That which begins spiritually must continue to develop spiritually. This is true of the Church which Christ Jesus founded. Mary Baker Eddy says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 136): "Jesus established his church and maintained his mission on a spiritual foundation of Christ-healing. He taught his followers that his religion had a divine Principle, which would cast out error and heal both the sick and the sinning."
The Master's first followers accepted this Principle, which he called Father, and after his ascension continued to develop healing as a demand of worship. We read in Acts this prayer of the little company of early Christians, who were suffering persecution (4:29, 30): "Lord, ... grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word, by stretching forth thine hand to heal." With the Apostle Paul later leading the development of the young Christian Church in all "the simplicity that is in Christ" (II Cor.11: 3), the Christ-healing continued to be the spiritual foundation of its growth. Not one of the healings which took place was miraculous. Rather these attested that the law of God and His Christ is ever available to all.
It was when materialism crept into the churches, when humanly devised rituals and the acceptance of creeds and dogmas were found to be an easier way to worship than was the spiritualization of thought, which brings forth the fruits of healing, that the Church lost its power to heal. Then healing was looked upon as miraculous rather than as a way of life, and the Church came to have little relation to the pure precepts and simple Christliness required by the master Christian.
