Vital to those seeking healing in Christian Science is Mrs. Eddy's answer to the question, "Must I have faith in Christian Science in order to be healed by it?" She says: "This is a question that is being asked every day. It has not proved impossible to heal those who, when they began treatment, had no faith whatever in the Science,—other than to place themselves under my care, and follow the directions given.Patients naturally gain confidence in Christian Science as they recognize the help they derive therefrom" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 33).

Although he obviously had no great faith in the healing power of God, Naaman was healed of leprosy. His healing was not instantaneous, for, at first, self-righteousness and human will rebelled at Elisha's orders and caused Naaman to go off in a rage. But when he obeyed Elisha and dipped himself seven times in the river Jordan, an act symbolic of purification and completeness, he was healed.

Faith in the prayers of Christian Science practitioners is natural to those who have received healing, but as one progresses in the study of Science he becomes desirous of working out his own salvation. Faith gained through spiritual understanding is requisite if one is to avail oneself of the healing power of God. In Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy states (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."

Many acquire spiritual discernment by studying daily the Bible Lessons in the Christian Science Quarterly. They soon realize the singular nature of God and His healing power. How can there be two powers, the real that heals and the counterfeit that makes sick? Combining evil with good is as impossible as mixing oil with water.

Christ Jesus performed his many wonderful healings as he saw clearly that sickness and sin originate in the carnal mind and that the allness and perfection of God leave no room for imperfection. Mrs. Eddy explains his method in these words: "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" (Science and Health, pp. 476, 477).

Mankind's faith in drugs, diet, climate, and health laws has not lessened disease but has increased it by keeping sickness constantly before the thought either through fear of its approach or through endeavors to prevent it. Nevertheless, mankind is not without hope of deliverance from sickness and suffering. Since the discovery of Christian Science by Mrs. Eddy in 1866, many thousands of grateful persons have acknowledged and are acknowledging that, without drugs and material methods, the power of the Christ, Truth, heals all manner of discord and disease and thus quickness faith and trust in God, Spirit, who continuously blesses man with eternal health and harmony.

Students of Christian Science progress most rapidly who pray as did the Psalmist (Ps. 139:23, 24), "Search me, O God, and knowmy heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."

Christian Science teaches that cause and effect are mental and that the body manifests sickness and discord or health and harmony in proportion to the kind of thoughts one permits to enter his mental home. Therefore, it is essential to remove from human consciousness fearful, sinful thinking.

In boyhood days I ignorantly allowed suggestions of resentment, envy, selfishness, and a stubborn will to govern my thinking. These errors resulted in a bronchial disorder, which materia medica calls asthma. About thirty years ago, after much suffering, a relative recommended Christian Science treatment. While I was attending a Wednesday evening testimony meeting, a Christian Science practitioner perceived that I was in great need; so he offered spiritual help. Since this seemed like an angel sent from heaven, I humbly and joyously accepted.

My disillusionment in drugs and my waning faith in material remedies yielded to an earnest reaching out for spiritual healing. As the practitioner and I worked and prayed, the so-called material laws of sickness were subordinated to the spiritual law of uninterrupted well-being and harmony. As floodtides of Life, Truth, and Love poured into my consciousness, I felt the regenerating power of the healing Christ clearing the way for a glimpse of the real man of God's creating.

When negative, sickly thoughts were replaced with positive, health-giving spiritual ideas of love, obedience, and humility, no room was left for the obstructing beliefs of discord and disease; the bronchial condition vanished into the nothingness from which it stemmed.

After I had been given a physical examination, an insurance company acknowledged this wonderful healing and removed a high premium rating on a life insurance policy I held. Now I enjoy swimming, running, and skating without any aftereffects. The permanency of healing in Christian Science is upheld by this fact: when divine Principle, God, heals, it is forever.

Problems of discord and disease, however mountainous they may seem, can be removed and replaced by well-being and peace through prayer in Christian Science. This prayer causes faith in matter to yield to trust in omnipotent Mind, God.

Christ Jesus said to his disciples (Matt. 17:20), "Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as agrain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you."