The voice of the Christian Science practitioner rang strong and clear, "Truth does the work."
"Yes, I know, but . . ., " I answered.
I had just been healed of an illness through Christian Science treatment and was calling the practitioner out of gratitude. At the same time, however, I expressed disappointment that the healing had resulted from the practitioner's work, not my own, for I was trying to handle my own problems.
Several weeks later I found myself suddenly ill, with painful and alarming symptoms. I felt this was something I had to handle myself, but after days of battling I was awakened one night by pain more severe than ever. At this point I wished I had called a practitioner earlier, for I hesitated to call anyone at two in the morning.
Instead, I picked up Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy and opened it. "Truth does the work," I read, "and you must both understand and abide by the divine Principle of your demonstration." Science and Health, p. 456;Science and Health, p. 456; The first four words stood out as though magnified: "Truth does the work." This was my answer, and I knew it.
In the spiritual light that flooded my thought, the physical discord was resolved into its mental nature. I saw that what I was facing was not a painful struggle, really, but a mistaken concept ripe for destruction. Gratefully I yielded the false personal sense that had blinded and bound me, and opened my heart to the divine presence that was there to save—the Christ, Truth.
Fear left me. I felt Truth at work leavening, controlling, healing—cooling the fever, dissolving the pain. No help could have been more immediate or practical, no human touch more comforting. I fell asleep aware of Truth in action and awoke in the morning healed.
The joyous fact that Truth, and not a human individual, oneself or a practitioner, does the healing work is a fundamental lesson in Christian Science. The greatest healer of all time, Christ Jesus, made this lesson abundantly clear to his followers. "Whom say ye that I am?" he asked them, and Matthew tells us that Peter replied, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." Matt. 16:15, 16;Matt. 16:15, 16; Mrs. Eddy writes of this acknowledgment: "It was now evident to Peter that divine Life, Truth, and Love, and not a human personality, was the healer of the sick and a rock, a firm foundation in the realm of harmony."Science and Health, p. 138;Science and Health, p. 138;
How evident is the impersonal nature of Christian healing to us today? How convinced are we of the power of Life, Truth, and Love alone to save and heal?
Probably many of us, at one time or another, after an unsuccessful attempt to reach a practitioner, have turned from the phone with resignation and murmured, "Oh, well, God is here!" He is, but why do we relegate Him to second place? Probably because we do not really know Him, let alone adore Him. We are not aware of the unfailing mother-love right at hand, the protection of our all-good omnipotent Father, whose Word is law.
Not unlikely, we may feel we know some practitioner very well indeed—a staunch one in the Truth, clear, strong, and fearless. Perhaps it is comforting just to feel that there is someone who knows all about us; there's no need to explain.
Through the larger concept of our divine relationship with God we can all become better acquainted with Him and feel not only close to Him but spiritually at one with Him and forever secure. Humanly, we can reach out to Him for help at any moment and without reservation, assured that He "knows all about us"—all there is to know.
Such a built-in defense method is needed today more than ever in order to meet the stepped-up claims of evil. Not only in our own lives but in the world about us evil seems rampant and has dared to stamp a defiant "no solution" on its output of pyramiding problems. We can rejoice in the teachings of Christian Science, which reveal evil's varied and multiple claims as belonging to one package Truth can handle, one common lie Truth destroys.
There are occasions when we all, even experienced Christian Scientists, need the prayerful support and metaphysical help of another experienced worker. But we will be more receptive to treatment and more quickly healed when we recognize the infinite source and open our thought to the divine outpouring.
Deep spiritual progress, not just an alleviation of symptoms, will follow as we acknowledge that healing occurs not through personal accomplishment but by reason of divine reflection—at that point of metaphysical accuracy where the human yields to the divine.
Once we feel the power of Truth within us, there will be less tendency to lean on persons. Childish concepts, personal and finite, will blow off as chaff, and we will yield to the consciousness of Soul.
Because Truth is omniscient and infinite, it contains the spiritual fact about every lie the carnal mind could ever conjure. Because it is ever present and universal, it is right where we are, wherever we are. Because it is error's antidote, no lie can avoid detection or escape dissolution.
Truth communicates to human consciousness as the Christ. When admitted, it permeates thought with divine light, floods out the lie, and, behold, leaves nothing but the pure perfection of being, expressed in healing and regeneration. This is not mental magic. It is divine logic, the heavenly logic of Christian healing.
But we must want Truth and love it. We must honestly want it more than we want relief from pain or an end to discord. We must want it more than we want to hold on to sin or shrink from its uncovering.
When Christ, Truth, enters human consciousness, the work of regeneration begins, for Truth never leaves us where it found us. Writing of its resistless activity and glorious outcome, Mrs. Eddy states: "Ages pass, but this leaven of Truth is ever at work. It must destroy the entire mass of error, and so be eternally glorified in man's spiritual freedom."p. 118
