IT may be said that as one grasps the truths underlying healing power, he begins to utilize that power. The beginner in Christian Science who puts into practice the truths he knows will find his infant understanding ever increasing.
Steadfast adherence to God, divine Principle, and an understanding of Him as Truth and Love lead the way to genuine healing. This way is not difficult, even for the beginner in Christian Science, provided he is honest and conscientious and is prepared to utilize his present understanding immediately when faced with error. Very often personal sense will suggest that one should wait until his understanding becomes a little greater before he tackles problems which loom large in thought. Yielding to this suggestion, one will be defeated from the outset.
If through our study of the Bible and of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, we have grasped the fundamentals of divine Science, and if we embody the spirit of Truth and Love, we shall find that God will make up for any deficiency in our understanding; and that which seems to cloud our consciousness will be dispersed.
That the previous statement is true was proved to a Christian Scientist at a time when his daughter came home ill after playing tennis one hot summer afternoon. The child manifested symptoms of sunstroke; so she was put to bed, and the error was denied. During the evening, however, instead of showing improvement, her condition deteriorated until she was crying and tossing about in pain.
The father was told that his daughter needed immediate help. He went to the child's room at once, and, in a manner in which he had had some previous success, for some twenty minutes he prayed for her silently, affirming the truth of her perfection as a child of God and denying the evidence of sickness. But at the end of his treatment, the child's condition seemed to worsen rather than to yield, and the Christian Scientist was momentarily afraid.
He ceased his mental efforts, for he felt that he had done the work to the best of his ability. Acutely conscious of his daughter's fevered murmurings, he prayed: "Father, what can I do? I have to do something to relieve her suffering."
He sat quietly in the dark, and after a moment the thought of medicine came to him. He knew that before taking up the study of Christian Science he would have given the child material medicine and known that that was the limit of his aid. Suddenly, a passage from Science and Health came to him (p. 104), "The medicine of Science is divine Mind."
Immediately he was alert and working again. He asked his daughter if she knew "the scientific statement of being," and when she answered in the affirmative, he told her to repeat it after him.
This momentous statement, which is found on page 468 of Science and Health, reads as follows: "There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all. Spirit is immortal Truth; matter is mortal error. Spirit is the real and eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal. Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore man is not material; he is spiritual."
Then the father declared aloud that there is but one infinite, all-powerful Mind, which was their Mind; one perfect good, which was their good; one tender, ever-present Love, which was their Love; one eternal, immortal Life, which was their Life. The young girl repeated the Christian Scientist's words, and a few moments later, as they continued to declare familiar truths, they began truly to grasp their meaning. The mesmeric claim of disease was broken, and the healing was accomplished.
A most significant lesson to be gained from the foregoing is that as we grasp the great scientific fact that God's qualities are our qualities, this verity begins at once to destroy the opposite claims of mortal belief that we have any being apart from our Father-Mother God. Then fear, hate, disease, the belief of intelligence in matter, and a sense of death lose their reality and seeming power. A treatment, therefore, to be effective must identify man with his Maker.
A fact to be learned early in the study of the Science of Mind is that we have no healing power of our own. It is Truth that does the work and not we ourselves. We are simply the transparency through which Truth shines. The spiritual blessings which follow the comprehension of this fact are immediate. The human sense of egotism and power is diminished, enabling us to express a more pure love.
Furthermore, in healing work, the knowledge of Truth's action relieves us of a heavy burden of personal responsibility. Fear is absent, and we gain a clearer view of Christ Jesus' promise (Matt. 11:28), "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
That it is the active truth which does the work does not mean that the mere repetition of passages from the Scriptures or the mental verbatim quoting from Science and Health constitutes metaphysical practice. Rather, it is the deep knowledge, the abiding conviction, gained from studying and pondering the truths set forth in the Bible and the Christian Science textbook. Herein lie the qualities of healing faith, the faith of spiritual understanding.
It is this knowing of the spiritual truths of Christian Science that gives a Christian Science treatment its force or divine impulsion. We must know that every truth that comes to consciousness does have power, does have a certain effect for good, and does heal.
Mental work must be done positively and concisely. We must not deal in vague generalities, but must meet each claim of error with a reasoned denial of its specific claims. Then should follow our declaration of the true idea of good, relating it to the seeming problem confronting us, whether it be a suggestion of disease, discord, lack, stoppage of normal action, world inharmony, or any other abnormality. Our strength and comfort are in the sure knowledge that error is only suggestion and is powerless.
One stumbling block to healing in Christian Science is the belief that material conditions seem so substantial and real to personal sense that even after giving metaphysical treatment, the practitioner may be tempted to look at the physical condition or to inquire of the one he is helping whether a material change for the better has occurred.
Our Leader says on page 123 of Science and Health, "Divine Science, rising above physical theories, excludes matter, resolves things into thoughts, and replaces the objects of material sense with spiritual ideas." Careful analysis and thorough understanding of this thought-provoking statement will answer matter's claim to substantiality.
It is a most urgent need that we recognize matter for what it is: an image of mortal, material thought objectified, a shadow, animal magnetism.
The operation of a Christian Science treatment is all mental action and is simply the abolishing or blotting out of the erroneous, material concept and the replacing of it with the true, spiritual idea. As the Scientist grasps the basic truth that the only actuality is the divine Mind and its idea, with this pure knowledge he can confront and destroy mortal mind's false presentations.
