There is a God-ordained law of recovery and restoration demonstrable in human experience. Christian Science reveals that this law is everywhere available to all men and all nations under all circumstances.
Has one lost peace, harmony, happiness, home, health, supply, even his hope of heaven? Let him turn in all confidence to the Giver and restorer of all good. Let him heed the prophetic words of Isaiah (Isa. 58:11, 12): "The Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not. And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in."
The greatest prophet of all time, Christ Jesus, explained the infallible operation of this law of restoration. He said to his followers (John 8:31, 32), "If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Today through Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, a present-day prophet, many are awakening to the Word of Truth, continuing in it, and experiencing progressively the freedom promised by the Master. It is meeting their every need and righteous aspirations.
Any human heart yearning for such beneficence may find some explicit instructions in the words of Mrs. Eddy in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 354), "A little more grace, a motive made pure, a few truths tenderly told, a heart softened, a character subdued, a life consecrated, would restore the right action of the mental mechanism, and make manifest the movement of body and soul in accord with God."
Christian Science lifts the concept of prophecy above the generally accepted prediction of future development or events to the recognition of present spiritual facts. Science and Health gives this enlightening definition of "Elias" (p. 585):
"Prophecy; spiritual evidence opposed to material sense; Christian Science, with which can be discerned the spiritual fact of whatever the material senses behold; the basis of immortality.
" 'Elias truly shall first come and restore all things.' (Matthew xvii. 11.)"
As in Jesus' time, and during the three centuries following, the sick were healed, the sorrowing were comforted, and the sinning were restored to lives of rectitude and usefulness, so today these gifts of grace are being made available to mankind through Christian Science, the Holy Ghost, or promised Comforter. Understanding God to be the forever perfect creator and man the perfect creation—perfect cause and perfect effect—enlightened Christians are measurably bearing witness to Jeremiah's prophecy (30:17), "I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the Lord."
The Christian Scientist knows that it is impossible for the man of God's creating to lose his health or to be the victim of injury or wounds. He knows that man's body is not material but a compound of spiritual ideas, perfect and indestructible; that it cannot fall anymore than can a sunbeam. Being the reflection of Mind, it cannot lose its balance or equipoise. Since it is created by and exists in Spirit, Mind, it is immune from discord and danger. God, Spirit, is intact and infallible; so is His exact reflection.
All divine attributes—spirituality, purity, sinlessness, selflessness, beauty, love, loveliness—characterize man eternally. Knowing this frees one from fear and beliefs of ill health and chance. Continuing to know it, unshaken by contrary sense testimony, restores health and wholeness and proves the increasingly accepted fact that an individual's thinking determines his health or his lack of it.
Enduring peace has been restored to many Christian Scientists through their steadfast acknowledgment of spiritual facts in the face of well-nigh hopeless conditions. Harmony, happiness, and completeness have been proved to be independent of persons or other mortal concepts. Hurt feelings and wounded pride have been obliterated, broken friendships and homes have been mended through the prayerful seeing of the true individuality and dignity of man as the child of God. The understanding of and the insistence upon man's spiritual, sinless nature have restored the harmony that lying personal sense testimony claimed had been lost.
What about the gloom perhaps attendant upon advancing years? What of the remorse occasioned by unimproved opportunities, the nagging regret that one had not embraced Christian Science and experienced its fruitage earlier? Again we see prophecy being gloriously fulfilled in the lives of many students. They are bearing witness through renewed, happy usefulness to the comforting assurance of Joel (2:25, 26): "I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten....And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed."
Knowing the truth of being as taught in Christian Science, acknowledging it firmly through sunshine or shadow, becomes to the individual the law of provision or restoration of Love's bounty. When one's livelihood is lost through misplaced dependence upon material means or persons, it is restored through the understanding of the compassionate husbandry of God, divine Love, His inexpendable affluence of good. Lost opportunities become newly available; doors that were closed are flung open; lives spent in prodigal pursuits are redeemed—all this through true prophecy, discerning "the spiritual fact of whatever the material senses behold."
Christ Jesus' ministry of healing was based squarely upon his understanding of the present and eternal perfection of God and man. He did not accept the evidence of mortal ills and then heal them through the process of treatment. His unvarying consciousness of Truth and Love, which could admit nothing adverse, instantly rejected every suggestion of error. When he entered the synagogue, he found there a man with a withered hand. He said simply (Matt. 12: 13), "Stretch forth thine hand." And the record continues, "And he stretched it forth; and it was restored whole, like as the other." Here was God's law of recovery, restoration, and reconstruction demonstrated in immediate healing.
Of this sequence our Leader says (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 65): "Christian Science demands both law and gospel, in order to demonstrate healing, and I have taught them both in its demonstration, and with signs following. They are a unit in restoring the equipoise of mind and body, and balancing man's account with his Maker."
Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel
of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But
his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his
law doth he meditate day and night...and what
soever he doeth shall prosper.—Psalm 1:1-3.
