UNDOUBTEDLY there is an ever increasing awareness of the mental nature of disease. Those who devote themselves to the various systems of mental healing are confirming, perhaps unwittingly, the findings of Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, nearly a century ago. There is, of course, a difference between systems that are merely mental and Christian Science that is truly spiritual. Some appreciation of this distinction is necessary if one is to gain satisfactory results from the practice of Christian Science.
Mind and Spirit are quite generally regarded as synonymous terms, yet the word "mental" often contrasts strikingly with the word "spiritual." The Apostle Paul brought this out in his epistle to the Romans. He wrote (8:5), "They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit." He then showed how carnal-mindedness differs from spiritual-mindedness by associating one with death and the other with life and peace. In Christian Science practice both practitioner and patient mind "the things of the Spirit."
Christian Science is not merely a mental system of treating disease. It is a spiritual, a divinely mental, mode of dealing with errors of thought that seem to evidence themselves as physical conditions—errors induced by carnal-mindedness. Spiritual healing brings to human thought the corrective power of spiritual Truth.
