If the power of Christian Science were merely human, it could not have brought about the vast number of healings it has since Mary Baker Eddy's discovery of it in 1866. Such power does not lie within human means. The great significance of this power lies in the fact that Christian Science is of God, coming with renewed inspiration with each victory over human distress or limitation. Writing of the Science she discovered, Mrs. Eddy says in "Retrospection and Introspection" (p. 28) "Its Principle is divine, not human, reaching higher than the stars of heaven."
Demonstrating a divine Principle is a far cry from merely getting one's body in working order or one's finances running smoothly or one's personal relationships in a harmonious state. Demonstrating divine Principle calls for a dropping away of the mortal sense of existence in some measure and at least a glimpse of the spiritual consciousness of being. Progress in demonstrating the Principle of Science must be gauged by the clearer views of spiritual creation one gains and the power these views give him over the materialistic views offered by the physical senses.
We need often to examine our objectives in applying Christian Science in our affairs. We need to be certain that our efforts are really to prove the divine Principle of being that reaches "higher* than the stars of heaven." Too often we are tempted to desire the same material goals that mortals work for, but to attain them through prayer in Science. To build for eternity, one must have eternal objectives.
Christ Jesus settled the question of objectives in his own thought when he was tempted in the wilderness before setting out on his saving ministry. At this time the Master came to grips with the three basic instincts of the carnal, or mortal, mind— the beliefs of life, substance, and intelligence in matter. In order to succeed in his divine purpose, he had to overcome the temptation to make material well-being the objective of life and prayer. He had to establish in his own thought the understanding that God is the Principle of life, substance, and intelligence. His ministry was to glorify his heavenly Father at whatever cost and to remain faithful to his ideal.
Christian Science names Jesus the Way-shower, and it follows the way he pointed out. It reveals Christianity as the Science of being he constantly demonstrated, the Science whose divine Principle is Love.
Christian Science is an exact Science in that it demonstrates the changeless forces, or laws, of Love. It is Christian in that it is compassionate in applying the laws of Love in ways that meet human needs. It proves that man's life is above matter and that life's conditions must be found in divine Principle. It resorts not to miracles, which imply supernatural power, but shows healing to be the natural effect of the understanding of divine law, which is in constant operation.
The Christian Scientist seeks no vast acquisition of matter and no personal power as resting upon such acquisition but demonstrates intelligence as true substance and as endowing man with dominion over all the earth. The Master's answer to Satan was (Matt. 4:10), "It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve."
We are not worshiping God when our objectives are material. We worship Him in the measure that we reach beyond the mortal and material with pure desire to become conscious of the spiritual and find health and power and intelligence in its divine Principle.
Take health, for instance. Christian Science destroys deformities, restores lost faculties, and heals the sick; but it does this on the basis that since the Principle of man is divine, man is a spiritual being to whom these aggravating evils are unknown. Man is wholly unconscious of them, for his consciousness is the reflection of the one consciousness, or Mind—his divine Principle. Mrs. Eddy says in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 298) "The true consciousness is the true health."
Our objective, then, in healing the sick or the sinful, the impoverished or the discordant, is to bring to light the true consciousness, whose Principle is divine, entirely apart from matter. And we must know that since the Principle of the Science we demonstrate is divine, there is no limit to the power it can manifest.
If a healing is protracted, patient and practitioner will do well to search their thinking in order to discover their motives. Are they impelled by spiritual motives? Are they seeking spiritual unfoldment? Are they realizing that life, substance, and intelligence are purely spiritual and that only the true view can transform the human situation to a higher and more harmonious state?
Jesus taught that there need be no anxiety about human needs once the spiritual objective is dominant in thought. He said (Matt. 6:33), "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."
The more fully Christian Scientists seek spiritual objectives for their own sake and the more clearly they understand that the Principle of Science is divine, the more quickly will this immensely important development of Christianity penetrate the mist of mortal belief that shrouds the world. The kingdom of heaven must appear in its fullness, and its appearing rests upon our proof that the Principle of Christian Science "is divine, not human, reaching higher than the stars of heaven."
