Bartimaeus considered himself blind. He also considered himself poor—so poor that daily he sat by the highway begging. His associates also considered him blind and poor. For many years Bartimæus probably had sat in the same place by the highway; and because he had been there for a long time, considered it his rightful place. Why should he change? What else was there for him to do? Possibly he had been sitting there as a blind beggar as long as he could remember, and now it seemed the only thing he could do under the circumstances. Then, too, it was so much easier to follow the fixed habit of his daily routine—just sitting and indolently accepting, together with those whose thinking was similar to his own, the blindness and poverty of his condition!

And yet, doubtless, he wished he were not blind. He had heard of a man, Jesus of Nazareth by name, who, some said, could heal men born blind. But even so, this might not apply to him: blindness to Bartimæus seemed very real. He was sure it could not be otherwise. To his sense, blindness and poverty were self-evident; and what greater proof could there be than his own sense? Yet he did wish for sight: he would like to talk with this man Jesus.

And then one day there was a disturbance along the highway. A multitude of voices gave evidence of some unusual occurrence, and Bartimæus heard it said that this very same Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. In an instant the hope in him cried out, and he called, "Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me." But those who were near him, believing in his blindness, told him to hold his peace. They may have reminded him that he was only a blind beggar, and that Jesus was too much occupied to come to him; but this only aroused Bartimæus to greater purpose, and he cried out the more, so much so that "Jesus stood still, and commanded him to be called." Then came the voice of friends telling Bartimæus to be of good comfort, for Jesus had asked him to come; and casting away his garment, Bartimæus rose and came to Jesus. Blind as he was, when he heard this call, he found his way to the place where he believed he could receive help.

Bartimæus probably knew little of the divine power which heals the blind; he did not stop to analyze the situation or appeal for an explanation. He knew only that he had been sitting in the dark a long time, and that here was a promise of help. The great longing for sight flooded his thinking, and when Jesus inquired what it was that he should do unto him, Bartimæus cried out from the depths of his heart, "Lord, that I might receive my sight." Sight came to him instantly, and he followed Jesus in the way, free from the old impediment.

What happened when Bartimæus received his sight? Blindness and poverty do not change to freedom from these conditions by something which just "happens." Bartimæus was healed by a definite law, a law having the power to overcome both these conditions. What is this law? The answer is: the law of Love! But, someone says, I do not know how to find or use such a law. If that be so, then are not we like Bartimæus, sitting in darkness by the highway of mortal limitation, hugging our tatters of false human beliefs about us, begging for human help to allay the effects of our blind misunderstanding and ignorance? Yes, we have considered ourselves poor and in ill health; we have talked about it, and our associates of like thinking have also considered us poor and in ill health. We have been in this state of thinking for so long a time that we believe it to be our natural place. It seems the only thing to do or be under the circumstances, and so we continue blindly to sit and beg. We do not know how to change.

But this is not true! It is no more true of us than it was of Bartimæus. In every human breast there is surely the wish to find the way out of the darkness of sin, sickness, and lack. This wish grows into hope when one day we hear the voice of a friend telling us to be of good comfort, for the ever present Christ bids us come to the truth. A great longing for spiritual understanding floods our thinking, and we cry out from the depths of bitter experience, "Have mercy on me."

The old habit of wrong thinking can no longer hold us back, nor can it convince us that because of our previous ignorance of the truth the Christ will reject us. Casting away our worn-out garment of false protection and support, we rise and come into the presence of the Christ, dimly conscious that "with God all things are possible." There is no need to stop and learn all about Christian Science, nor is it necessary at this point to have all of its teaching explained. The great longing for relief from pain and sorrow and sickness floods our thinking, and when our awakened hope in Christ asks what it is that we would have, there goes out from the depths of human need the earnest plea, "Lord, that I might receive my sight." And the Christ, Truth, tells us so quietly and so simply that it is wholly possible to receive our sight, to become conscious of spiritual discernment, which sees God only as power, substance, and intelligence, the eternal source of all good.

In all this, the only thing that has "happened" is a change in our thinking. It has changed from belief to understanding; changed from a mortal, material sense of impoverishment and begging, faultfinding, sin, sickness, and dissatisfaction, to knowing in some degree the truth of our being and our sonship with God; to knowing that we possess by reflection all that God is; to knowing that man is spiritual, the image of omnipotence.

Our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, has made it possible for everyone to free himself from the mortal likeness of blind Bartimæus. In her textbook of Christian Science, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," she says on page 368, "When we come to have more faith in the truth of being than we have in error, more faith in Spirit than in matter, more faith in living than in dying, more faith in God than in man, then no material suppositions can prevent us from healing the sick and destroying error."