An editorial in a recent issue of a widely read weekly periodical advises its readers to submit, at least once a year, to thorough physical examination by a physician in order to determine the status of their health. Interestingly enough, the advice is intended mainly for those who have every reason for concluding that they are well, the presumption being that one may be seriously ill when he least suspects it. The advice, of course, is based on the time-honored but erroneous supposition that matter is the leading factor in determining human weal or woe.

Throughout the ages, mankind has been pursuing the search for health and happiness in matter; but the deeper it has sunk into the depths of materiality the more have disease-beliefs claimed to multiply. In view of this, one may be pardoned for wondering at the willingness of worldly wisdom to continue a quest that daily and hourly becomes more baffling; for, admitting that that which induces disease cannot cure it, the conclusion is unavoidable that health is not in matter and will never be found there.

According to Holy Writ, God is the healer of disease. Obviously, therefore, the abode of health is in the realm of matter's opposite, namely, the divine Mind. Jesus of Nazareth demonstrated again and again the divinely mental nature of true health by overcoming discord of every sort, without a single recorded failure and without any help but God's. Furthermore, he assured his faithful followers throughout all time and in every clime that they would be able to do likewise by obeying the divine law even as he had obeyed it.

Turning to the Scriptures, which testify of the Master and his teachings, we find in the book of Genesis that "in the beginning"—that is, in the Science and reality of being, when God, divine Principle, "saw every thing that he had made," and that it was, even as it is, "very good," universal perfection reigned, and all the sons and daughters (ideas) of God shouted for joy in the infinitude of health and harmony; for discord and disease were unknown.

Surely, there was nothing in the allness of pure Mind from which its opposite, material belief, could be evolved! Therefore, despite all so-called sense-testimony to the contrary, Christian Science insists that discord and disease have no basis in fact, and that God's spiritual, harmonious creation is now and forever the only true creation, in which there has never been any real departure from health and perfection. Was it not the knowing of this glorious truth which the Master said would set mankind free from the shackles of sickness and sin?

Reasoning from the premise laid down on page 468 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, that "all is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all," it is plain that any evidence of error or disease is an illusion or dream; for disease implies either the absence of God or the presence of something besides God. Furthermore, we all know that a dream assumes the proportions of reality only so long as the dream lasts.

Scientifically considered, therefore, disease is not a state of physical discord to be supplanted by a state of physical harmony; it is, rather, a state of erring material belief out of which mortals need to be awakened by Christ, Truth, in order to enter into the freedom and joy of health and harmony, even as a sleeper needs to be awakened from a disturbing night dream in order to find that all is well. Perhaps the Psalmist was considering something of the sort when he said, "I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness."

On page 120 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy writes: "Health is not a condition of matter, but of Mind; nor can the material senses bear reliable testimony on the subject of health. The Science of Mind-healing shows it to be impossible for aught but Mind to testify truly or to exhibit the real status of man. Therefore the divine Principle of Science, reversing the testimony of the physical senses, reveals man as harmoniously existent in Truth, which is the only basis of health." This ability to demonstrate the power of Truth to reverse sense-testimony is acquired, however, only as human thought rises above the mist of materiality, through purity and spiritual growth. In his Sermon on the Mount the Master declared that it is to the pure in heart that God reveals Himself; and Mrs. Eddy tells us on page 241 of Science and Health that "the corner-stone of all spiritual building is purity." There is no other way under heaven by which men may grasp the right hand of omnipotence and become whole mentally, morally, and physically.

It may be worth noting that one of Webster's definitions of the verb "heal" is "to restore to original purity or integrity." According to this, health and purity are one. According to this also, one lays hold of health in proportion to the purity of one's thinking. Therefore health will always accompany scientific obedience to Truth through divine law, as revealed in Christian Science. Only, then, by losing one's spiritual-mindedness can one appear to lose one's health.

What, then, exactly is health? It is the conscious recognition of Truth, God, and of man as unchangeable in His image and likeness. And how may health be made a surety in human experience? By being steadfastly conscious of man's unity with God, through the daily study and practice of Christian Science, which spiritualizes human thought. If health should seem to be lost, how may it be recovered? By repentance,—that is, by forsaking material belief for spiritual understanding, which reveals anew the universe of Spirit, in which man cannot say, "I am sick," for he sees himself perfect even as his heavenly Father, divine Principle, is perfect.