In moments of physical distress or helplessness few people are more welcome on the scene than a well-trained Christian Science nurse. Immediately there is a satisfying sense that conditions will begin to improve. Fear fades. Order swiftly replaces disorder. It is clear that there is someone present who is acting with authority. Years of careful training have equipped him to deal intelligently with almost every discordant situation connected with the human body that can possibly arise. He knows what to do to comfort a person in bodily distress—how to take care of the immediate physical needs— as well as how to lift thought spiritually. He takes command.
True, the majority of Christian Science nurses are at present women. But men as well as women are being welcomed by Christian Science nurses training schools to qualify to care for the sick in a practical but spiritual way. Men have their special contribution to make to this aspect of the ministry of Christian healing. It can be for them as well as for women a fulfilling occupation—a profession that will give them positions of respect in the community, and the satisfying assurance of doing something really worthwhile to serve humanity and the Cause of Christian Science.
The Christian Science nurse does much more than bind up physical wounds and keep a sick person clean, comfortable, well fed, and self-respecting. These are important aspects of the service he gives, but by no means the whole of it. The skill with which he does these things is merely the by-product of his spiritually scientific understanding of the truth of God and the expression of His qualities. These spiritual ideas are the true substance and activity of any right vocation or avocation, and qualified Christian Science nurses are all required to be practical, practicing meta-physicians, able to demonstrate through healing the power of God as "a very present help in trouble."Ps. 46:1
