Article July 13, 1918 Issue

Christian Science healing is not accomplished by any...

Frederick R. Rhodes

Leeds (England) Citizen

Christian Science healing is not accomplished by any human means, nor have its teachings anything to do with the carnal mind, but it is the direct result of true prayer. Mrs. Eddy writes in the Preface of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. xi): "The physical healing of Christian Science results now, as in Jesus' time, from the operation of divine Principle, before which sin and disease lose their reality in human consciousness and disappear as naturally and as necessarily as darkness gives place to light and sin to reformation."

Will power, through which mental suggestion operates, is a product of the carnal mind, which Paul assures us "is enmity against God" and as such is just as likely to be used for an evil purpose as for a so-called good one. The healing and regenerating effects resulting from the ministrtions of Christian Science are the physical evidence of, or signs following, the renewing of the mind. This true method of Christ healing and saving is referred to by Westcott as follows: "Perfect conformity to the absolute—to that which is." When we consider that the absolute is the real or spiritual consciousness, we see that it is only possible to conform to its teaching through the exact knowledge or understanding of God.

The statement that Mrs. Eddy has built a church around the central fact of the control of the body through the human mind is not in accordance with the truth. The thousands of Christian Science churches all over the world have been built through the loving desire of the millions of grateful men and women who have received through the better understanding of the presence, power, and availability of their Father's loving care, a measure of health and happiness which in most cases had, from a material standpoint, been deemed either very improbable or impossible. If it is remembered that in a large percentage of cases the Christian Science practitioner never sees the patient at all, it must be conceded that mental suggestion or the human will cannot possibly be the agent through which the help is given. It would be just as truthful to say that when the prayers of a church congregation are asked for on behalf of some poor sufferer, the responding members of the congregation are practicing mental suggestion.

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