Editorial December 4, 1920 Issue

The Work of the Practitioner

Gustavus S. Paine

The one who asks such a question as that in Jeremiah, "Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuseth to be healed?" needs simply to experience the calm and grateful sureness of Christ Jesus, when he said before there seemed to be any change in the case which he was considering: "Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always." He knew that the presence and power of Principle are immediate, even when the human senses testify to the contrary. Thus he could rejoice in all circumstances, because he understood health and happiness as spiritual activity, sustained by Principle and forever untouched by any supposition of matter. This understanding constituted his practice of Principle and made him a truly good practitioner.

Each one who turns to and relies on divine Principle is, to that extent, a practitioner of Christian Science. The very reliance on infinite Mind for all good is right practice and is undeniably effective. In other words, each one's work is simply to turn in the right direction. "Therefore turn thou to thy God: keep mercy and judgment, and wait on thy God continually," as we read in Hosea, has been the exhortation of religion from time immemorial. Christian Science, however, shows one not only the necessity for turning but how to turn. That is why Mrs. Eddy wrote "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," and her other works, that she might show in every possible way, with metaphysically scientific exactness, how each one may turn to Principle and prove healing through the turning.

Strictly speaking, there is but one practitioner, but one who practices perfectly, and this One is the divine Mind, the source of all real action. Even the slightest turning to this Mind, to this Principle, is beneficial, for Principle is ceaselessly operating as right activity to take the place of any suppositional limitations or errors. The instant one turns to the sunlight, one gets the benefit of the sunlight. One does not even have to have faith in the sunlight or to understand the sunlight in order to enjoy its radiance. As Mrs. Eddy says in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 33), "It has not proved impossible to heal those who, when they began treatment, had no faith whatever in the Science,—other than to place themselves under my care, and follow the directions given. Patients naturally gain confidency in Christian Science as they recognize the help they derive therefrom." Yet on page 4 she also writes: "It is often said, 'You must have a very strong will-power to heal,' or, 'It must require a great deal of faith to make your demonstrations.' When it is answered that there is no will-power required, and that something more than faith is necessary, we meet with an expression of incredulity. It is not alone the mission of Christian Science to heal the sick, but to destroy sin in mortal thought. This work well done will elevate and purify the race. It cannot fail to do this if we devote our best energies to the work." It is, of course, the absolute understanding of Principle which heals both sin and sickness; but this understanding is essentially simple and is truly ever present because it inheres in the omnipresent divine Mind. The one Mind is ever available as the one thoroughly efficient practitioner to whom to turn.

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