Article November 19, 1927 Issue

A writer in the Argonaut of recent date, commenting...

Edgar McLeod, Committee on Publication for Northern California,—San Francisco

Argonaut

A writer in the Argonaut of recent date, commenting further on the "germ theory" and stressing the necessity of an understanding and acceptance of this theory as a prerequisite to healing disease, apparently overlooks the fact that Christ Jesus, centuries before the discovery of the so-called "germ theory," through spiritual means alone healed instantaneously and without a single failure all manner of disease, including those which to-day are attributed to germs—a record never equaled by material means or laboratory methods. Accordingly, while giving full credit to the honest efforts of medical men and laboratory research, it must be admitted that the spiritual healing recorded in the Old and New Testaments, which reached its height in the unparalleled works of Christ Jesus, has never been duplicated or approximated by any medical school or system. Therefore, while Christian Scientists have no contest with those who espouse material methods, and have the highest regard for the splendid body of men and women comprising the ranks of physicians who devote their lives to ministering to the sick and injured, nevertheless, in accordance with their religion, which is founded on the teachings of the Master, they are convinced that their physical, as well as their spiritual well-being is to be found not in the laboratory, but in the Christ, Truth.

The critic is correct in indicating that modern doctors are recognizing mental factors in their diagnoses and treatment of disease, and in fairness he should have added that this tendency on the part of the medical profession to attribute physical effects to mental causes has developed since Christian Science healing has been accepted throughout the world. This growing tendency to explore the mental realm in considering physical disease was emphasized during the recent meeting of the American Medical Association in Washington, when an eminent specialist is reported to have said that "heartbreak, the fires of ambition, the gnawing of discontent, the secret fear, tear down the physical being," and that "the doctor of the future will be a man trained in the mysterious processes of the mind." This tendency among the physicians assembled in Washington to attribute physical effects to mental causes and to encourage research in the mental realm is interesting when it is recalled that the destructive effects of sin, fear, hate, and mental unrest on health were stressed by Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, over fifty years ago; all of which impels the conclusion that until medical systems have gained a clearer perspective on the workings of mortal mind, or what Paul terms "the carnal mind," medical advocates should be modest in their statements and should refrain from deriding the religion which teaches reliance on the divine Mind. In this connection, the critic's expressed hope for a "happy medium" in which mental and physical healing methods will be combined, apparently grows out of his confusing the spiritual method of healing with mental manipulation, in which the human or carnal mind attempts, by some form of suggestion, to change a condition of disease into one of health.

Christian Science teaches that so-called mortal mind, being the source of disease, cannot heal disease; and it continually warns against the use of hypnotism, mesmerism, and mental manipulation. Persons sufficiently acquainted with Christian Science to heal the sick through its application know that its healing is accomplished through the application of spiritual law, in the same manner as Christ Jesus destroyed disease, and that any reliance on hypnotism or on material methods neutralizes the effect of one's prayer. Christian Scientists have learned, and followers of other faiths are beginning to realize, that until sin, fear, superstition, and ignorance have been destroyed, there can be no abiding health. Therefore, any attempt to change a physical condition by mental manipulation, whether with or without the aid of a drug, can effect no permanent cure.

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