Why, and How

IDA S. KOHL

"Because of your unbelief" was the answer Jesus gave to his disciples' question, "Why could not we cast him out?" The boy whose father had appealed to them for healing, they had seen restored at Jesus' command. However, with his usual liberality toward mortals in their ignorance of God and the operation of His laws, Jesus added, "Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting." His loving rebuke included also the rule by which divine Principle operates in the healing work. In considering this rule, Mrs. Eddy, on page 222 of "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany," gives its explanation as "refraining from admitting the claims of the senses."

In the language of Christian Science, the word "unbelief" has a broader significance than is usually attached to it, meaning not only lack of faith in the accomplishment of good, but a greater lack of the actual understanding of God, the source of all good. So, to-day, the frequent cry, Why am I not healed? or, Why is my healing delayed? can but receive the same answer: "Because of your unbelief." Though human problems may seem to be numberless, they all proceed from the same source, — the belief that there is more than one God, more than one power, more than one presence; and they all have their solution in the understanding of the two connate facts of Christian Science, — the allness of God and His ideas, and the nothingness of the belief in evil. In the progressive unfoldment of these facts, it is learned why discord is unreal, and how the continuous proof of harmony, as the reality, may be realized in a sufficient measure along every avenue of human thought and action.

Mortals attach suffering to themselves and hold it in thought for others, through the belief in and fear of wrong thoughts and deeds. To detach all suffering from human experience, one's consciousness of the truth of being must approximate that of the Master. A closer communion with God, through the realization of the truth about Him and His spiritual universe, alone can develop the ability to disbelieve error, reduce it to its native nothingness, and reject it utterly. In the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mrs. Eddy has given rules for the practice of Christian metaphysics. These rules are the fruit of her many years of spiritual discernment, and consecrated application of the Christ-method of healing and teaching. Ability to grasp the author's message, and to use it successfully in working out the daily problems, involves a willingness to set aside preconceived theories and beliefs. The thoughts that go to make up the mental activity of the large majority of mortals bear no resemblance to divine Mind; and these must be emptied out that men may come to know that which is eternally true about God, man, and the universe. The author of the epistle to the Hebrews writes, "Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God." Belief is always about something changeable and destructible; but God is to be understood; and His changeless goodness and infinite power, manifested in eternal perfection, must be demonstrated.

The statements of Truth that bring about ascendancy of thought in one case, lifting it above error, may not always do the same in another case. This is because each case is individual; and since there is no accounting for a mortal, it is quite useless to compare one with another. Some people are healed quickly; others, more slowly. In either instance, the awakening to God's allness should be the specific quest. The healing truth dawned on Mrs. Eddy's thought while she was reading the second verse of the ninth chapter of Matthew, which tells of the healing of the "man sick of the palsy." This same healing truth may dawn on another's thought while reading some other part of the Scriptures, or Mrs. Eddy's writings, or the literature of The Christian Science Publishing Society. These all bear God's message of health, happiness, and harmony to the earnest seeker after Truth. It is, therefore, unwise to outline statements to be used in specific cases; but always wise to turn thought unreservedly to God, with full faith in His willingness and ability to heal and save to the uttermost, as human thought yields to His revelation of Life, Truth, and Love.

Since Christian healing unfolds through inspiration rather than erudition, the beginner has an equal opportunity with the advanced student to discern how Truth operates; and according to his consecration, he can successfully prove his position and reap his reward. Mrs. Eddy asks in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 100), "Who knows how the feeble lips are made eloquent, how hearts are inspired, how healing becomes spontaneous, and how the divine Mind is understood and demonstrated?" Then she answers her own question from the fullness of her experience: "He alone knows these wonders who is departing from the thraldom of the senses and accepting spiritual truth, — that which blesses its adoption by the refinement of joy and the dismissal of sorrow." Again, on page 194 of the same work, she says that it is in following in the footsteps of Christ Jesus that one may "understand God and how to turn from matter to Spirit for healing; how to leave self, the sense material, for the sense spiritual; how to accept God's power and guidance, and become imbued with divine Love that casts out all fear."

Copyright, 1923, by The Christian Science Publishing Society, Falmouth and St. Paul Streets, Boston, Massachusetts. Entered at Boston post office as second-class matter. Acceptance for mailing at a special rate of postage provided for in section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized on July 11, 1918.

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