Article January 1, 1944 Issue

Nothing Real Needs Healing

JAMES C. MC CAUSTLAND

A Very common temptation, when one is beginning to study and make practical use of Christian Science, is to feel personal responsibility for the healing work. The student is probably acutely conscious of the physical inharmony to be destroyed, and also of his own inexperience in the application of the newly discovered truths that are unfolding in his consciousness. Further, he may be concerned over possible failure in case some error is not uncovered and specifically named and denied. However, through study, prayer, and unfoldment, the comforting understanding comes that in reality there is nothing to be changed, improved, or healed; the only change or correction needed is his belief of himself as a mortal.

Through this unfoldment the startling realization comes to the Christian Scientist that God's man is not the material, mortal man—the Adam-man—who is born into matter without his consent, and who, until he dies, may be liable to attack from all the phases of evil. God's man is made in His image and likeness, according to the Bible. If the premise is accepted that there is one perfect creator, who knows only good, the conclusion must be reached that there is one perfect creation, which cannot contain error, confusion, or inharmony, since such conditions are foreign to perfection. God's image and likeness of necessity reflects and manifests His completeness and perfection, and so expresses continuous supply, health, and harmony. If material evidence seems to be otherwise, the Christian Scientist must come to understand that it is because a counterfeit creation is being accepted as real, because the Adam-man is being accepted as God's man.

Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science uses the term "mortal mind" to indicate the belief that there is sensation in matter and that mind and life begin and end. And on page 86 of her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," she writes, "Mortal mind sees what it believes as certainly as it believes what it sees."

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