Instantaneous Healing

WILLIAM SAFFELLE RAWLINGS

Through the healing ministrations of spiritual truth, many students of Christian Science are early blessed by what are known as instantaneous healings. And from the lips of such students ascend paeans of praise to the creator of the universe for this evidence of His divine goodness. Well may they blend their voices in these triumphant words: "I have found the way."

Sometimes, however, the student has labored long and conscientiously and is still confronted with the material evidence of a problem unsolved. The arguments of error—fear, discouragement, impatience, self-pity, and futility—press in, and the student is tempted to believe that Christian Science is not working for him in this instance. Such a one may gain fresh courage and inspiration from these words of Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 127): "When a hungry heart petitions the divine Father-Mother God for bread, it is not given a stone,—but more grace, obedience, and love. If this heart, humble and trustful, faithfully asks divine Love to feed it with the bread of heaven, health, holiness, it will be conformed to a fitness to receive the answer to its desire; then will flow into it the 'river of His pleasure,' the tributary of divine Love, and great growth in Christian Science will follow."

"A fitness to receive"! What an explanatory statement! If a student's understanding is insufficient to meet the situation which confronts him at the time, he knows that he can, through consecrated effort, grow into such understanding as will enable him to triumph over every lying suggestion of mortal mind, for nothing is impossible with God, and everything good is possible in Christian Science. How encouraging it is to know that right effort is not wasted, but is an integral part of the conforming process whereby one attains "a fitness to receive." And what of the time required for this conforming process? Mrs. Eddy's thought on "time" in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" is significant. She writes (p. 584), "The objects of time and sense disappear in the illumination of spiritual understanding, and Mind measures time according to the good that is unfolded."

When Joshua and his band were before the walls of Jericho besieging the inhabitants thereof, as recorded in the book of Joshua, it was when they all shouted together on the seventh day that the walls immediately fell—although just prior to that they had seemed impregnable. Mrs. Eddy states in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 279), "They went seven times around these walls, the seven times corresponding to the seven days of creation: the six days are to find out the nothingness of matter; the seventh is the day of rest, when it is found that evil is naught and good is all."

If some seemingly tenacious, afflictive experience spurs the student on to greater effort, he can rejoice that great growth in the understanding of Christian Science must inevitably follow. The first requirement, however, is that the student cast out of his consciousness fear, self-pity, and any other belief in a selfhood apart from God, and welcome in renewed hope and vigor. He must trust in God and determine to remain faithful to the truth he knows, "even unto the end" of error. Secondly, let the student be certain that he is not seeking Truth simply for the loaves and fishes, but that he is earnestly striving to learn more about God and man's relationship to Him. In this way he is acquiring "a fitness to receive." The seeker after heavenly good not only must be willing to leave all for Christ, but must be willing to work out his salvation in the way of God's appointing.

Instantaneous healing is thus within reach, for the instant the necessity of a conforming process is recognized and accepted with humility and gratitude, and an understanding of the Father's holy purpose, loving care, and divine direction is gained, that instant the student has touched the hem of the Christly garment. In such instances the student may know that as he presses faithfully on, he will be shown the way of victory. Our Leader says (Science and Health, p. 426), "The discoverer of Christian Science finds the path less difficult when she has the high goal always before her thoughts, than when she counts her footsteps in endeavoring to reach it."

Whatever mortal sense testimony may say as to the seemingly real and impregnable nature of the error with which one has been struggling, let one renew his endeavors, supplant fear and discouragement with hope and faith, and continue to march lovingly onward, looking to that happy day when, in the joyous moment of visible proof of God's divine healing, he can say with Paul, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith."

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