Article March 9, 1957 Issue

FAITH, A PREREQUISITE TO HEALING

J. LESLIE HADDON

God is the great Physician, and faith in the truth of God and man as enunciated by Christ Jesus is a prerequisite in spiritual healing. And how can one have real faith in God without knowing what God is?

The Master himself required faith. He often asked those who came seeking his aid to give an earnest of their confidence in his spiritual method of healing. He asked the two blind men who begged him to restore their sight (Matt. 9:28), "Believe ye that I am able to do this?" The ready answer was, "Yea, Lord," and healing was instant. The men's faith, the absence of fear and doubt, rendered them so receptive of the truth that nothing remained to hinder its operation.

In the opening lines of the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy writes (p. 1), "The prayer that reforms the sinner and heals the sick is an absolute faith that all things are possible to God,—a spiritual understanding of Him, an unselfed love." And this faith, not contingent on time, place, or circumstances, but self-sufficient and absolute, is an essential thought pervading our Leader's entire treatment of Mind-healing, given in that great book. Such a faith goes far beyond unenlightened belief, however worthy a steppingstone to faith one's belief may be. Absolute faith is based on a spiritually understood concept of God, on a positive knowledge of the Science of being as demonstrated by the Way-shower.

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