FROM THE EDITORS April 7, 2008 Issue

SPIRITUAL HEALING: THE POWER AT WORK WITHIN

IN HIS BOOK Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference? religion writer Philip Yancey reports that in the country of Nepal, where Christianity didn't take hold until 1950, there are now more than half a million adherents. Nepalese church leaders estimate that 80 percent of the converts have embraced Christianity as the result of physical healing, often attributed to prayer. They say the European and American doctors who work there as missionaries sometimes admit they have no scientific explanation for some of the amazing recoveries they have seen. Yancey also cites reports of a similar pattern of "apparent miracles" in China.

Wonderful, yes — but not miraculous. Healing is the natural outcome of prayer and faith in God. More than 125 years ago, Mary Baker Eddy discovered a system of healing that proves God is scientifically accessible to all. She explained that her revelation had come through "a spiritual sense of the Scriptures" and through her proof that "the so-called miracles of Jesus did not specially belong to a dispensation now ended," but "illustrated an ever-operative divine Principle" (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 123).

Continuing evidence of the way an understanding of the Scriptures changes lives, bringing hope to millions of humble truth-seekers, comes in reports of burgeoning attendance in faith communities around the world, including Christian Science churches, like the one in Suna Migori, Kenya, which has more than doubled its membership in two years. In the Zionist Christian Church at Clermont, near Durban, South Africa, the hunger for spiritual growth has been so great that 17 hours of church services are now provided every weekend, with congregations spilling out across the grounds of the church.

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