Article September 9, 1911 Issue

In the report of the subcommittee of the British Medical...

W. E. Fell

Yorkshire (Eng.) Post

In the report of the subcommittee of the British Medical Association on "faith-healing," a bishop declared that he could not draw any marked distinction between the claims of such healing alleged by Christian Scientists, by Church of England healers, by Mohammedans, or by members of other religions. The doctors find, as your report says, "that the essential factor in all forms of psychic healing is mental suggestion." That this is the case in all other methods of mental healing there is not the shadow of a doubt, but it is at this point that Christian Science takes a radical departure from all other mental healing. The difference, as I have said, is at the outstart in the view-point. All other methods of mental healing have a materialistic basis; indeed, it is believed that mind itself is a form of matter.

Christian Science, on the other hand, does not take matter into consideration at all; its basis is spiritual. To the Christian Scientist health and sickness are alike modes of consciousness. All sickness, sin, and disease are recognized as the harvest of wrong thinking, and this wrong thinking, the cause of discord physical or mental, is rectified by substituting the right thinking. The Christian Science practitioner, therefore, strives to have that Mind which was also in Christ Jesus, in order that he may unsee the error. To see the truth about any matter is to unsee the falsity. To destroy the cause, the wrong thinking, is to destroy the effect, the sinful habit, the sickness or disease. To the extent that the practitioner possesses the divine Mind, that Mind "which was also in Christ Jesus," is he guided by the wisdom of God in his treatment of a discordant condition. Christian Science has nothing in common with hypnosis or suggestion. Christian Science teaches that to preserve health our thinking must be spiritual; it must manifest Truth, for as a man "thinketh in his heart, so is he." Health is spiritual wholeness. It is, therefore, exact knowledge or scientific knowledge of God that is required if we would free mankind from the results of their wrong thinking. Sin and its consequent sickness and disease are mental darkness, a darkness that can only be dispelled by the bright shining of Truth.

So far as Christian Science is concerned, there is no "special gift of healing." This healing is scientific; it is governed by Principle and its law; it is an exact science, inasmuch as it is demonstrable. It is, therefore, no special gift, but, like every other science, belongs to those who choose to become proficient in the understanding of the Principle and law that govern its operation, and who are willing to live the Christ-life.

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In the report of the subcommittee of the British Medical...

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