The abundance and unanimity of the Bible teachings, together with present-day human experiences, are such that it is quite as trite as it is true to state that obedience is prerequisite to reward in connection with all our Christian Science work. But the perversity of human nature necessitates the continual statement and restatement of axiomatic truths. In the light of Christian Science the Scriptural accounts of the reversals or rewards which came to the children of Israel, individually and collectively, as they were either disobedient or obedient to the divine demands, take on added inspiring and practical meanings to Christian Scientists in connection with their everyday problems.

It is noteworthy that frequently Christ Jesus bade those who appealed to him for healing to perform some task or to indicate their desire or willingness to cooperate by some special act. And as they were obedient, they were healed. One such notable instance was that of the ten lepers, who, when they "stood afar off" and cried out to the master Christian for healing, were instructed by Christ Jesus to go show themselves unto the priests. "And it came to pass," we read, "that, as they went, they were cleansed." The record does not indicate or hint that these ten men hesitated and bickered with Jesus for an immediate healing because he previously had healed instantly one troubled with dropsy, or because he had with the Word brought quick release to one who for eighteen years had been bowed together so that she "could in no wise lift up herself." No, they unhesitatingly obeyed the injunction of the Christ as voiced by Jesus. To be sure, the Mosaic law prescribed that those who had been cleansed of leprosy should go to the priest to have certain sacrificial rites performed, after which they might resume their former normal activities and pursuits. But, although these ten men were not yet healed, they promptly set off on the prescribed journey. And, "as they went, they were cleansed." They did not go a short distance, and then listen to the whisperings of the tempter that they had already gone far enough to show their good faith, had thus performed their part, and should now sit down and watch their bodies to see if they really would be healed, before going farther. They took Christ Jesus at his word, performed their assigned duty without audible or mental quibbling; and even before they had gone the entire distance they were cleansed.

Some of the pertinent lessons to be learned from this account are obvious. When we apply for Christian Science treatment, it is not for us to outline as to the time or the requirements necessary for the healing. The mental and perhaps the moral conditions differ with each individual, even though the physical manifestations called disease may appear to be identical, or similar. The claim of human will may be accepted and expressed so definitely and tenaciously by one as to require some act of humble obedience on the part of the suppliant for healing in order that the root of the trouble may be reached. For Christian Science both declares and demonstrates, as did Christ Jesus, that sickness is mental in both its origin and its nature; therefore disease is to be dealt with scientifically and satisfactorily only by the active application of corrective spiritual ideas.

Furthermore, this claim of human will, which is ever opposing itself to the divine and is continually inciting mortals to disobedience to the divine laws of harmony and health—this human will, viewed in the light of Christian Science, is revealed and recognized as being so related to, and in fact so identical with, matter as to force each student of Christian Science to give it special attention. In one of her lucid and practical Bible Lessons in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 201), wherein she explains a portion of one of Paul's messages to the Corinthians, Mrs. Eddy probes to the very root of evil belief and uncovers its seeming complexities in these definite words: "The Science of Paul's declaration resolves the element misnamed matter into its original sin, or human will; that will which would oppose bringing the qualities of Spirit into subjection to Spirit. Sin brought death; and death is an element of matter, or material falsity, never of Spirit." Mrs. Eddy again plainly identifies matter or material beliefs with human will when, in writing of Christ Jesus' experience in Gethsemane the night before his crucifixion, she states (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 33), "When the human element in him struggled with the divine, our great Teacher said: 'Not my will, but Thine be done!'—that is, Let not the flesh, but the Spirit, be represented in me." Although but one instance is recorded when Christ Jesus uttered this prayer, his complete mastery of material beliefs with spiritual ideas and spiritual sense—in other words, his uncovering and annulling of human will with the divine will—shows that this must have been his daily, yes, hourly prayer or ruling desire.

In these two clarifying statements above quoted Mrs. Eddy indicates that all mankind must reckon with, recognize, and renounce the claim of human will. In doing this it is frequently found by the honest student of Christian Science that he, like the lepers of old, has some special task to perform, some hidden sin or error to uncover and eliminate through humble obedience to divine law, ere he may realize his healing.

The inspired words of Science and Health unlock another practical spiritual lesson in connection with the account of the healing of the ten lepers who were told to go show themselves to the priests. In one of her oft-repeated endeavors to turn the thoughts of Christian Scientists away from personality to Principle, away from matter to Mind, Mrs. Eddy writes (p. 141): "In healing the sick and sinning, Jesus elaborated the fact that the healing effect followed the understanding of the divine Principle and of the Christ-spirit which governed the corporeal Jesus. For this Principle there is no dynasty, no ecclesiastical monopoly. Its only crowned head is immortal sovereignty. Its only priest is the spiritualized man." All of humanity's trials and troubles are due to the false material sense of man. And the cleansing needed by and required of all is from this deluded and deluding sense, which claims to keep all mankind "afar off" from the Christ, Truth. The Christ-command to men to-day is, Go show yourselves to "the spiritualized man;" that is, Arise from the depressing, degrading, discordant sense of man as material and mortal, to seek and find your true selfhood as the spiritual, perfect, and immortal reflection of perfect Mind. And, behold! As Christian Scientists humbly, honestly, obediently watch, work, and pray with this spiritualized sense of man as their objective, they are cleansed of wrong aims and practices; they are freed from haunting fears, and liberated from the incubus of mental pictures of disease and distress! In very fact, with them is repeated the experience of those other ten obedient men, of whom it is written that "as they went, they were cleansed."

Copyright, 1927, by The Christian Science Publishing Society, Falmouth and St. Paul Streets, Boston, Massachusetts. Entered at Boston post office as Second-class matter. Acceptance for mailing at a special rate of postage provided for in section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized on July 11, 1918.