Precedents are among the heaviest type of fetter that human beings have used throughout the ages to chain themselves and others. "We've always done it like this," they say; "it has never been done in any other way." And they go right on doing it, however inconvenient.
But precedents have also provided a useful method for step-by-step development of freedom under law. The Magna Charta, for instance, originally established only a few specific liberties; but in the centuries since, its precedents have been appealed to for an immense extension of liberties.
Every Christian Scientist is familiar with the chapter on Christian Science Practice in Science and Health, where Mrs. Eddy includes a substantial section she names "Mental Treatment Illustrated." Here she gives the instruction: "Argue at first mentally, not audibly, that the patient has no disease, and conform the argument so as to destroy the evidence of disease. Mentally insist that harmony is the fact, and that sickness is a temporal dream." Science and Health, p. 412;
In Miscellaneous Writings in a much briefer discussion entitled "Mental Practice" Mrs. Eddy describes some elements of Christian Science treatment and recommends that it be supported by spoken explanation and precedent (see p. 220). Since precedent has a place in supporting the arguments of truth and in preparing human thought to accept healing, we do well to understand its proper use.
In spiritual and eternal reality there are no precedents. Precedents are a feature of the time process. They are something said or done earlier in time that then becomes a guide for something to be said or done later in time. Man, created by God, by the infinite intelligence and divine Principle of all true being, coexists eternally with his Maker; he includes all true good in his eternal present. In God's spiritual universe all ideas, all activities, are always utterly new. They are not indebted to precedents; they have no need of precedents.
Christ Jesus exemplified timeless spiritual manhood as completely as it was possible for anyone to do on the human scene. People said of his actions and words: "It was never so seen in Israel." "We never saw it on this fashion." "Never man spake like this man." Matt. 9:33; Mark 2:12; John 7:46. Yet along with this utter originality he also used precedents. When, for instance, his critics called his disciples sabbath-breakers, he supported the action the critics condemned by examples from their own history and the current practice of the priests. He concluded the discussion with his great declaration about the sabbath that indicates we are not the slaves of inhuman legalistic interpretations of divine law (see Matt. 12:1-8).
We can also discern the value of precedent in Jesus' progressive preparation of human thought for some of his greatest demonstrations of spiritual authority. He restored life to a child just dead and to a young man being carried out to burial; next to his friend Lazarus four days dead; and finally he emerged himself after being crucified and entombed. Each mighty act was, as it were, a precedent preparing human thought to accept the next one.
What precedents can Christian Scientists employ today to support the mental argument in their healing work? We can certainly employ the spiritual teachings of the Bible and especially the words of Jesus and his immediate disciples. We can employ the teachings of Mrs. Eddy found in her writings. But there is also another kind of precedent we can employ—examples of spiritual healing directly observed by us or authentically recorded.
The Bible is a great statute-book, setting forth God's law. It is also a great precedent book. The Old Testament contains various examples of people being spiritually healed, restored to life, freed, or reformed by divine power. In the New Testament these examples rise to a flood.
We can find further such precedents in Mrs. Eddy's life, some recorded in her own writings, some in the various biographies of her. There are still more in the last chapter of Science and Health and the last chapter of Miscellaneous Writings. There is a wide range of healings printed in publications of The Christian Science Publishing Society and given at our Wednesday evening testimony meetings. Finally there are the experiences of healing all Christian Scientists have observed themselves. What an immense wealth of precedents to draw on for support of the healing argument.
Some people find comfort in an example indicating that the particular disease, the particular trouble, they are suffering from has been healed. Yet this is not really the most important function of a precedent. The exact form of a trouble may be determined by some quite secondary factor; its roots may lie much deeper. It doesn't really matter whether the dragon chasing one in a dream has four or six heads, eight or ten claws. When we awake from the dream, the dragon isn't there. The significant element in an example of healing used as a precedent is the spiritual truths that effected the healing. These can prove potent whatever the condition is.
Precedents bad in themselves or unintelligently gently employed bind individuals, societies, businesses, or churches. Each bad precedent, each misuse of a good one, small in itself may in sum add up to those countless tiny ropes the people of Lilliput used to immobilize their giant visitor in the story Gulliver's Travels. We need to be watchful against such enslavement. But the good precedent rightly used supports healing and helps us demonstrate progress and freedom.
Beyond all precedent lies our ultimate destination, that point where human advance gives place to the eternal spiritual fact. There we find ourselves outside of past and future, no longer needing the support of precedent, but living always in the presence of measureless spiritual good, of God. Every healing in Christian Science is a foretaste of our arrival at that point.
