Article November 27, 1909 Issue

To a vast number of people, to the great majority...

Frederick Dixon

Bristol (Eng.) Mercury

To a vast number of people, to the great majority probably of the citizens of the world, Christian Science healing still stands for a purely medical process. The fact, if the world could only realize it, is a severe reflection on the orthodox creeds. It shows how great a gulf has been allowed to widen since the time of the healer of Gennesaret between the healing of sickness and the healing of sorrow and sin. and how completely the churches have surrendered half of their duty to a profession many of the members of which are avowed agnostics and materialists. Yet Jesus said, "Preach the gospel" and "Heal the sick," and himself healed the sick in demonstration of the truth of the gospel he preached.

It is very difficult to understand how anybody can persuade himself to believe that the mere temporary removal of disease can be dignified by the name of healing. To contend that the victory over one microbe, which leaves the patient at the mercy of the next microbe in a microbeladen world, can be described as healing, even from the world's point of view of science or Christianity, is preposterous. Healing, to be worthy of the name, must destroy the mental germs which produce sin, disease, and death, and which were catalogued by Paul in the appalling list of the works of the flesh, and it must do this by substituting for them in the human consciousness the fruits of the Spirit. It must lead a man away from the fears that surround the belief of life in matter into an understanding of life eternal, and it must do this by showing him that the understanding of eternal life is dependent, as Christ Jesus declared, on a true knowledge of God and His Christ. Then the patient will not get well only to get sick again, but will be able to stand in front of the legions of disease and sin clad in "the whole armor of God," the strength which enabled the psalmist to write: "Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High thy habitation; there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling."

Is it any wonder, then, that Mrs. Eddy writes, on page 366 of Science and Health, "In order to cure his patient, the metaphysician must first cast moral evils out of himself and thus attain the spiritual freedom which will enable him to cast physical evils out of his patient"? Jesus said: "For their sakes I sanctify myself," or, to use a language a little less archaic than that of the King James' version, "For their sakes I consecrate myself, that they also might be truly consecrated." Consecration, translated into practice, is the effort to walk in the footsteps of Jesus Christ, to get that larger sense of love which enables you to work with the same devotion for every patient, irrespective of their relation to yourself, thus showing you have taken to heart the warning, "If ye love them which love you, what reward have ye?" In this case, instead of the narrow provincialism of regarding the sick who come to you for help as your patients, you will begin to heal on the firmer foundation of looking, not so much to the personal gratification of getting these patients well, as of demonstrating the omnipotence of divine Love, and so entering heaven with prayer. Did not Christ Jesus say, "Rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven"?

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