Editorial January 28, 1967 Issue

"An unerring impetus"

Carl J. Welz

A man was accidentally shot. He was unconscious. Four physicians examined him and agreed that he could not live. A few hours later, after having reported that the man's pulse was nearly imperceptible, the family doctor left the house. At this point a Christian Scientist called and offered to treat the man. The family, having never heard of Christian Science, first objected, then consented to the treatment. Within about fifteen minutes the man began to breathe normally and became conscious. In a few days he was completely healed.

This happened to Joseph G. Mann in Boston in November, 1886. His affidavit is included in an article by Calvin C. Hill in "We Knew Mary Baker Eddy," Third Series (see pp. 29-35). This healing gives us an important clue to what Christian Science is and how it works. It was clearly not a case of the patient praying for healing or agreeing to think what someone told him to think or finding some truth to affirm or some error to deny. Not only did the patient know nothing of Christian Science, but he could not be informed of the treatment he was to be given, for he was unconscious. How, then, did the practitioner's understanding of Christian Science bring about a healing?

Christian Science heals, not on the basis of human psychology or of thought transmission, but on the basis of law. Mrs. Eddy says of it: "This Science is a law of divine Mind, a persuasive animus, an unerring impetus, an ever-present help. Its presence is felt, for it acts and acts wisely, always unfolding the highway of hope, faith, understanding." The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 3; We see then that Christian Science is more than a body of knowledge to be learned academically. And it is more than a skill to be learned through practice. If its healing power is to be understood, the truths it teaches must be studied and its method must be practiced; but its healing effect is the result of what it is—a universal law of Mind, God, that acts to change human thought.

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