THE PHILOSOPHY OF HEALING

John B. Willis

Whatever confidence the representatives of the various schools of materia medica may have in the alleged benefit to be derived from the remedies on which they rely, they must be entirely agreed that they have no philosophy of the relation of means to ends. So far as the observation and classification of the data of human experience is concerned, their procedure may be regarded as scientific, but so far as their claim of causal relation is concerned it manifestly has no rationale.

The pure materialist may prescribe a given drug for a given disease, and be able to cite evidence in proof that relief has attended its use under similar symptomatic conditions, but if asked how the particles of matter taken into the system are able to locate the inflamed part or inactive gland, to determine the nature of its disease, and so to influence it as to bring about a normal adjustment of things,—respecting all this he has no understanding; no, not even the vaguest theory. He may say that he doesn't need any philosophy; that all he wants is a practical working scheme which is based on empirical investigation, but in so saying he certainly abrogates all claim that his scheme is a science.

The semimaterialist, who assert that matter is a provision through which God accomplishes His ends, is equally incapable of giving any consistent explanation of that which he declares to be a divinely appointed order. If, for instance, God has arranged that a given kind of matter, such as calomel or arsenic, shall heal a given sickness, how is it that the continued use of these drugs poisons the system, thus producing another ill which is far more serious, perchance, than the original one? Has the matter in question escaped that divine control which was the dominating factor in the primary assumption, has the whole situation been taken out of the hands of purposeful affection and subjected to a malicious power which would doubly afflict the suffering? Can anything which is of God ever bring disharmony and suffering? These questions are simple but searching, and they enable us to see something of the self-contradictoriness of a so-called Christian point of view. The whole theory breaks down, not only because of the temporality of the asserted effectiveness of that which is believed to express divine law, but because of its entire lack of a rational modus operandi.

In contrast with the unphilosophical assumptions of every phase of materialistic thought, Christian Science gives the explanation of the Christ-healing in terms that are intelligible even to children. Every one can understand that a positive annuls its opposite or negative; that light and darkness cannot dwell together; that truth and falsity about anything cannot hold sway in a given consciousness at the same time. When therefore Mrs. Eddy declared that "metaphysics resolves things into thoughts;" that "the spiritual fact and the material belief of things are contradictions," and that "eternal Truth destroys what mortals seem to have learned from error" (Science and Health, pp. 269, 289, 288), she not only gave men a point of view which explains the works of Christ Jesus and his disciples, but she stated the Principle and rule, the ground and process, or Science of all true healing. From this point of view it is clear that neither man nor matter is or can be sick; that all disease has its origin and abode in false sense, and that the vital and continuous fact of the Christ-healing is the dissipation of error by Truth.

The naturalness and simplicity of this order makes instant appeal to thought. Its convincing finality is axiomatic; one not only apprehends it clearly, but he realizes that nothing else is thinkable, and it is this logical satisfactoriness of the philosophy of Christian Science healing which commends it to intelligent people who are unfettered by prejudice. Moreover, it not only makes the teaching of Christ Jesus lucid, but it makes it possible to explain the phenomena of medical and mesmeric treatment. When we have learned that so-called mortal law is a projection of human belief, we can understand the influence which this assertion of law exerts over all who accept the belief, but the moment false belief is known for what it is, that moment its phenomena lose their footing. Consciousness has entered the realm of Truth, and the ground and occasions of sickness are put away.

John B. Willis.

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