Editorial January 4, 1941 Issue

"Thy son liveth"

Alfred Pittman

THE account of the healing of the nobleman's son, in the fourth chapter of John, touches on a point of much interest and importance in the practice of Christian Science. The child had appeared to be near death, and the nobleman sought Jesus' help. In response to his plea, "Come down ere my child die," Jesus said, "Go thy way; thy son liveth;" and the father, on his return home, learned that the fever had left the boy when Jesus had spoken.

It can hardly be doubted that the Master, as he talked with the nobleman, desired to say something that would be both understandable and reassuring to him; but it is certain, in view of the healing which resulted immediately, that the statement, "Thy son liveth," did not refer merely to the boy's human condition. Jesus was plainly recognizing and declaring the spiritual truth about him: that he lived as the perfect expression of divine Life, God. The Saviour knew that this fact had not been changed, and could not be changed, by the false and unreal testimony of the material senses; and this clear and natural recognition, Christian Science clearly shows, was what healed the disease.

As the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, states in explaining the method of Christ-healing (pp. 476, 477): "Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick."

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