Christian Science makes clear that the student of this Science is in the business of demonstrating—proving—the power and reality of God through prayer and spiritual regeneration. And it teaches that his goal isn't to live "happily ever after" in matter. Preoccupation with the body, financial security, human dreams, or personal prestige doesn't advance our spiritual progress and understanding, nor does it reveal how the Christ works to meet our genuine needs, great and small.
Jesus, the great exponent and representative of Christ, understood what he was anointed to demonstrate, to prove, when he set out each day to heal and to teach. His mission was to demonstrate God—Life, Truth, and Love— and man's sonship with Him. The Master walked, talked, and acted with his thoughts filled with God and His will. This gave him the inspiration and spiritual vision to heal what was humanly amiss: physical ailments, sin, and the like. Christian Science explains that he healed these not by material means but by the spiritual power that came through holding to the already established perfection of God's creation, which God was revealing to him.
Mrs. Eddy, who brought Christian Science to the world, wrote much to teach us how to follow Jesus' example. Speaking of the power of one whose thought is aligned with God, she writes, "You have simply to preserve a scientific, positive sense of unity with your divine source, and daily demonstrate this." 1 Jesus lived this unity with his Father, and we have his teachings and example to help us do the same. Understanding how to meet the human need through spiritual means, he said, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." 2
Mrs. Eddy, in accord with Jesus' teachings, encourages us to keep striving to focus our demonstration on the spiritual ideal rather than on the human need. She writes: "When the human mind is advancing above itself towards the Divine, it is subjugating the body, subduing matter, taking steps outward and upwards. This upward tendency of humanity will finally gain the scope of Jacob's vision, and rise from sense to Soul, from earth to heaven." 3
And so we come back to the question "What do we seek to demonstrate when we pray for a healing, whether of body, human relationships, lack, or loss?" The answer might well be "We seek to prove that Mind which was in Christ Jesus to be in us also." This proof is made evident in our manifesting more purity, gratitude, joy, unselfed love, and unquestioning trust in God—in other words, in increasing spiritual outreach and upreach.
Mrs. Eddy once wrote to a graduating class of students, "You are going out to demonstrate a living faith, a true sense of the infinite good, a sense that does not limit God, but brings to human view an enlarged sense of Deity." 4 What joy and comfort to know such demonstrating also brings more satisfying and productive human experiences. It brings more harmony and purity to our bodies, to our lives, and to our thinking!
