Article September 9, 1922 Issue

Divine Mind the Only Healer

SOPHIE ARGELANDER

In the seventeenth chapter of the gospel of Matthew we read of the case of a lunatic whom the disciples of Jesus could not heal, and we learn through the explanation given by our Master concerning this failure that it was their unbelief which interfered with their work. Our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, elucidates this occurrence on page 148 of her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," where she says, "When his students brought to him a case they had failed to heal, he said to them, 'O faithless generation,' implying that the requisite power to heal was in Mind." The sort of unbelief which the disciples manifested sometimes repeats itself to-day among the students of Christian Science, and often causes a severe struggle even to the earnest seeker for Truth. Many an earnest student of this Science shrinks from the thought of entering into the labor in our Lord's vineyard because he does not sufficiently understand this vital point, insisted upon by our Leader, and is still reckoning with his own personal abilities or disabilities.

Our Master invited his disciples, as well as all those who would believe their words, to take up the healing work; and Mrs. Eddy, who accepted his commands, followed his example and gave us in her textbook the rule of spiritual healing. Should not the earnest student of this Science, therefore, steadily resist the suggestion that he is not able to fulfill this duty, which should be natural to one who thinks in a Christly manner? Mrs. Eddy writes on page 179 of Science and Health, "The spiritual capacity to apprehend thought and to heal by the Truth-power, is won only as man is found, not in self-righteousness, but reflecting the divine nature." The first duty of the Christian Scientist is to prove through spiritual thinking his unity with the one Mind; for only thus is he able to see as God sees, to hear as God hears, and to feel the spiritual rest which is in God and reflects divine power. We can grasp God's thoughts—thoughts of health, sinlessness, and peace—only when no shadow of materiality is marring our realization of the divine Mind. A state of fear, false responsibility, or lack of trust must be cast out of our own thinking, that we may as willing instruments in the hand of God reflect good to the seeker for help. Consequently, the success of our specific work demands the purification of our own thinking. When we have done this faithfully and carefully in the way pointed out, our spiritualized sense will no longer see a troubled and suffering patient, who is anxiously waiting for a treatment, but will discern the truth about God and man.

The Science of Christ, as Mrs. Eddy's teaching expounds it, enables us to do this work in the right way; and we understand better the words which our Leader uses in referring to this Science (Science and Health, p. 558): "When you look it fairly in the face, you can heal by its means, and it has for you a light above the sun, for God 'is the light thereof.'" Thus the earnest student learns through his many experiences, which he encounters on his way to true scientific healing work, that his chief task is to prepare his own consciousness to be receptive to God's thoughts. The good and true thought which comes to him from the divine Mind needs a right reception in order to be transmitted untouched and pure, for only those "shall see God" who are "pure in heart." Such as these perceive spontaneously through the lens of Spirit the perfect creation; and through this recognition the sinner and the sick are healed.

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