The Christian Scientist is taught by his religion to protest against suffering, sickness, and infirmity. He does not accept them as reality, nor does he think of them as coming from God. They are errors of belief, and he must always take the position of rejecting them. They are no part of man as the image and likeness of God, good.
The individual takes this position both for his own benefit and for the benefit of others whom he would help to be free from such beliefs. One cannot help another to be free if he consents to the reality of the ailment. Consenting to the reality of evil has the effect of confirming the suffering rather than alleviating it. Christian Science teaches us to reason from the basis of the allness of Spirit, Truth, Love, and of the perfection of man as the child of God. Obeying this teaching will keep one's thinking free from the impressions of error, and this will benefit both the helper and the one being helped.
In one instance Christ Jesus healed a woman of an infirmity when she came up behind him and touched the hem of his garment. Mrs. Eddy comments on this experience, "His pure consciousness was discriminating, and rendered this infallible verdict; but he neither held her error by affinity nor by infirmity, for it was detected and dismissed."Unity of Good, p. 57; Such an attitude is an example for us all in our attempts to help our fellowmen. Jesus had no sympathy for the error, but he did love the individual.
