Article May 23, 1988 Issue

Hesitant to heal?

You can be assured that the spirit of Christ, the power that heals, is always present and available to everyone.

Are you tentative about practicing Christian Science for the benefit of others? Do you think you're not good enough, not sufficiently advanced spiritually, unable to give the kind of help you may often have received? Or do you think that maybe later on you'll be more ready to help? If so, I know how you feel, but perhaps you should rethink the matter. Anyhow, I've had to rethink it, and I'll tell you of a time when I did so.

One week when I was serving as First Reader in my branch Church of Christ, Scientist, the Golden Rule turned up in the Bible Lesson.^{Found in the Christian Science Quarterly.} I was reminded that I should do for others what I would have them do for me.^{See Matt. 7:12 .} One thing that others had certainly done for me over the years was to give me the support of prayer when I needed it.

Suddenly it dawned on me that in common justice I should do the same thing for others. In fact, I came to feel that for every benefit I had received through the devoted prayers of others, I owed an equal benefit of the same sort to my fellowman. I came to view the practice of Christian Science for the benefit of others not just as a possible future option but as a present moral and spiritual demand. And I knew I had to be willing to meet it.

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