The practitioner of Christian metaphysics becomes convinced that he prays most successfully for the patient who is most receptive of the healing truth. The Christ, ever present and always available to heal and comfort, finds its way most readily into that mentality which willingly swings wide its door to the advent of the divine redeemer. A densely material mentality, holding firmly to its false basis life and its concomitants, is less susceptive of healing through spiritual means than is the mentality ready and eager to establish itself upon a permanent spiritual basis.

Faith in Christ as the redeemer of mankind is a large factor in successful spiritual healing; and, on the other hand, lack of such faith—a mental attitude which connotes faith in matter—is a state little conducive to success in the use of spiritual means for relieving discordant conditions. The incident related at the close of the thirteenth chapter of Matthew's gospel illustrates this. Returning, we are told, to his own country, Jesus "did not many mighty works" among his neighbors and countrymen "because of their unbelief," or "because of their want of faith," as several later translators render the passage. Apart from the interest which attaches to the statement as an excellent proof of the oftquoted declaration that "a prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, and in his own house," is the deeper lesson that he did not undertake to heal those not ready to receive healing. Obviously, the wise practitioner will find here a valuable lesson, for receptivity and faith are closely allied.

How much responsibility rests upon the practitioner and how much on the patient are questions that may be pondered with profit. Many times, without doubt, the Scripture above quoted has been invoked to explain the failure to heal those who seemed unreceptive of the Christly message. Careful study of the works of the Master leads one to believe that some degree of faith, that is, some degree of receptivity to the influence of spiritual truth, was possessed by all who sought him out of genuine interest in his message and works. He healed the multitude, we read, including sufferers from many maladies, who came to hear his message, and returned rejoicing. Yet we are told he did not heal many of his own countrymen. Why? Because of their lack of faith. It appears that now, as then, those who are receptive of the healing touch of the Christ, and are willing, even eager to surrender material beliefs, are most quickly and completely redeemed from the bondage of sickness and want. The mentality so inclined is the good ground upon which to sow the seeds of spiritual truth.

But apparently there are varying degrees of willingness. Few, perhaps, are ready to surrender the love for all materiality,—to relinquish every phase of belief arising from the claim that life inheres in matter and is dependent upon matter for its continuity; to lay down every sense of pleasure thought to be derived from the possession and use of material things; to lose a material sense of life in order to gain the reward of eternal life. Yet in order fully to trust God, since love for materiality hinders spiritual growth, such sacrifice is necessary. Our Leader is definite as to the necessity of such surrender. "Without a fitness for holiness, we cannot receive holiness," she declares on page 15 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures;" and adds significantly (p. 16), "A great sacrifice of material things must precede this advanced spiritual understanding."

We may be assured that only through complete abandonment of love for material things and the accompanying experiences, through full surrender to the divine afflatus, can one hope or rightfully expect to gain the full reward of the truly righteous in terms of spiritual blessedness. Out of her firm conviction as to this necessity, in commenting on the First Commandment, Mrs. Eddy writes on page 9 of the textbook, "This command includes much, even the surrender of all merely material sensation, affection, and worship." Truly a sweeping statement,—"all ... material sensation, affection, and worship;" and yet she declared this to be the condition necessary to the winning and wearing of the crown of holiness. The lord's commendation, "Well done, good and faithful servant," was won on no other basis.

The Christian Science practitioner assumes the responsibility of Christian ministry with all that term includes of humanity, compassion, mercy, patience, and unvarying loving-kindness,—in brief, of all the Christian virtues which characterize a truly consecrated life. The seeker for such ministry is in duty bound to aid in the process of self-redemption through striving to the utmost to gain and maintain a receptive attitude, excluding so far as possible material beliefs, and rising above the temptation offered by discouragement and depression. He should earnestly strive to scale the heights of spiritual understanding.

While the practitioner may not justly be held responsible for the lack of these qualities in the patient, yet right understanding and its persistent application on the part of the practitioner will go far to dissolve in the thought of the patient the seeming claims of indifference, apathy, even of opposition to Truth's healing touch. "Willingness to become as a little child," says our Leader on pages 323 and 324 of Science and Health, "and to leave the old for the new, renders thought receptive of the advanced idea. Gladness to leave the false landmarks and joy to see them disappear,—this disposition helps to precipitate the ultimate harmony." Beyond possibility of argument, the best results follow the closest cooperation in purpose and desire between practitioner and patient, whereby is established a mental state out of which grows the fairest harvest of "the fruit of the Spirit."

Albert F. Gilmore