We read in the Bible that Jesus healed “all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people” (Matthew 4:23). The world accepts the suggestion that men and women are complicated material assemblies subject to random intrusions of hostile elements and internal malfunctions that can cause pain and suffering. But by revealing the spiritual truth of man that Jesus taught and demonstrated, Christian Science shows how to claim our exemption from such injustice.
In the textbook of Christian Science, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy explains: “Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God’s own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick” (pp. 476–477).
Let me share how I claimed my exemption from suffering one night a few years ago.
I was wakened by a pain in my groin that slowly developed from uncomfortable to severe. I visited the bathroom but experienced no relief. The pain was such that I found it difficult to think straight. All I could do was reach out to our loving Father-Mother God. I said, “Dear Father, please tell me what I need to know, right now.” And the words of a wonderful hymn from the Christian Science Hymnal came to me. I recited them slowly to myself, cherishing every line and claiming the truths therein as my own. The first verse reads:
We thank Thee and we bless Thee,
O Father of us all,
That e’en before we ask Thee
Thou hear’st Thy children’s call.
We praise Thee for Thy goodness
And tender, constant care,
We thank Thee, Father-Mother,
That Thou hast heard our prayer.
(John Randall Dunn, No. 374, © CSBD)
Well, I was certainly calling. I thought about that “tender, constant care.” I told myself that my prayer was already answered and that I would hear what the answer was. I paused to embrace the idea of being an innocent, trusting child, always cared for, before moving on to the second verse:
We thank Thee and we bless Thee,
O Lord of all above,
That now Thy children know Thee
As everlasting Love.
And Love is not the author
Of discord, pain and fear;
O Love divine, we thank Thee
That good alone is here.
Here was the answer: God, divine Love, does not create discord, pain, or fear. God made all that really exists, and, as the first chapter of Genesis declares, “God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good” (verse 31). This pain had no place, or existence, in God’s perfect creation, and was no part of my true, spiritual identity as His beloved child. I pondered the momentous fact that good alone was there. Then on I went to the last verse:
We thank Thee, Father-Mother,
For blessings, light and grace
Which bid mankind to waken
And see Thee face to face.
We thank Thee, when in anguish
We turn from sense to Soul,
That we may hear Thee calling:
Rejoice, for thou art whole.
I did indeed feel that I was in anguish! But how grateful I was that I knew what to do. I could turn from the picture being presented by the physical senses to the facts of Soul—to the truth that my life is governed in complete harmony by divine law. And I had a wonderful way to express that gratitude—rejoice that I was whole and free to be what God made me to be. I held on to that thought, then went back and earnestly repeated the whole hymn.
By the time I got to the end, the pain was dissolving. I returned to bed and lay still and quiet, feeling immersed in God’s warmth and peace. Before long I fell asleep and woke the next morning with no discomfort. There has been no recurrence of the issue.
My experience that night gave me a tangible sense of the presence and power of divine Love in a moment of great human need.
Jeremy Bradshaw
London, England
