Article February 20, 1909 Issue

Your correspondent states that "prayer is doubtless...

Capt. Geoffrey Wilkinson

Kentish (Eng.) Mercury

Your correspondent states that "prayer is doubtless necessary in healing the sick, but if he who prays does not act... on the outward means provided for him in times of sickness, then God will not hold such an individual guiltless if the sick person die." It is not quite clear from this why prayer is "necessary in healing the sick." If there is virtue in "the outward means," why should it be necessary to pray? If, on the other hand, there is no intrinsic virtue in the outward means, why use them at all? Again, our critic will not deny that people fail to recover in spite of the use of "outward means." If this is so, it must be assumed that, if God instituted these "outward means," then He is unwilling to provide adequate remedies for the use of His children—a rather severe indictment on the Deity. Now Christian Scientists have been brought up in the use of material means, and it is for the very reason that these have failed them that, in a large proportion of cases, they have turned to Christian Science as a last resort and found the health and harmony they had failed to find before. If others prefer to rely on "outward means" in cases where Christian Scientists would dispense with these, they have no desire to prevent them; but they do feel that they have found a speedier and more effective way—a way that is instantly available, at all times and in all places, both where outward means are at hand and where they are not. Faith, in the sense that Jesus used the word, is the understanding of spiritual law, the law of God who is Love, and this spiritual law, as the Master showed, annuls every physical so-called law. The realization of God's law is the enforcement of God's law. And this law is apprehended in proportion as men let that Mind be in them "which was also in Christ Jesus;" and just in proportion as men do this will they be able to overcome all physical limitations and dispense with "outward means."

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