Disease is healed in Christian Science through prayer. This prayer affirms the facts and denies the lies concerning the individual who seems to be ill, as well as the circumstances of the illness. The facts are entirely spiritual and immortal, for the Life, the Soul, the Principle, of man's being is God, immortal Spirit. Material conditions are lies about anyone.

One of the primary conditions of material life, so called, is mortality. Everything that appears to live in matter appears also to die. We heal by denying effectively the material sense testimony which depicts a patient as a sick mortal and beholding instead Mind's spiritual idea. To do this it is essential to see the nothingness of the mortal sense of existence. The real man is immortal. Christ Jesus illustrated this man. And he declared, "Before Abraham was, I am." ^{John 8:58;}

The real man was never born and never dies. To say this glibly, when we do not actually behold the immortal idea of Life, is to mock immortal Truth. But to recognize our own seeming inability to behold the immortal idea and to take steps to overcome this seeming inability is to show our trust in Truth and to demonstrate it by degrees.

In reality we are ideas of Truth. We have no material element, and we are conscious only of the immortal. But mortal mind, or evil, which Jesus termed the "liar, and the father of it," ^{v. 44;} has made the claim that we are mortals and that we cannot see beyond the mortal sense of existence. This is a false claim, but it is not enough merely to say that it is false. We must examine ourselves and see to what extent we have accepted the claim; then we must refute the claim at the points where we have accepted it. And the points at which we are accepting the devil's claim that we are mortals are the points where we think we are either enjoying or suffering from our seeming mortality.

No one gossips about an immortal idea of God; one gossips only about other mortals. And in so doing one identifies himself as a mortal, for it takes one who believes he is a mortal to believe he sees another mortal to gossip about.

No one compares his appearance agewise with immortals; one compares himself only as a mortal among other mortals.

No one looks down on immortals that are younger than himself or older than himself or that have a lower or higher social status than himself or that have a skin that differs in appearance from one's own; one looks down only as a mortal viewing other mortals.

One never attempts to dominate immortal ideas of God, nor does he rankle under their domination; one believes in domination, either as the one doing it or the one submitting to it, only because he views himself as a mortal in a world of mortals.

One does not hate, resent, fear, or worry over the actions of immortals; one hates, resents, fears, or worries only over those whom he believes to be mortals as he believes himself to be. When we behold anyone as the immortal idea he really is, we can heal him of whatever disease mortal sense says he has. But we have steps to take to prove that we actually believe man is immortal and to prove that we want to demonstrate this truth.

Besides refusing to think and act like mortals, we need to persist patiently in viewing immortal reality. Usually our first glimpse of someone brings us face to face with mortal sense evidence. We see a person from a physical standpoint; so he appears to be handsome or ugly, inconsiderate or loving, sick or well, old or young. But if we have before us our trust in immortal Truth, and if we realize that the individual is actually an idea of divine Mind, we can systematically and persistently discard every evidence of mortality until we see through the mortal sense evidence and behold the man who is "before Abraham was" and who will be after all the material universe has vanished.

As Mrs. Eddy writes, "Look long enough, and you see male and female one—sex or gender eliminated; you see the designation man meaning woman as well, and you see the whole universe included in one infinite Mind and reflected in the intelligent compound idea, image or likeness, called man, showing forth the infinite divine Principle, Love, called God,—man wedded to the Lamb, pledged to innocence, purity, perfection." ^{The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, pp. 268, 269.}

As we deny mortal sense and prayerfully work to gain immortal sense, we find ourselves reflecting the power of the Christ, Truth. We can then declare of those who seek our help their immortal health, immortal perfection, immortal life. In proportion to our honest pursuit of the immortal facts of being, we gain the power to say, "You are whole," and to prove it.

Carl J. Welz