Never give up.

Sometimes when someone has been very ill, people say, "It is better to let them go." Never consent. Other times it is said, "We've done all we can." That's not true. More can be done. Lots more.

Have you ever come across this verse from the Bible? "The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy" (Zeph. 3:17). The Bible is stating that the power of divine Truth, the energy of Spirit, the authority of divine Love "in the midst of thee is mighty" and it "will save"—can save, is willing to save—us from pain and disease, even if it has seemed that these evils are mightily powerful within us.

Someone who has followed a medical course of treatment may not have given thought to the power of God that is always available to help and to heal. One who has been praying a great deal may not have realized how powerful he or she has been thinking disease is. The belief that disease has power paralyzes people mentally, like a deer caught in a car's headlights. Prayer breaks this morbid attraction. The book of Psalms urges us to "magnify the Lord." This is a key element of healing prayer: to magnify in thought the power and activity of God. This mental, prayerful activity turns back and nullifies the sense that disease is active and death inevitable.

Several authors of the Psalms wrote of being at the bottom of the pit, that is, in a state of hopelessness, pain, and despair. They turned to God in earnest prayer, and to their great joy they found that God delivered them. Death was not their answer. God, divine Life, was the answer to their prayers.

Some may say: "This sounds nice, but how does it help? Is it anything more than comforting words?"

Take the example of Mr. Clark who lived in Lynn, Massachusetts (see Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, pp. 192–193). He had been seriously ill and confined to his bed for six months. His doctor believed death was imminent. Mr. Clark had an open sore on his hip, and the hipbone was decayed for several inches. Mrs. Eddy, the Discoverer of Christian Science, was asked to come to the house. There she met the doctor, who not only told her the patient was past hope but showed her evidence of the diseased condition of the bone.

The doctor left, and Mrs. Eddy went to the bedside and began to pray. Soon Mr. Clark fell into a natural sleep, and after a short period he woke free of pain. He was able to get out of bed, dress, and have dinner with his family.

Mrs. Eddy didn't say how she prayed in this instance, but such circumstances are definitely not a time for yielding to death, for thinking of death as a friend or as a release from suffering. The hypnotic momentum accompanying pain, invalidism, and disease that was leading toward death needed to be and was broken by prayer that knew that God is the force of Life. God is in reality the only present, active, and available power in our midst right now, as Mrs. Eddy proved repeatedly.

For prayer to have a healing effect one should emphatically turn away from, expel from, thought the symptoms of sickness and the fears they produce. This is easiest done by acknowledging the infinite, absolute, constant, all-powerful presence of God. This reminds us what truly governs and controls the life of man, His perfect image and likeness. This change in consciousness is a spiritualization of thought. It fills us with the divine energy of Spirit at work in life. Experience shows that this brings out health and annuls all the arguments pointing toward death.

Christ Jesus' action when he was faced with cases of so-called terminal illnesses or even death confirm that death is not a friend, not a God-provided release from human suffering nor a doorway to His presence. A study of the Gospels shows that Jesus, and later his disciples, took active measures against disease and death. Death was not inevitable; it was an enemy that was overcome by Christ.

A nobleman was distraught because it looked as if his son would die at any moment (see John 4:46–53). He pleaded with Jesus for help. As he returned home, his servants met him, reporting that his son had recovered. On another occasion Jairus, a ruler of a synagogue, came to Jesus because his daughter was about to die. They were delayed on their way to the house, and reports came stating that she had passed away. Jesus spoke firmly to Jairus, "Be not afraid, only believe" (Mark 5:36). When they reached the house, Jesus restored the twelve-year-old girl to life.

Lazarus, one of Jesus' friends, had been dead for four days before the Master arrived (see John 11:1–44). But again, there was no sense of the inevitability or finality of death. Jesus illustrated that the consciousness of the presence and power of God results in health and life.

The central event of Christianity is Christ Jesus' own resurrection following his crucifixion. Death wasn't consented to by Jesus as an escape from the hatred of his enemies or from the pain of crucifixion. Instead, Jesus unparalleled consciousness of the omnipotence of Love and the unquenchable force of divine Life sustained and delivered him. And this is what galvanized the early Christians. It is notable that early Christian art does not depict Jesus' crucifixion, but there are many representations of the raising of Lazarus and of Jesus' resurrection. It was the triumph of Life that touched—and continues to touch—the hearts and minds of his followers.

Science and Health makes this point: "The educated belief that Soul is in the body causes mortals to regard death as a friend, as a stepping-stone out of mortality into immortality and bliss. The Bible calls death an enemy, and Jesus overcame death and the grave instead of yielding to them. He was 'the way.' To him, therefore, death was not the threshold over which he must pass into living glory" (p. 39).

When we long for death, we lose sight of the pathway of Life, and of its fruits—health and happiness. And here or hereafter, we will need to regain that way, because God is Life, not death, and life is the way to God. Man's identity is eternal. It is not defined by matter; it cannot be touched by disease, and is never liberated by death. Identity is the expression of Spirit, man's eternal substance. It is not a spiritual spark imprisoned in matter. As Paul recognized, we "live, and move, and have our being" (Acts 17:28) in Spirit, and this understanding brings health and life.

Jesus' example leads to the conclusion that here or hereafter we all will overcome the belief in death. He showed clearly that it is overruled by Life. Therefore, we should focus our energies on working out life as best we can by following his example. Believing that death is helpful in some way simply increases the work we eventually must do.

It is dreadful to see those we love in pain or unable to care for themselves. But praying for death, as some consciously or unconsciously do, is of no help to them or to us. The words of Isaiah, bringing us God's message, reach across the centuries with enormous comfort and love: "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else" (45:22).

The recognition that God is the Life of man erases pain because it removes from us any cause for pain. The material body is not a god governing our life. There is one God, divine Life itself, ruling over us absolutely.

What does God do for man? Mrs. Eddy writes, "Many years ago the author made a spiritual discovery, the scientific evidence of which has accumulated to prove that the divine Mind produces in man health, harmony, and immortality." Then she adds, "Every law of matter or the body, supposed to govern man, is rendered null and void by the law of Life, God" (Science and Health, pp. 380–381).

We don't need to give in to the dream of death, because Christ, Truth, gives us the ability to prove the reality of Life in some degree today. And every step we take in this direction is blessed of God. It is not a question of attempting to prolong a life of suffering; rather it is a matter of bringing to light the health and goodness that God continues to bestow on man. We are striving to learn the truth of being, and we will do this until we fully understand there is no other reality.