Healing

A short time ago a dear woman, who had been in bondage for years from numerous mortal beliefs, said to me: “Perhaps it is not the Lord’s will that I be healed.” She said this in all sincerity, and apparently with the earnest desire to be reconciled to His will, if she could only know what it was. The tone of voice, and her manner touched me greatly. I longed to have her know the Truth, and be free. This attitude of mind, however, is so frequently met with in patients, especially among persons who have had religious training, that we wish to consider it briefly from a scriptural standpoint.

What does it mean to be healed in Truth? “To make every whit whole” is one answer, and is probably as good a one as could be found in this connection. “Be thou whole” was the declaration of the Great Physician, when the divine thought touched one of his patients, and healed him. We cannot conceive of wholeness without including health of mind and body.

The Scriptures and Science and Health teach that health is not only strictly in accord with divine law, but is one of the evidences of obedience thereto. This is what Christianity is in its purity, simply living in obedience to Divine Principle. Jesus said: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.” This was said during his discourse on the Mount. Immediately after he came down from the Mount, a leper came to him, and was cleansed of his leprosy. Thus Jesus proved in this, and countless other instances, that healing always is in accord with the Divine will.

The Bible , from Genesis to Revelation is full of instances of Divine healing. In Jeremiah we read: “For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the Lord.” The Psalmist says: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”

We could go on citing instance after instance of healing in the Old Testament, and every one knows that the New Testament is replete with demonstrations over sin, sickness and death; and this not only by Jesus, but by his faithful followers as well, who, as Paul said to the people of Athens, were “men of like passions with you” (in beliefs). Therefore the true Christian Scientist knows that he stands on holy Scripture ground. He has no question about the Lord’s will in healing. His Bible teaches him that it is always the Lord’s will that we should be delivered from evil; and bodily ills are classified under that head. “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”

The general belief so many entertain, that God sends affliction, disease and death, is a most subtle form of error. All healers have it to deal with, and they often find it a great hindrance to the rapid recovery of the sick. To many it is with astonishment they learn it is the Lord’s will that they should be delivered from the bondage of sin. We need but little experience in healing through Christian Science, to find it is far more easy to deliver from the bondage of beliefs of sickness and disease, than to set one free from the claims of sin.

If Christ (Truth) can—and does—redeem from this higher claim of mortality,—sin, in all its subtleties,—how much more potent he can be—and is—in the claims of so-called disease. Primarily the former was the cause of the latter. Does not the Bible teach that it is emphatically the Lord’s will that all should be healed, but in, and by Truth?

The early Christians healed the sick, and not only that, but their power to heal was considered the proof of their Christianity. “Faith without works is dead.” Shall we not be pardoned if we question the genuineness of one professing obedience to Divine commands, when none of the signs follow? Did not the Master instruct us to judge a tree by its fruits? Guilt and sin alone hinder the successful healing of the sick by the understanding of Truth. Christ has promised to be with us always.

Dear sufferer (according to mortal sense) look up! Take heart, and courage! No longer think it is the Lord’s will that you should suffer. “Sin alone brings suffering.” Christ has again manifested himself to us in this age, through the teaching of Divine Science, in Science and Health . The signs are following, as he said they would. Rise up then, and shake off this spell of mortal belief that would “hold thought to the body,” and matter as possessing power to cause suffering. This is all a false claim of mortality that would bind you and me to sin and death, “the last enemy to be overcome.” “God is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever;” hence the healing power belongs as much to this century as to the first. No longer passively submit to the erroneous claims of materia medica, nor yet to the material conceptions of Life, Truth and Love. Christ, the Great Physician, has promised to never “leave thee nor forsake thee.” He clearly states: “Ye shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall make you free.” Perfect health, physically, morally and spiritually, is included in this spiritual freedom.

“He taught as one having authority. What gave him authority? We answer, the understanding of God, a Divine Law. This law was understood and demonstrated largely by the Prophets, Moses, Elijah, Elisha, and others; but never fully, or perfectly by any one except our great Teacher, Jesus the Christ. “In him was fulfilled the law.” Thus he became “the Way, the Truth and the Life” for all to follow. He revealed the Divine Law, a principle by which all may work out their own salvation, not by simply believing in another’s good works, but by doing the same kind of works, so far as they understand.

“Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor, and to wait.”