Article December 7, 1912 Issue

While healing is not by any means the main purpose of...

Royal D. Stearns

Cozad (Neb.) Local

While healing is not by any means the main purpose of Christian Science, it is demonstrating that it is possible to heal the sick today in the same manner as the sick were healed by Jesus and his immediate followers. Christian Scientists maintain that the law of spiritual healing is ever-operative, and he who understands and obeys the law can apply it, and when rightly applied it always brings gratifying results. The law of spiritual healing whereby the sick are healed and the sinner regenerated, is the unchanging and unerring law of divine Mind, "the same yesterday, and today, and forever." The error of the age is, according to Christian Science, the tendency to limit the power and willingness of God to help humanity in time of need. On many occasions Jesus said to those who asked for help, "According to your faith be it unto you."

According to Christian Science teaching, there is nothing mysterious about the metaphysical process of healing; it is in accordance with an ever-available spiritual law, and its application is in obedience to the oft-quoted commands of Jesus, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel," "Heal the sick." It is worth remembering, and significant also, that Jesus never at any time sent out disciples to preach without telling them also to heal the sick. There is no Scriptural authority for preaching which does not also carry with it the command to heal. Mrs. Eddy realized the necessity of obeying the commands of Christ Jesus in their entirety, and did so to the fullest extent of her ability and taught all her followers to do likewise; she maintained that "healing physical sickness is the smallest part of Christian Science. It is only the bugle-call to thought and action, in the higher range of infinite goodness. The emphatic purpose of Christian Science is the healing of sin" (Rudimental Divine Science, p. 12).

Mrs. Eddy through all the years of her self-denial and self-sacrificing endeavor, was a humble follower of Christ. In the Preface to "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. ix) she says, "Today, though rejoicing in some progress, she still finds herself a willing disciple at the heavenly gate, waiting for the Mind of Christ." Christian Scientists never have made any comparison between Jesus Christ and Mrs. Eddy. The position of Christ Jesus as the great Wayshower of humanity finds willing and loving acceptance with Christian Scientists universally. Christian Scientists gratefully recognize and acknowledge Mrs. Eddy's contribution to this age in elucidating and explaining the teachings of the Master and in making them available in a practical way now to their needs, but no comparisons are ever made. A tribute to the value of Mrs. Eddy's work was paid by a speaker at the Protestant Episcopal convention in October, 1910, at Cincinnati as follows: "The power of restoring the sick by prayer was thrown away by our church and a woman picked up that jewel."

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