Article September 20, 1913 Issue

Hindrances to Healing Overcome

ROBERT NALL

Unless we understand what true healing is, we are liable to err grievously. If in its application Christian Science had been limited to giving relief from physical troubles, it might have been more popular, but it would have belied its name; it would not have been the Christ-healing that the world needs. In the question, "Wilt thou be made whole?" Jesus expounded his mission. To him true healing meant complete wholeness: disease and sin were invariably coupled, and the healing of the one implied the destruction of the other. No scholastic commentator has been bold enough to deny this interpretation of the term "made whole," and it will be remembered that Mrs. Eddy emphasizes this truth throughout the text-book. She thus showed her fidelity to the full-orbed Christianity exemplified by Jesus and his disciples, and we do well, therefore, to study, as she did, what this means. If health were merely a condition of matter, there would be less necessity of study.

Many of those who flee to Christian Science simply to be freed from pain, would be content if they attained this result, though they might not be assured of any exemption from relapse; but that would not be spiritual healing. It would be only the substitution of one belief for another, and if dependence upon the physical were persisted in, the last state of such a one would be worse than the first. No, we must go much deeper than this if we are to apprehend thoroughly that Christian Science stands for and what it is doing for humanity. If we want the whole matter put concretely, here it is: "Entirely separate from the belief and dream of material living, is the Life divine, revealing spiritual understanding and the consciousness of man's dominion over the whole earth" (Science and Health, p. 14). This consciousness of spiritual power, and of being linked to the one omnipotent Mind, is what every man needs.

The patient in quest of health, who is slow to find it, sometimes gets into a mental tangle, and is always looking around for the cause of his delayed recovery. Very often that is why he is making little or no progress. It is because he is "looking around" that he is missing what he wants. He is searching everywhere but in the right place. He pictures all sorts of material causes, not one of which has any relation to the truth of being. The hindrances seem to be many, yet it is possible to sum them up in a very few words. In this repect Science and Health is a most valuable vade mecum. With its clear spiritual interpretation of Scripture, it so unfolds the truth that the wayfaring man who studies it will not err. We find there quite a list of conditions and false beliefs to which mortal mind clings with the tenacity of a limpet. When once we begin a mental diagnosis, we are somewhat appalled at the picture of what unregenerate mortal man is; but what is learned in this mental analysis should have a practical effect.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

"Out of the mouth of babes"