NATURALNESS OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE

The longer I study Christian Science, and the better understanding I gain of its teachings, as found in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," the more natural it seems to me. It is with gratitude to our dear Leader that I say this, for it has taken me a long time to see it in just this way. Although I accepted Christian Science a number of years ago, feeling that it must be the truth, because of its fruits, and I was eager to understand it, yet there long remained a lurking sense of doubt that perhaps it was not just the natural and normal thing, so prone are mortals to believe in evil rather than good. The trouble, of course, was with me. I was expecting extraordinary things of Christian Science, but as a result of study and application I have found that one of the very simple and natural things which this Science does for us is that it reveals to us our inmost thoughts. It thus shows us what there is in our consciousness that needs correcting; and often do we have occasion to marvel at this searching power of Truth, for it uncovers the most hidden and subtle faults. Things which before had almost seemed like virtues, are shown in a very different light. Then, too, the truth reveals to us the grand possibilities which lie within the reach of every one of us,—our divine inheritance—which is now available to all who are willing to accept it.

In the story of the prodigal son we read that before the prodigal arose and went to his father, he "came to himself." This is the very natural thing which Christian Science does for us; it brings us to our real selves. It shows us what we are as God's spiritual children, that God's ideas are all perfect and perfectly governed. Naturally, as this realization comes to us, we do rise above the old tendency to disease or sin which has hampered and bound us. The account given in the gospel of St. John of the healing of the impotent man by the pool of Bethesda contains many helpful lessons along this line. This man, who for thirty-eight years had been in a helpless condition, was waiting by the pool, hoping that at the right moment, after the troubling of the waters, some one might lift him in and that in some miraculous way he would be healed of his infirmities. Jesus, seeing him and knowing that he had been for a long time in this condition, said to him, "Wilt thou be made whole?" Then we discover in the answer given by this long-suffering man many of the common misconceptions as to what healing really consists of, for he answered, "Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool." Apparently all these years he had been waiting for some human aid to lift him bodily into the pool, from which action he expected to receive a miraculous healing.

In the last part of the impotent man's answer there is also that common note of self-pity, springing from the belief that perhaps others are receiving benefits which are denied him, for he goes on, "but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me." Jesus knew that no material means were necessary, and that there was no healing power in the water, but that on the very spot where the man now lay, the realization of what man really is could come to him. Jesus therefore said, "Rise, take up thy bed, and walk." That this realization did come to the man we know, for the record says that "immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked." The command not only was given for him to rise above this condition, but even though he had been helpless for so many years he was asked to take up his bed, which to us would mean any burdens or duties which are ours to carry, and to know that our progress comes with obedience. Today Christian Science has come, bringing this same healing truth, and bringing it in such a form that every honest seeker may apprehend and be benefited spiritually as well as healed physically.

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TRUE INDEPENDENCE
June 29, 1912
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