verse 33), "If this man were not of God, he could do nothing." In these words from the textbook, Mrs. Eddy explains how Jesus healed (pp. 476, 477):"Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick."
The New Testament is replete with the healings of Christ Jesus by spiritual means. Sometimes he healed by forgiving sins, as in the case of the palsied man. Occasionally he healed by arousing human consciousness with a spiritual command, as when he told the man to stretch forth his hand which was withered. More often he healed by casting out devils or evils.
We are not told what the devils or evils were; they might have been simply belief in disease, or perhaps they were fear, ignorance, discouragement, resentment, or any one of myriad beliefs in the permanence, substantiality, and pleasure of matter. We are told only that when these beliefs were cast out, the blind saw, the dumb spoke, the deaf heard, and many kinds of diseases were healed. In Christian Science, devil or evil signifies a lie, nothingness. Although Jesus discerned each specific need and acted accordingly, it is apparent that he made nothing of the lie.
When, therefore, some upright person seems to have a physical problem, let us immediately stop wondering what has happened or what sin he has indulged to cause the difficulty. Let us rather do as Jesus did: steadfastly behold the perfect man, who has never collapsed or relapsed, who was never stricken, and who never fell from a perfect state of spiritual being. We can always logically and scientifically realize the truth, but we cannot rationalize error.
For many years the writer was subject to chronic colds which were so severe that she often spent much time in bed because of them. They came suddenly, and they were as frequent in summer as in winter. She found that she could meet almost any kind of problem more easily than that of the common cold. Since she knew that inharmonious physical conditions are the outward manifestations of inharmonious thinking, she searched her consciousness for some reason for them. This caused her to magnify even the smallest error to such an extent that she felt she must be very sinful or she would not have to contend constantly with this condition. Finally, after much earnest prayer, she awakened to the fact that mortal mind was victimizing her by means of fear and self-condemnation and thus was projecting itself through matter. She realized that she was not more sinful than others and that error of any kind could no more attach itself to her true selfhood, spiritual man, than it could attach itself to God. This broke the mesmerism, and she was free. Thereafter, whenever the condition of cold was manifested, she was able to meet and overcome it quickly.
Health is a spiritual fact which comes to light as we strive to bring every thought into obedience to the Christ, Truth. A sustained condition of health in matter is not always evidence of true health, for sometimes even hardened sinners have a belief of health for a time. The sick man is often no more sinful than others, but is only temporarily manifesting an error which tries to hide his perfect sonship with God. We never know how far he may have come in his spiritual progress and how close he is to a complete healing. Let us compassionately remember the message of God to Samuel (I Sam. 16:7): "The Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart."
