Article January 10, 1925 Issue

Health: Its Nature, Preservation, and Recovery

ELIZABETH MC ARTHUR THOMSON

What a glorious thing is health; how greatly to be desired! Many yearn to possess this treasure. On all sides may be seen the continuous struggle of rich and poor, young and old, to obtain in it freedom from the bondage of sin, disease, and death. In the quest for it, humanity is carried to all parts of the globe. And yet, were one to accept the daily testimony pertaining to disease, one would be tempted to believe that every effort to satisfy this wholly right desire, and to escape the toils of pain and sickness, is largely in vain. In response to the generally accepted salutation, "How do you do?" there is apt to follow a recital of those very ills of the flesh from which material desires to be free, but which material means and methods have failed to heal. "Is there no balm in Gilead?" Must one ever seek in vain? Is health but a temporal, fleeting thing?

To the last two questions Christian Science offers an inevitable denial in its fulfillment of the Scripture, "Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them, and will reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth." Glorious in its promise, irrefutable in its proof of man's God-given dominion over every claim of disease, this Science brings to humanity the realization that health is a present possibility, within reach of all. The study of Christian Science unfolds the spiritual nature of perfect health, harmony, and shows how it is preserved or recovered. Here one may know and prove the truths of being, may demonstrate their reality.

In the Master's words, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly," the Christian Scientist perceives the evidence of divine Love. To him, the promises contained in the Bible are practical, demonstrable truths, pointing the way to health and holiness. The Scientist knows, and can prove in a measure, that Christ, Truth, is come to bestow more abundant life upon all. The fruitless search is ended. He realizes that man, who is the image of his Father, does possess, express, and reflect divine Life, Truth, and Love. To know the great I AM, the one God, becomes his earnest desire. Such a one looks to the realm of Spirit, Mind, for health and peace. And what does he find? The Christ, Truth, which the Discoverer and Founder of this Science of being, Mary Baker Eddy, has revealed to a sick and weary world. He may now begin to establish for himself the eternal verity contained in her words (Rudimental Divine Science, p. 11), "Health is the consciousness of the unreality of pain and disease; or, rather, the absolute consciousness of harmony and of nothing else." In this realm of Spirit, Mind, God has pronounced His creation "very good." Here there can be no room for sickness, no verdict sentencing man to continual suffering, no wasted effort to unfold harmony. God is the loving Father-Mother, whom Christian Science declares to be the one and only Mind, the divine Principle of man and the universe.

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