Article May 6, 1911 Issue

THE MINISTRY OF HEALING

ROBERT NALL

What are the qualifications required for healing the sick? This is a perennial question, one that every student of Christian Science has asked at some time or other, and it will not be difficult to answer if considered from the only true view-point. In nothing was Mrs. Eddy more emphatic than in teaching that here personal sense must be lost sight of. Study the whole chapter, for instance, on Christian Science Practice in Science and Health. It is, to use the author's own words, "aflame with divine Love" (p. 367), which heals. Among the first things that she herself learned was that her own prayers failed to heal her, and it was not, as she relates, until the spiritual sense was discerned that she found relief. This is the A. B. C. of Christian Science healing—this apprehension of the all-important fact that it is not human might nor human power that can accomplish the task, but the "living, palpitating presence of Christ, Truth" (Ibid., p. 351). This is part of the great lesson which needs to be learned. Every beneficiary of Christian Science wants to engage in this ministry of healing. It is divine work. It appeals to us because of its intrinsic worth, because it is the reflection of Love which enriches the giver and receiver alike. And it is the high privilege of all to engage in it.

If we see difficulties in the way, they are self-created; therefore they can be overcome by a greater fidelity to Truth. We know, as we have grown in the knowledge of the faith that we hold, that all truth must have its source in the one infinite intelligence, and that it is this truth alone which heals. When we are unable to apprehend this, we may be letting material concepts, the beliefs in the physical, obstruct the entrance of spiritual light. We may be raising self-constructed barriers, thus hindering our progress toward that condition of emancipation from erroneous thought without which we cannot be channels for divine Love to do its work. We are to know ourselves as spiritual; to know that the basis of all healing is spiritual; that Mind is All.

Mankind owe a wealth of gratitude to Mrs. Eddy for the magnificent optimism, based upon her clear spiritual understanding, which enabled her to declare that "Mind transcends all other power, and will ultimately supersede all other means in healing" (Ibid., p. 483). Jesus knew this, and healed accordingly. He taught his immediate followers, and they did the work that he did, never permitting doubt or fear to overshadow their strong faith in God as the healer. Thought goes back with a sigh of profound regret that this primitive faith, which has been restored to us now, was not retained in the earlier days, but we are learning a lesson from the errors of the past. In a recently published volume, forming one of a foreign missionary series, the author, referring to the early days of Christianity, says, "These passing years saw the gradual disappearance of the miraculous gifts which the church formerly enjoyed. She exchanged power with God for power with men. It is by no means certain that the ministry of healing would not have persisted along with the ministry of preaching, had the church remained loyal to her first love and allowed nothing whatever to come between her and her Lord."

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