It is recorded in the New Testament that Jesus restored physical sight on several occasions. His real mission, however, was to heal humanity of mental blindness, or ignorance of God and His perfect spiritual creation. Thus, in healing those who came to him for help, Jesus did much more than restore physical health and faculties—he wakened people somewhat to a realization of their true spiritual identity as the image of God, Spirit. Referring to the Master's healing ministry, Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health, "His mission was to reveal the Science of celestial being, to prove what God is and what He does for man." Science and Health, p. 26;
It is the mission of Christian Science, as it was of the master Christian, to liberate mankind from the enslaving beliefs of mortal existence by bringing to light man's God-bestowed perfection and freedom. This Science reveals that God is infinite Life, Truth, and Love, the only creator, and that man exists as His idea or reflection; that God is Spirit and therefore His creation or offspring is wholly spiritual and complete. The authority for the basis of this reasoning is to be found in the first chapter of Genesis, where we read that after creating man in His own image and likeness "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." Gen. 1:31;
What is it, then, that hides from mankind this perfect creation? It is the ignorance in mortal thought that beclouds human consciousness and constitutes the mist from which arises the belief of a counterfeit creation, described metaphorically in the second chapter of Genesis.
