Healing, a Christian Duty

Duncan Sinclair

How simply does Matthew bear record in the eighth chapter of his Gospel of the healing works of the Master! He writes, "When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick." Christ Jesus' power to heal, then, was not limited to certain types of disease, either mental or physical: he "healed all that were sick." And what is of equal significance, he instructed his disciples to go forth and do likewise, in proof of the veracity of what he had taught them.

Those wonderful healings of Jesus, how lightly we may have regarded them, passing them by as if they were of little importance, when they were actually brought about through the Master's spiritual understanding, the understanding of God and His creation, and without resort to matter in any form! Mrs. Eddy writes on page 168 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures": "He [Jesus] did the will of the Father. He healed sickness in defiance of what is called material law, but in accordance with God's law, the law of Mind." By doing so and making his method known to his followers, the Nazarene set the example, showed the way, to the Christians of all ages.

According to Gibbon in his "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," there is historical data for saying that for upwards of three centuries after Jesus' time healing was practiced in the early Christian church. But the practice gradually declined, until it apparently ceased; and during the centuries between then and the nineteenth, spiritual healing occurred only occasionally, and this obviously because of lack of understanding of the law of God. The rediscovery of this healing spiritual law was made by Mary Baker Eddy, who has set it forth clearly in her great textbook mentioned above, and in her other writings, and who named it Christian Science.

In all ages men have recognized in some degree the power of spirituality. Purity, humility, affection—what a part these have played in bringing happiness and consolation to mankind! Courage, also, with its power to banish fear! And how often have the childlike qualities of gentleness, faith, and obedience been the means of bringing the spirit of God into situations of distress and healing them! Men have not been oblivious to these things, but they have too often failed to recognize what they mean, too often failed to perceive that they point to the healing influence of spiritual law, which is seen to function when the qualities just mentioned, as well as other spiritual qualities, are operating. Christ Jesus perfectly understood the mode of operation of spiritual law. Our Leader likewise understood it. And it was she who wrote of the Master (Science and Health, p. 31), "First in the list of Christian duties, he taught his followers the healing power of Truth and Love."

While one may not be ignorant of the healing influence of spiritual law, it is very necessary to extend one's knowledge of it by obtaining a better understanding of its divine Principle, Truth and Love, if one would heal disease and sin. This is where Christian Science is proving itself so valuable. For Christian Science goes to the very fundamentals of true being, revealing the nature of God as Truth and Love, and of the real man as His image or reflection, and showing the unreal nature of all unlike good. It is when thought is spiritualized by the understanding and demonstration of God as infinite good, that the utterly false nature of evil is perceived; and this perception means the destruction of the evil belief, whether of sin or disease.

It is a Christian duty to heal both sin and disease, and by the same process used by Christ Jesus—that of spiritual understanding. Too long have Christians, generally, been content to overcome only sin in themselves and others through spiritual means, leaving the treatment of disease to those uninstructed in spiritual law. One might say that there is a material tradition with regard to healing which needs to be destroyed. And it can be destroyed, but in one way only, namely, through the understanding of the healing power of Truth and Love which Christian Science gives.

It is not right for Christians who claim Christ Jesus as their Way-shower, to place their faith in matter, for he did not do that. To the Master there was one supreme power, God, and one supreme law, spiritual law; and he conformed his life entirely to his understanding, and thereby "healed all that were sick." Obviously, those who claim to follow Christ Jesus, but fail to do in a measure the works of healing he did, are limiting their practice of Christianity. Christian Science is uttering an intensely earnest appeal to them to reconsider their attitude in order that they may first of all see what is wrong in it, and then learn for themselves how to heal through the understanding of the divine Principle, Truth and Love.

Duncan Sinclair

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