Article February 5, 1916 Issue

Cause and Effect

GERTRUDE TWIGGS

The physical healing in Christian Science will always remain a point of contention to non-Scientists, for the simple and sufficient reason that when a man apprehends the Science of healing, he is no longer a non-Scientist. That man is not subject to matter, seems at first to be almost beyond the comprehension of the beginner, but after he has begun to apprehend this truth, it is no great mental journey to the place where he is able to distinguish between the carnal or mortal mind, which seems to govern man, and the Principle of being, to whom man is really subject. Most people are willing to concede that the mind influences the body, but many believe that the body influences the mind to an even greater extent. We can see in sudden outbursts of temper how the face pales or flushes, and we can read on the face joy, pain, sorrow, excitement, and even a life history. In this case the mental state is the cause, and the changes produced in the body are the effects. The thought is the potter, while the body is the clay, and the potter is not subject to the clay.

In Christian Science we learn that the body is subject to one's thought, and for harmony and health this thought must be at-one with divine Mind, the Principle of being. All the discord manifested on the body as sickness, results from the general belief that man is governed by matter or by willpower, by the carnal mind, which is opposed to God. The weary sufferer, struggling with the manifestations of inharmony and a load of fear, may take heart and know that "God never endowed matter with power to disable Life or to chill harmony with a long and cold night of discord" (Science and Health, p. 378). The struggle is purely mental, and the inharmony is a result of the rule of false belief, of failure to apprehend the truth of being.

A Christian Scientist recognizes as effect that which the ordinary physician thinks of as cause, and when the sick can realize this, the battle is practically won. Often when fear and doubt seem almost too heavy to be borne, by studying the Scriptural account of the words and works of Jesus in the light of Christian Science, the patient can see that the truth Jesus taught and demonstrated are available today, and thus he can gain comfort and assurance. When human thought is sustained by Truth and Love, the healing work goes on of itself. This, then, is our task, to hold fast to truth.

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