It has been said that, left alone, a large percentage of diseases would go away without drugs or medical attention. While this may be an encouraging statement concerning the natural recuperative activity of the human mind and body, it is not Christian Science. Christian Science insists, Don't let disease alone, no matter how minor; confront it instantly with Truth and Love—and heal it.
Christian healing starts from a different basis than material means. Medical methods consider matter as both cause and effect, and therefore the cure as necessarily material. Physicians generally treat disease as a disorder of matter, to be corrected by more matter or less matter, thereby making matter seem more real and foreboding to human consciousness. Christian Science, on the other hand, shows divine Spirit, Mind, as the only genuine cause, and every effect to be the perfect outcome of this cause. This Science treats disease as mental error, as no part of the divine Mind or of man as Mind's expression. And it corrects this error with the healing power of Christ, Truth. The result is that matter and disease seem less substantial and frightening to the human mind, and disease disappears.
If we use material medicine or simply let disease alone, we may temporarily get rid of the outward trouble without removing the mental error that underlies disease, whether it be fear or some element of sin or simply ignorance of God. If the erroneous thoughts are not removed through Christ, they may linger in the human mind and later be manifest in a similar or other form of disease. So it is wise to nip in the bud the elements of thought that tend to foster suffering. Paul may have been alluding to this when he spoke of "casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." II Cor. 10:5. And Mary Baker Eddy states in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, "When the first symptoms of disease appear, dispute the testimony of the material senses with divine Science." Science and Health, p. 390.
