The jury’s verdict is, Not guilty. “Then the prisoner rose up regenerated, strong, free.” This sentence concludes an allegory of a court trial that Mary Baker Eddy used in her book Science and Health to illustrate how Christianly scientific prayer heals disease (see pp. 430–442). Understanding this story can be of practical help in our own lives when we need healing.
In the allegory, a man, while helping a sick friend, becomes ill himself and is dying. His “case” is put on trial, as if he were in court. The man is charged with having a liver disease. Evidence is gathered from material health laws and is presented to support the charge. Finally, the man is sentenced to death—that is, until Christian Science, the advocate for the man, comes to his defense.
The Christian Science advocate presents biblical evidence as proof of the man’s innocence, such as the fact that man, as the image and likeness of God, has dominion (see Genesis 1:26); also, the fact that all of Jesus’ teachings and healings affirm that, by following his example, man has power over disease and death. In the end, the facts of the man’s eternal, spiritual nature embrace his present human experience, and heal him.
