The Holy Bible provides a tremendous reservoir of hope and comfort. Its pages are filled with promise for finding regeneration, renewal, and healing. And this message of healing is equally true for all, including those who are struggling with emotional turmoil, who are afraid, or who have come to feel that their lives and thoughts no longer know any peace.

In following the example of Christ Jesus, the Apostle Paul brought the message of God's love and grace to countless people across the Roman Empire of his day. From the streets and marketplaces in the villages of Judea to the imperial city of Rome itself, Paul preached salvation—the transforming power of Christ. And people were healed.

Paul's letters to the early Christians are left to us, for our own guidance today, in the New Testament. When Paul was writing, those were times of great opportunity for the young Church but also great challenge. There were many, with both political and ecclesiastical influence, who harshly persecuted Jesus' followers. In the face of this opposition, Paul's letters offered needed instruction, encouragement, and a bond of unity to fledgling congregations of Christians in the far-flung regions along the Mediterranean.

In his second letter to his fellow apostle Timothy, Paul opens his message with a blessing and an assurance that Timothy is always in his prayers. Then, what is recorded in one short verse from this epistle reveals the full authority of Christ, Truth, which gave such strength to Paul's ministry. And Paul's words, though written to a fellow disciple during challenging times nearly two thousand years ago, speak with the same affirming conviction to men and women today, no matter what they may be confronting. "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear," Paul writes, "but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."

For well over one hundred years now, Christian Science —the actual Science of Christianity—has been reinstating the healing work of the early Christian Church. Through the teachings of Christian Science, people in all walks of life from all corners of the globe have discovered spiritual purpose and genuine joy. They have found freedom from the debilitating hold of sin, physical sickness, emotional problems, mental illness—the whole range of whatever would try to limit humanity, imprison hope, and separate us from God.

The Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, opens up the inspired import of the Bible's lessons for Christians today and clearly elucidates the spiritual basis on which Jesus healed the sick. Showing the fundamentally substanceless nature of what mortals call sickness, both physical and mental, Science and Health affirms: "Disease is an experience of so-called mortal mind. ... Christian Science takes away this physical sense of discord, just as it removes any other sense of moral or mental inharmony."

The last chapter of the textbook contains a number of personal accounts of men and women who were healed solely through the spiritual inspiration and guidance gained by reading Science and Health. One of these testimonies has the heading "Saved from insanity and suicide."

The woman begins her account by relating the mental darkness and despair she had experienced before Science and Health was lent to her. Her daughter was suffering with consumption, her home was troubled and without peace, and the woman herself had a long list of serious physical ailments. Her mental state was such that she feared she might be committed to an asylum, and she had come to feel that suicide was her only escape.

She relates, however, that through reading the Christian Science textbook, first her daughter was completely healed and then she herself was gradually liberated from all the ills she had struggled with for so long. She writes of her awakening to "how wonderful our God is" and the daily growth in grace that finally brought her to the point where she could rejoice that "all was peace, all the members of the family attending church together and realizing that there is but one Mind."

The way to overcome any sort of fear and to realize what Paul called God's gift of power, love, and a sound mind is through prayer and the spiritual understanding of the reality of God and of man made in His likeness. This understanding is what the study of Christian Science provides.

The nature of God as omnipotent, as infinite Love and the one all-knowing Mind, indicates the actual source of all power, love, and mental soundness, which each of us has the God-given capacity to express. In truth, we do express these qualities and all that's included in the divine nature. Our genuine being is the spiritual reflection of God, manifesting intelligence, wisdom, poise, dominion, and control. Each of these qualities and capacities originates in the one Mind, and they all are manifested without hindrance or disturbance throughout God's creation, including man.

Prayer in Christian Science, understanding and affirming such spiritual facts and thereby denying whatever would claim to oppose the supremacy of God's control and His divine reality, gives us access here and now to that same mental soundness Paul commended to Timothy. Prayer, study, living what we are learning, and spiritual growth bring us to the point where we actually realize that "mind ... which was also in Christ Jesus." And when our thinking is thus brought into obedience to Christ, we cannot be disturbed, afraid, confused, or emotionally at sea. Instead, we are mentally strong and whole, with our lives firmly grounded on the rock of divine Truth—demonstrating daily the great healing power, peace, and love of our God.

William E. Moody

PSALMS

Let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice, let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them: let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee. For thou, Lord, wilt bless the righteous; with favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield.

Psalms 5:11, 12