Part of the belief in material existence is that one must have a physical body in order to have identity. Interest in this body is therefore acute. The maintenance of its health, the continued completeness of its members and organs, are correspondingly important —as is their functioning in a normal manner.

But what if a bodily member becomes mutilated or badly diseased? The primitive answer is amputation. But modern, advanced technology offers more sophisticated solutions. Serums, artificial limbs, and transplants of organs are material substitutions; they indicate the ingenuity and direction of medical research. But limitation is an inevitable ingredient of the belief that cause, effect, and correction are to be found in matter.

Fortunately, there is another, higher area of research—the spiritual—healing or restoration through the power of God, divine Principle, and God's law of perfection, completeness, sufficiency. The higher understanding of perfect God—and of man as His expression—permits God's plan for man to be humanly manifested. At this altitude of inquiry true cause and effect are found to be not in matter but in Spirit.

This Science of Life, called Christian Science, perceives but one entity—God, Spirit. Because man is wholly spiritual and the image of God, his identity is complete and indestructible. In consonance with creation as recorded in the first chapter of Genesis, this state of existence identifies man with the omniscience, omnipotence, and completeness of divine Principle. The uplifting influence of man's unity with God is important; it raises one's consciousness above material impositions. This divine power restores and heals.

The right thought-model maintained in human consciousness invokes the healing power of the Christ to reject and correct the material, worldly thought of human imperfections, of limitations, and of irreparable damage or loss. The removal of this mental interference clears the way for the natural restoration through divine law of the completeness manifested in all of God's ideas. Mrs. Eddy indicates the possible effects, at the human level, of understanding the divine completeness: "If the Science of Life were understood, it would be found that the senses of Mind are never lost and that matter has no sensation. Then the human limb would be replaced as readily as the lobster's claw,—not with an artificial limb, but with the genuine one." ^{Science and Health, p. 489;}

There are, of course, many such instances of nature's renewing force—snakes' skins are replaced annually, the bark on trees is changed, and so on. Children are especially amenable to nature's renewal law. An instance of this was described in a popular magazine. A doctor in England told of a child whose fingertip was amputated. Instead of receiving the usual surgical dressing, the finger was washed, a stick splint positioned, and a mitten bandage added. In three months the finger attained normal length and appearance, and it included a nail. A picture of the restored finger was provided. ^{Time, Aug. 25, 1975;}

Cases of natural restoration of this kind hint at God's law of restoration—law that is always available and operative unless human doubts, fears, and inventions claim to interfere. The operation of God's law of restoration is illustrated by the following: A household helper in the home of a Christian Science practitioner severed her thumb at the first joint in a clothes-wringer accident. This woman, although not a Christian Scientist, asked for treatment. Through prayer her thumb was wholly restored.

The physical body is the externalization of mortal thought. But human consciousness is capable of being spiritualized, and thought then rises higher, as it approaches the divine, in understanding Truth. The divine facts of body are wholly spiritual, perfect, complete, and indestructible. If human thought wanders from this correct thought-model, accidents, inharmonies, or limitations may appear. The disciplined restoration in human consciousness of the divine completeness and perfection of man is the affirmation of Truth, and this is manifested in the human body in what we call a healing or continuing health.

Mrs. Eddy has written, "Man has 'sought out many inventions,' but he has not yet found it true that knowledge can save him from the dire effects of knowledge." ^{Science and Health, p. 196;} Like vapor hiding the sun, material, worldly knowledge tends to block our view of the normal operation of God's law in bringing divine good to mankind. This worldly knowledge must be cleared out of the way. The lobster and the snake are unaware of mortal opinion. But human beings, endowed with reason, logic, and deduction, must seek God's help through prayer to "unthink"—or remove—worldly influence. Then they can demonstrate their God-given freedom and completeness. Certainly faith and a radical dependence on divine Truth bring Love's healing power into our experience. This is the Christian Science way and follows the guidance of Christ Jesus when he said, "Seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you." ^{Luke 12:31;}

Mrs. Eddy sums this up in these words: "The indestructible faculties of Spirit exist without the conditions of matter and also without the false beliefs of a so-called material existence. Working out the rules of Science in practice, the author has restored health in cases of both acute and chronic disease in their severest forms. Secretions have been changed, the structure has been renewed, shortened limbs have been elongated, ankylosed joints have been made supple, and carious bones have been restored to healthy conditions." She further assures us: "Christian Science heals organic disease as surely as it heals what is called functional, for it requires only a fuller understanding of the divine Principle of Christian Science to demonstrate the higher rule." ^{Science and Health, p. 162.}

For I will restore health
unto thee, and I will heal thee
of thy wounds,
saith the Lord.

Jeremiah 30:17