UPFRONT October 6, 2008 Issue

The healing power of spiritual medicine

MAIKE BYRD, STAFF EDITOR

While I was talking with a friend one day about how Christian Science relies only on spiritual means for healing, she asked, "But why not take the newest pills and make use of other natural remedies? Hasn't God made those available to us for the benefit of humankind?" I recall telling my friend about the certain healing effect of prayer that my family and I were so grateful for in our own lives.

Through understanding God's loving care for us, Christ Jesus demonstrated the power of Spirit to heal all human ills. His method was purely spiritual, but it was tangibly felt and powerful, so much so that people who came to him for healing immediately regained their health. And they found themselves not only physically cured, but morally and spiritually renewed as well.

The discoverer of Christian Science and the founder of the Sentinel, Mary Baker Eddy, explained how this Science operates in her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. She wrote: "God being All-in-all, He made medicine; but that medicine was Mind. It could not have been matter, which departs from the nature and character of Mind, God" (p. 142).