To many an amazing factor of Christian Science is its dynamic effect in human experience. It not only heals bodily disease but purifies character, encourages, strengthens, and uplifts constructive human endeavor, and solves what seem most difficult and complex human problems. In its Christian, healing outreach it reveals the power and tender care of ever-present divine Love as available to all mankind.
Christian Science is pure, spiritual Science. Entirely practical, it demonstrates the law of God—divine Spirit, immortal Principle—which overrules apparent material or physical laws. As one studies and applies this Science and sincerely lives it, the results become evident in one's progressive realization of the whole man; in purification of purpose and elevation of thought and action; in release from fear and anxiety; in health and harmony; in a confident consciousness of freedom and accomplishment.
"As adherents of Truth," writes Mrs. Eddy in Science and Health, "we take the inspired Word of the Bible as our sufficient guide to eternal Life."Science and Health, p. 497; The power of spiritual law was proved many times in the lives of prophets and apostles and was evidenced in full and complete demonstration in the life of Christ Jesus. Mrs. Eddy's first glimpse of the Science underlying Jesus' healing work led her to search, through consecrated Bible study and constant prayer and communion with God, until the healing laws of divine Spirit were revealed to her. She was thus enabled to organize the exposition of Christian Science in the textbook, Science and Health, throwing the light of this Science on the Bible, now spiritually understood.
First published in 1875 and now translated into many languages, this textbook is our means of gaining an ever-clearer understanding of the ceaseless operation of spiritual law, a fuller comprehension of the unbroken relationship of God and man as divine Parent and child. Christian Scientists find that this understanding is indispensable in establishing their true freedom of mind and body, in working out their salvation from sin and sickness. It becomes apparent, soon or late, that false, material laws of health and physiology are not aids to the understanding of spiritual law. Should these so-called laws be believed, their effect is to set limits on one's spiritual progress.
One of the essentials of spiritual law is the truth that man is the expression, the image or reflection, of God. And because God is Spirit, it follows that man, His likeness, is spiritual. Material belief, however, would inform us that man is primarily a physical being and is subject to the various limitations, privations, and untoward consequences of so-called forces of nature. These supposed forces seem sometimes controllable and other times beyond control, sometimes functioning and other times inoperative, sometimes present and other times absent, sometimes good and other times not so good. Thus, humans customarily see themselves as constricted and restricted by an earthbound existence in which they experience either sorrow or joy, sickness or health, lack or abundance, or whatever other circumstance material belief may dictate.
Christian Science declares that the only truly invariable law is spiritual, wholly constructive and good. This Science underscores the biblical assurance that God gave man, the sons and daughters of God, dominion over all the earth. For God's man there is no force that does not manifest the control of divine Principle, no action that ever fails to function, never an absence of spiritual power. God, good, is always good. These are absolutes of spiritual law. Their truth can be demonstrated by our correct understanding of them; and an increasing understanding of spiritual law is vital to our progress and healing. The study and demonstration of Christian Science develop this understanding.
The healing power of Truth is ever available even though one does not fully understand it, or even if one is a new student of Christian Science and inexperienced in applying it. A young man of my acquaintance who had just become interested in Christian Science had been in close contact with a friend who was taken ill with a disease medically diagnosed as infectious. The friend was hospitalized, and within ten days the young man became ill with similar symptoms. Though thinking he knew little about the actual spiritual laws that govern all true being, this new student of Christian Science still trusted the power of divine Love to care for him.
When tempted to be overwhelmed by what seemed so threatening, he called a more experienced student of Christian Science, who prayed with him to see man's spiritual identity, perfect and complete, always under the harmonious control of divine Principle. The effects of this understanding prayer and reliance on spiritual law were evidenced in a quick and permanent healing. The young man had become ill on a Saturday afternoon. Monday morning he was back at work, and he put in a twelve-hour day.
In refuting the supposed reality of material law and affirming the absolute reality of spiritual law as in constant, unlimited operation, Mrs. Eddy refers to "the infinite calculus of Spirit." She writes, "Material substances or mundane formations, astronomical calculations, and all the paraphernalia of speculative theories, based on the hypothesis of material law or life and intelligence resident in matter, will ultimately vanish, swallowed up in the infinite calculus of Spirit."ibid., p. 209;
This infinite calculus represents the immutable spiritual law of the universe. A growing spiritual understanding of it brings results that often appear miraculous, though they are wholly natural in terms of spiritual law. As our work of understanding and proving God's law is continuous and progressive, it imparts the abiding joy of a full and active Christian life.
The one who had the highest understanding of spiritual law was Christ Jesus. His selfless and uncompromising obedience to the will of God enabled him to demonstrate more fully than any other its power and availability. His human life defined what it means to be a fulfilled Christian, to express the Christ, Truth, in action on a constant basis. Jesus illustrated the omnipresence and consistency of spiritual law in his remarkable earthly ministry, healing the sick, restoring sight and sanity, stilling the destructive storm, walking over the water, raising the dead. By these acts he proved the might and practicality of God's ever-present, ever-active law of Life and Love and showed that man is truly spiritual, free from the restrictions of physicality.
This is the understanding that enables us, too, to illustrate the powerful dynamics of spiritual law. The real universe is spiritually founded and spiritually intact —its nature is wholly spiritual. Mrs. Eddy writes, "In divine Science, the universe, including man, is spiritual, harmonious, and eternal."ibid., p. 114; God, divine Mind, the creator of the universe, is omniscient, omniactive, omnipresent, and omnipotent; and His will is spiritual law that is always operative, ever present, consistently good.
In his letter to fellow Christians, James expresses the enlightened view, "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning."James 1:17. It is reassuring to know that as each of us seeks the peace and fulfillment of a meaningful life, we always have a reliable guide for our endeavors. Though material laws fail to provide us with true freedom, we can at all times rely on the law of Love, the divine law that is never failing.
As we gain greater appreciation of this genuine law and grow in spiritual understanding, we can increasingly rise above the sense of the limitations of mortal existence and know the joy of the consciousness of spiritual being. We can progressively advance in our practical understanding of the infinite, spiritual calculus, God's law, at work in the universe, blessing all as it blesses each one.
