In a letter to one of her students, Mary Baker Eddy wrote: "A real scientific Healer is the highest position attainable in this sphere of being. Its altitude is far above a Teacher or preacher; it includes all that is divinely high and holy" (Mary Baker Eddy: A Life Size Portrait by Lyman P. Powell, 1950 Edition, p. 316).
Many who are healed through the teachings of Christian Science are early inspired to enter its public practice in order to devote their entire time to the healing work. Those contemplating this highest of all callings will want to consider prayerfully the demands of the work and their own spiritual preparedness for it.
An unswerving conviction of good's allness and omnipotence must outweigh for the practitioner the mortal belief in the existence and reality of evil and in a power and an action which are opposed to God and which are called mortal mind or physical force. Indispensable also to the practice and demonstration of Christian Science healing is a knowledge of the system of Christian Science prayer or treatment, which affirms the allness and perfection of God and His creation and denies the reality of matter and its effects, sickness, sin, and death.
Above all, it must be understood that healing the sick and sinning through Christian Science treatment requires much more of the practitioner than the mere academic acquaintance with the teachings and metaphysical system of this Science; it requires the spirit of Christ's charity.
What is the spirit of Christ's charity which heals the sick? It is many things. First of all, it is unselfed love, evidenced by a willingness to work for God and man under all circumstances and conditions; it is self-sacrifice, self-surrender, and the consecration to good, to the things of Spirit.
The spirit of Christ's charity is faithfulness and constancy, as well as a willing relinquishment of the pleasures of material sense, when materiality argues false attraction. It is the rejection of vainglory and mad ambition.
It is the desire to think honestly and to do honestly, to think morally and to be moral. It is ethics of the highest order. It is unsung labor, unremitting fidelity to the task, and a willingness to leave one's rewards to God.
This Christly charity is joy in the presence of ingratitude, the thanksgiving and praising of God in the face of despair and discouragement; it is pureness of heart that impersonalizes evil and refuses to associate error with man. It is forgiveness and forbearance. It is patience and charity. It is desire not for personal achievement or pecuniary gain, but for a tender, compassionate understanding of human needs and a willingness, inspired by divine Love, to meet them. It is "unfeigned love of the brethren" (I Pet. 1:22).
A successful Christian Science practice is built on the understanding of the letter and word of the teachings of Christian Science, consecration to the things of Spirit, and an unselfed desire to serve mankind with humble Christliness.
In her work "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany," Mrs. Eddy writes (p. 194): "The letter of your work dies, as do all things material, but the spirit of it is immortal. Remember that a temple but foreshadows the idea of God, the 'house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens,' while a silent, grand man or woman, healing sickness and destroying sin, builds that which reaches heaven. Only those men and women gain greatness who gain themselves in a complete subordination of self."
Out of the purifying fire of this selfsubordination, which consumes material concepts and reveals the unfallen image of God, emerges the spiritual perception that enables the scientific Christian healer to discern what is in the heart of his patient. And this spiritual insight he must attain, for Christian healing comes not through the contemplation or consideration of so-called physical causes and effects, but through correction of erring human concepts and selfish traits of character producing the discord. These ofttimes remain hidden until brought to light by the spiritual perception of the practitioner.
Jesus, the loving Way-shower, possessed this spiritual perception in unlimited degree. It enabled him to discern the thoughts of those present with him and those absent from him and to heal all who were ready to receive his teachings. When the woman in the throng touched his garment and was healed, he inquired (Luke 8:45), "Who touched me?"
Writing of this occurrence in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mrs. Eddy says (p. 86:) "Jesus knew, as others did not, that it was not matter, but mortal mind, whose touch called for aid." And she continues, "His quick apprehension of this mental call illustrated his spirituality."
Jesus' declarations to those whom he healed were simple and direct, for it was not his words but his spirituality which healed. When raising Lazarus from the dead, Jesus simply said (John 11: 41, 42): "Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me." And then he commanded Lazarus to "come forth."
In the present practice of Christian Science, declarations of Truth and denials of error cannot, as a general rule, be dispensed with in treatment. Nevertheless, as in the ministry of the Way-shower, so now, the spirituality of the Christian healer actuates his silent or audible prayer and brings forth the healing effects.
The attainment of a high degree of spirituality is the great desire and goal of every consecrated practitioner of Christian Science. With it, success in healing is assured. And healing more than all else gives impetus to the Cause of Christian Science and support to our Leader's demonstration of The Mother Church.
The Christian Science practitioner is ever mindful that God is the only source of intelligence. Consequently he gives no human counsel or advice, but leads his patients to rely on their God-given ability to reflect and express divine intelligence. In the healing of sickness, he does not advise medical diagnosis. He is himself convinced of the adequacy of Christian Science alone to heal and save, and he strengthens his patients in this conviction. He understands the scientific impossibility of adulterating Mind-cure with material forms of medicine. He does indeed believe in Almighty God.
The practitioner is impartial and impersonal in endeavoring to heal problems involving human relationships and faithfully maintains the supremacy of divine justice. He loves all and condemns none. He holds in sacred trust the confidences of those who seek his help. His healing work is a continuing strength and support to his branch church and its activities. He is alert to his opportunities to encourage new students when they are ready to avail themselves of the blessings of membership in a branch Church of Christ, Scientist, and in The Mother Church.
He joyously consecrates himself to the healing of all manner of sickness, inharmony, and sin, because he has learned that no greater satisfaction rewards the worker in the Cause of Christian Science than to be accounted worthy to be a healer of mankind. To him, the demonstration of Christianly scientific healing is the sign of Immanuel, the sign that God is with him, and he needs no other proof or reward. He prays for "skill in comfort's art," for he knows, in the words of the poet, that
"Heavy is the weight of ill
In every heart;
And comforters are needed much
Of Christlike touch."
