Editorial September 29, 1951 Issue

THE PROPHYLACTIC ART

Robert Ellis Key

The joys of spiritual being can never be eclipsed by the shadows of materiality. Either we believe that we are mortals and live in matter, with all the inhibitions and limitations associated with that state, or else we know that as immortals we live in divine Mind, with full freedom of movement and in a state of unassailable health and ability. The choice is ours, once the way is pointed out in Christian Science. The individual who believes himself unhealthy might be shocked to be told that such an admission denies the perfect health, or holiness, of God, for the Bible declares that God created man in His own image and likeness.

Either we accept the Scriptural teachings or we reject them. There can be no compromise in Truth. It may seem, however, that absolute Truth is not fully understood in our present degree of spiritual evolution. Such humble recognition of our present inadequate understanding of Spirit compels us to hunger and thirst after greater righteousness. Entertaining right desires, we do not lose sight of the fact that our real being is in Spirit, with its accompanying health, power, and affluence. In proportion to our ability to recognize man's spiritual nature, this nature will appear, and with its first appearance there will come wholesome living; in other words, the absolute good, which is God, becomes appreciable in our human experience in moral and physical health and well-being.

Mary Baker Eddy writes in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 369), "The prophylactic and therapeutic (that is, the preventive and curative) arts belong emphatically to Christian Science, as would be readily seen, if psychology, or the Science of Spirit, God, was understood." Evidence of the healing of both sin and disease commonly accompanies the study and practice of Christian Science. The grateful beneficiary is not slow to acknowledge his gratitude either through a testimony sent for publication in the Christian Science periodicals or through one given at a Wednesday testimony meeting. In such cases the therapeutic art of Christian Science is perhaps more frequently referred to than the prophylactic.

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