Articles

From The Western Producer (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, December 1, 1994) Knowing loneliness Rev. J.

Because my family first heard of Christian Science through some stray copies of the Christian Science Sentinel and The Christian Science Journal left in a house we were temporarily renting many years ago, I have always felt a special love for these magazines. Although I was only seven years old at the time, the healings that followed our family's introduction to Christian Science caused me never to question the healing power of God.

Right now we are probably quite certain of our own existence. But if we want to understand the Scriptural promise of everlasting life, we must become just as certain that true existence is spiritual and not material.

How often do we expect quick healing? Do we believe that such healing is only for people with "more advanced" spiritual understanding or who seem to be better Christians? Many of us have studied Christ Jesus' wonderful, immediate healings of serious disease and marveled at what was accomplished so quickly. Yet didn't he promise, "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father"? John 14:12.

Christians generally recognize that God is incorporeal, that He is Spirit, as Christ Jesus taught. And Christian Science shows that man, as the outcome of God—as His expression—must therefore be spiritual, incorporeal.

Between 1872 and 1875, Mary Baker Eddy was writing the textbook to explain the Science she had discovered in 1866 through divine revelation. Since that discovery, she had been intensively studying the Bible, healing the sick through prayer alone, and teaching others how to heal.

What is happening when a Christian Science practitioner is asked for help through prayer? Is somebody with a holy thought causing something to happen for somebody with a not-so-holy thought? Such a concept would put Christian Science treatment on a personal basis, even perhaps implying that from time to time we need an intermediary to gain access to God. That belief would deny the office and mission of the Christ, the divine healing influence in human consciousness.

Recently it became more widely known around our town that a huge aquifer lay right underneath us. This meant that the town and surrounding area were situated over a pure water supply, held in the porous rock and gravel underground.

Have you ever thought about eternal Life, Life that never begins and never ends, the continuity of being, perpetuating all true individuality? Christ Jesus illustrated this eternal Life. Through the healing word of Truth and through his mighty works, he clearly showed to mankind that God is Life and that God, Life, is ever present.

If we have done the wrong thing, we naturally desire to make amends. But when we strive to do right and others blame us or our religion for what is wrong, how do we respond? The Bible tells us, "What glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.