Editorial September 10, 1990 Issue

These times, too, are in His hand

Allison W. Phinney, Jr.

A few years ago I was talking with a young man who was writing an academic paper on Christian Science. He mentioned that his own church had once practiced spiritual healing, but he said the practice had faded away. He wasn't quite sure why.

There was a twinge of regret in his comment. Yet his matter-of-fact acceptance of the change seemed telling.

Healing the sick and the sinning was central and structural for earliest Christianity. Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered Christian Science, writes in her work Christian Healing: "The primitive privilege of Christianity was to make men better, to cast out error, and heal the sick. It was a proof, more than a profession thereof; a demonstration, more than a doctrine. It was the foundation of right thinking and right acting, and must be reestablished on its former basis."

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