Sometimes it's helpful, when considering an unfamiliar subject like spiritual healing, to begin with a frame of reference that is familiar. So, if we describe the practice of conventional medicine as applying the knowledge of physiology, epidemiology, chemistry, and so forth to the cure of bodily illness, then we might describe Christian Science healing as applying the knowledge of God, the divine Principle of all existence, to correct the errors of the human mind that result in illness and thereby to heal the illness.
Perhaps even that brief description of Christian Science practice would send some people reeling! We generally think of physical laws as knowable, and as capable of changing physical conditions in predictable ways. On the other hand, we may feel God is knowable only in a much different way, through what we might describe as the sentiments. Yet when we look to the record of Christ Jesus, don't we see an understanding of God that consistently healed the sick?
Just imagine for a moment what it would have been like to be a disciple of Jesus, and to see wonderful healings take place almost daily—healings of leprosy, paralysis, deafness, blindness. At first, the disciples might have concluded that Jesus had unique, miraculous power. Yet he assured them that anyone who believed in and lived the truths he was teaching of God's perfection and power and love could heal as he did.See John 14:12. Gradually they did begin to heal. According to the gospel accounts they weren't always successful, but they grew in confidence and ability as they followed his example of purity, meekness, and total trust in God's power.
