Article November 8, 1913 Issue

To a vast number of people, probably to the great majority...

Frederick Dixon—Norwich, England

Eastern Daily Press

To a vast number of people, probably to the great majority of the citizens of the world, Christian Science healing still stands for a purely medical process. This fact, if the world could only realize it, is a severe reflection on the orthodox creeds. It shows how great a gulf has been allowed to widen since the time of the healer of Gennesaret, between the healing of sickness and the healing of sorrow and sin, and how completely the churches have surrendered one half of their duty to a profession, many of the members of which are avowed agnostics and materialists. Yet Jesus said, "Preach the gospel" and "Heal the sick;" and himself healed the sick in demonstration of the truth of the gospel he preached.

It is very difficult to understand how anybody can persuade himself to believe that the mere temporary removal of disease can be dignified by the name of healing. To contend that the victory over one microbe, which leaves the patient at the mercy of the next microbe, in a microbe-laden world, can be described as healing, even from the world's point of view of science or Christianity, is preposterous. Healing, to be worthy of the name, must destroy the mental germs which produce sin, disease, and death, and which were catalogued by Paul in the appalling list of the works of the flesh; and it must do this by substituting for them in the human consciousness the fruits of the Spirit. It must lead a man away from the fears that surround the belief of life in matter, into an understanding of life eternal, and it must do this by showing him that the understanding of eternal life is dependent, as Christ Jesus declared, on a true knowledge of God and His Christ. Then the patient will not get well only to fall sick again, but will be able to stand in front of the legions of disease and sin, clad in "the whole armor of God," the strength which enabled the psalmist to write: "Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation; there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling."

Mrs. Eddy has defined heaven on page 587 of Science and Health as "government by divine Principle," and this consequently is why, as she explains on page 47, "leaning no longer on matter, but on the divine Principle of their work," the disciples became better healers. One does not, however, succeed in exchanging the government of matter for the government of Principle in a day. It is the result of a long and weary struggle with the carnal mind. The Christian Science treatment, therefore, which heals the sick, is not comprised in a few minutes' realization of Truth by a sick man's bedside, but is the result of months and years of consecration, which brings the healer to the sick with something, however faint, of that knowledge of the power of Truth which raised Jairus' daughter with the words "Talitha cumi."

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