Is Christian healing a mysterious power or a miraculous cure? Neither, but it is a marvel, a Christian marvel of ancient and modern times.

Gospel narratives indicate that there was nothing mysterious about healing through spiritual means. Jesus restored health, peace, and life to those who were experiencing mental and physical disorder, thus proving the power of the healing Christ, which he exemplified. Mary Baker Eddy confirms this truth: "The so-called miracles contained in Holy Writ are neither supernatural nor preternatural; for God is good, and goodness is more natural than evil. The marvellous healing-power of goodness is the outflowing life of Christianity, and it characterized and dated the Christian era.

"It was the consummate naturalness of Truth in the mind of Jesus, that made his healing easy and instantaneous. Jesus regarded good as the normal state of man, and evil as the abnormal; holiness, life, and health as the better representatives of God than sin, disease, and death." ^{Miscellaneous Writings, pp. 199—200;}

Multitudes today are rejoicing in the naturalness of physical and mental freedom attained through the healing ministry of Christian Science. They are expressing their heartfelt gratitude in the Christian Science periodicals and in branch Churches of Christ, Scientist, scattered across the world. Those restored look upon divine healing not as a mystery but as the operation of spiritual law, as it was enunciated and divinely attested to by Christ Jesus.

Mark records the remarkable healing of a woman who "had an issue of blood twelve years, and had suffered many things of many physicians . . . and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse." ^{Mark 5:25, 26;} This woman had probably heard of the great Teacher's amazing feats of spiritual power. She made her way through the multitude that she might touch the Master's clothing—assured that in doing so she would be made whole. The response to her appeal for help was immediate. The woman was healed as her imploring prayer reached Jesus' pure consciousness of Truth's reality. "And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague." ^{v. 29;} Those around her might have evaluated this restoration to wholeness as a miracle or a magical, mysterious event. Surely, however, it was the desire to trust in a higher method of healing that impelled this woman to touch the hem of the garment of one who spoke divinely. And she was healed.

A contemporary parallel to the healing of the woman in Jesus' time is seen in the experience of a friend of mine. Her experience, like that of the woman in the Bible account, shows clearly the regenerative power of Truth in the face of mortal mind's pronouncement of continual discord. As a student of Christian Science, she had no desire for material remedies, for surgery, or even curiosity about the name of the malady she seemed to have. She was cognizant of the moral and spiritual effect of the Word of God and was convinced that the answer to her predicament lay in a scientific understanding of the presence and utility of the Christ to heal.

The woman turned to a Christian Science practitioner for help. As a result of the practitioner's prayerful work over a period of weeks, the patient's thought gradually took on more advanced spiritual views of the restorative power of the Christ to meet her need. She saw disease as a mortal, material belief about the body. She obeyed the necessity to replace this belief in consciousness with the ideas of Truth—the never-ending operation of God's law through the Christ.

As there is no mystery about Christian healing, there is likewise no mystery about a Christian Science treatment. In his work of healing, a practitioner starts from Principle; that is, in his prayer he affirms the truth of God and God's creation. He knows the truth of being, namely, that God, divine Principle, is the sole source of law, and that His expression, man, is perfectly sustained by this spiritual law.

His thinking undergirded with these absolute truths of Christian Science that destroy fear, the practitioner may then take up specific metaphysical work relative to the set of circumstances involved in the case. He sees the need to reverse the false belief that man lives in a physical body, made up of parts and organs, and to replace this falsity with the truth of man's spiritual origin and nature as the expression of God's being.

In this particular instance, the practitioner discerned specific metaphysical facts necessary to erase the argument of disease, including the aggressive suggestions of malignancy and incurability. These errors, when rooted out of thought, were replaced with the scientific truth that man's perfect spiritual being has never been invaded by the obtrusive claims of the Adam-dream of substance or life in matter.

Work continued, and both the practitioner and the patient rejoiced in the knowledge of God's presence and of our inherent ability to hold ourselves answerable to spiritual law alone. As a natural conclusion, bleeding ceased, and an internal growth separated itself from the woman's body and was expelled naturally. Normalcy was restored and a complete healing was realized. The healing has been permanent. In deep humility, my friend felt that she too had touched the hem of Christ's garment.

Thus Christian Science demonstrates the Principle of metaphysical healing and furnishes proof that the healing Christ is just as potent today and as readily available as during the earthly experience of the Master and his followers. Jesus, alluding to the healing and saving Christ, said, "Lo, I am with you alway." ^{Matt. 28:20;} Of the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science it has been written, "Mrs. Eddy came to perceive that Christ's healing was not miraculous, but was simply a natural fulfilment of divine law— a law as operative in the world to-day as it was nineteen hundred years ago." ^{Pulpit and Press, p. 35;}

Every one of us, then, has the privilege of proving that the spiritual law behind the marvelous healings of the Bible, such as that of the woman who suffered twelve years, is operating effectively for us here and now. The annulment of material laws in one instance proves the possibility of their annulment in all cases. The issue is never a question of how severe, how serious, or how prolonged the difficulty has been. Is it not rather a question of how real, how great, and how powerful we consider the Christ, Truth, is to heal? It is within the power of each one of us to show that our health cannot be impaired by any belief of mortal mind. We can accomplish this in the degree that we recognize the true source of health to be God, Spirit, and place our reliance on Him and not on drugs or on material theories and practices. Then we prove conclusively the joy of demonstration in Christian Science.

The student of Mrs. Eddy's writings has cause to feel certain that there is present today for the use of everyone the Science of Christianity. This Science verifies and fulfills every promise of the great friend and instructor of mankind, Christ Jesus. Mrs. Eddy says, "The fulfilment of the grand verities of Christian healing belongs to every period." ^{Mis., p. 192.}

Open thou mine eyes,
that I may behold
wondrous things out of thy law.

Psalms 119:18