Lately I have been thinking about those stalwart colleagues of Mary Baker Eddy who were brave enough to come together and deliberate with her about forming a new church. Taking a public stand for Christian Science must have caused them some difficulty with family and friends, yet public they did go. They must have deliberated and prayed long before issuing such a bold foundational statement of their intent for the new church. It’s reported in the Church Manual as follows: “At a meeting of the Christian Scientist Association, April 12, 1879, on motion of Mrs. Eddy, it was voted,—To organize a church designed to commemorate the word and works of our Master, which should reinstate primitive Christianity and its lost element of healing” (p. 17).
I wondered, just what does it mean for me to have primitive Christianity as a goal in my daily walk and practice? It seemed to me that everything that Christ Jesus did was meant to heal. His instruction, his countless healings, his daily life, his love for his students, neighbors, and followers, were all acts of healing. Yet, one meaning of primitive would certainly be to look at what Jesus and his early followers had to do to get their movement started. And this, of course, applied to Mrs. Eddy and her early followers as well.
One thing that struck me as I was pondering this was the open way Jesus carried on his practice, stopping people in the street, even stopping a funeral procession, to heal. I don’t think his choice of people to speak to was at all random; rather, it was a demonstration of how closely he obeyed God. Jesus responded to the leading of his Father, divine Mind, and made each encounter with a receptive listener a meaningful, healing experience. This leading of divine Mind is available to all of us as we approach someone with a desire to be of help. First Peter tells us how we should share our faith with the command: “Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear” (3:15). Fear in this context means respect.
I could see that those early Christian Science workers and especially Mary Baker Eddy were obedient to that command and were confident enough that what they were doing was so helpful to mankind that they had no compunction in speaking about it with strangers. Perhaps this was an aspect of primitive Christianity I should put more into practice.
When I first went into the public healing practice of Christian Science, I really did not talk about it outside the Christian Science community. When friends or acquaintances asked me what I did in my former occupation I was only too happy to tell them. Yet I did not feel confident enough to tell folks outside the church circle about my new work.
I remember when I first thought that it was silly—and that I was withholding vital information from those who asked—when I mumbled something under my breath to the question, “What are you doing these days?” Not long after I was willing to be more open, an opportunity came. A gentleman was helping me find a book in a bookstore, and he popped the question. With my new determination I replied: “I’m a Christian Science practitioner.” He took a step back, looked me all over, and said, “I’ve never seen one before.” We had a good laugh and what followed was a very helpful conversation for both of us.
Jesus responded to the leading of his Father, divine Mind, and made each encounter with a receptive listener a meaningful, healing experience.
It really comes down to this: Just what am I thinking about other people and their receptivity to sincere statements of truth and to what I am finding so helpful in my life? Do I think they are less able than I to appreciate good when they hear it? I have found that this is not the case. While many do not have any interest, initially, about what the Bible has to say, or in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, everyone seems interested in what you have to say about your own life. Nobody will try to argue you out of your own healing experiences. When I meet someone in distress or ill, the simple opening of “Here’s what I have found so helpful in my life” is such a welcoming way to open a door to the greater good God has for both me and my new friend.
“Love for God and man is the true incentive in both healing and teaching,” is how Mrs. Eddy, the Founder of Christian Science, counsels us to approach everyone (Science and Health, p. 454). Loving God as the supreme power and man as the spiritual likeness of divine Spirit is what heals. Love that takes form as a pure affection for each one we meet eliminates prejudices and reveals to us more of the real man God creates.
Love and wisdom go hand in hand. Sometimes the best help we can give is quiet prayer that knows God is the communicator. Jesus did not always answer his questioners. He was wise to the tactics of what the Scriptures call “the carnal mind,” which opposes spirituality. The Master wasn’t universally welcomed in his day, and resistance to his message and to the Science of Christianity continues today. He was, however, able to help multitudes of people—the meek in spirit—who came to him for healing.
It was the Christ, the divine nature that Jesus expressed so fully, that guided the who, when, and where of his outreach. The Bible tells us of several times when Jesus widened his ministry and met with people with whom the Jews didn’t normally mix, including a woman of Canaan whose daughter Jesus healed (see Matthew 15:22–28).
At one point Jesus told his disciples, “Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not” (Matthew 10:5). Yet Jesus went so far as to speak to a Samaritan woman of his mission as the Messianic hope for mankind (see John 4:5–26). At the end of his ministry, Jesus charged his disciples with Christ’s universal mission to take away the sins of the world. His final directive to them was, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15).
The book of Acts tells how the apostles carried forth that mission. After Peter’s meeting with the Roman army officer Cornelius, he said, “Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: but in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him” (Acts 10:34, 35). God does not have favorites and is not partial to a particular nation, ethnic group, or person. We each have the ability to know God and to grow in grace.
As I started dropping my reluctance to speak more openly, I reasoned that no wrong could come from sharing good. God, good, is the one who speaks to an individual and gives us the Christly intuition to know when and how to help that person. I didn’t have to insert my personality into it. I could leave all personality behind, with its timidity or pride, when I talked about helpful ideas with anyone who seemed to need it.
Someone I know who has such an open sense of the helpful vitality of Christian Science so that he speaks freely about it and has given scores of Christian Science textbooks to people new to Christian Science, recently told me about reaching out to a friend who was under medical treatment. He brought him a textbook along with his profound love for the man. But the wife said she was not interested in any of that and casually threw the book on a table. He said: “You know that if I knew of anything that would better help my friend, be it drug, doctor, or any other system of healing, I would gladly bring it to him. I have brought for his aid what I think can be the most helpful to him.” She picked up the book and said she would look at it and give it to her husband.
That reminded me of the time I visited a friend in the hospital and brought him a copy of The Christian Science Monitor. I never cut out an article; I always give away the whole newspaper in hopes that the new reader will find other things of interest. The paper lay on the bed table when the surgeon came in on his rounds. He said, “Oh, the Monitor,” and picked it up and started to read. He told me that he had read and relied on the Monitor all through his schooling.
While we are so free and quick to tell of a good restaurant we have found, there does seem to be a “Don’t talk about religion” resistance that we have been taught. But I have found that telling of the support I have had in my life from Christian Science is not talking about a religious creed at all but is talking about the Science of Christ as it works in human lives.
Christian Science continues the gospel, or good news, of primitive Christianity by proclaiming the healing power of Truth to any earnest seeker. The builders of the Original Edifice of The Mother Church provided a seat designated for Mrs. Eddy’s use. She never sat in it, but instead dedicated it to the use of “persons of all sects and denominations who come to listen to the Sunday sermon ….” She also urged members to give up their seats to “strangers who may come to attend the morning services” (Manual, p. 59). I like the idea of getting up out of my comfort zone and giving to strangers what has been so helpful to me.
