Editorial February 3, 1986 Issue

Don't let the spiritual idea be stolen!

ALLISON W. PHINNEY, JR.

Many people would agree that healing of sin and sickness through purely spiritual means would be the most important thing that could happen on earth. Christians would agree it has already happened—in the ministry of Christ Jesus. But not so many people would be aware of how crucial it is that such healing be specially valued, prayed for, and practiced in this age.

Following her discovery and founding of Christian Science in the late nineteenth century, Mary Baker Eddy made a prediction—contingent on the fidelity of the lives of Christian Scientists to Christ, Truth—that by the close of this century the Christian churches in the United States, and some elsewhere, would include the practice of Christian healing.^{ See Pulpit and Press 22:9–13 .} In point of fact, a few churches are now practicing some form of Christian healing.

Mrs. Eddy, however, made another, equally important but less well-known prediction. She said: "Let there be milk for babes, but let not the milk be adulterated. Unless this method be pursued, the Science of Christian healing will again be lost, and human suffering will increase."^{ Retrospection and Introspection, pp. 61–62.}