Article October 21, 1916 Issue

Reason and Prayer

JOHN C. BUSH

A lady said to a Christian Science practitioner one day : "I have been interested in Christian Science many years, and yet I have not been healed. Why is this, when so many others are healed, and often instantaneously?" This question, which often comes to the practitioner, is a legitimate one, and the correct answer should and does satisfy.

The reply was substantially this : Christian Science is an absolute science and will permit of no half-way measures in its demonstration. As Mrs. Eddy tells us, "Whoever would demonstrate the healing of Christian Science must abide strictly by its rules, heed every statement, and advance from the rudiments laid down" (Science and Health, p. 462). Applied in its purity it is most reasonable that Christian Science should heal the sick and heal them quickly. That one has not been healed is certainly no fault of Christian Science, and without question the fault lies in the application of it. In this case the practitioner said to the patient, "Let us see if we cannot discover just where the trouble lies;" then turning to page 14 of the text-book, the practitioner read as follows : "Become conscious for a single moment that Life and intelligence are purely spiritual,—neither in nor of matter,—and the body will then utter no complaints. If suffering from a belief in sickness, you will find yourself suddenly well." He was interrupted several times while reading this to be told that the patient had read this passage a thousand times, that she knew it by heart. "But," she was asked, "how often have you done this?" To this she replied, "How often have I done what?"

The practitioner then went on to say, "Now let us suppose that everything you possess in this world was in jeopardy and required your presence in Chicago as quickly as you could possibly reach there, and you should send for a railway guide, and seating yourself in an easy chair, should began to read it. Just how long would you be obliged to read to find yourself in Chicago, and would it help matters in the least if you should commit the whole book to memory? Do you not see that something is required of you more than the mere reading of the words. It says plainly, 'Become conscious . . . that Life and intelligence are purely spiritual.' Now this is when and where healing takes place, for in becoming conscious that Life is spiritual, you must become unconscious of the material environment and of the material body; and if unconscious of the material body, you certainly will not be conscious of any pain in that body. One becomes a Christian Scientist only as he becomes conscious that Life is spiritual, and not material. He is not a Christian Scientist at any other time, and will never become one in any other way. Now, if you have failed in this, do you not see that you have not been in Christian Science at all as yet, and do you not see how some are healed more quickly than others?"

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