The Christian Scientist knows that God's love is present in every situation, no matter what the human appearance may seem to be. Conversely, therefore, he never appraises any situation in terms of absence of God's love; never believes, for instance, that God is not present with the patient who is accepting material means for healing, or that God is estranged from the physician who seeks to apply material means. The Christian Scientist knows that his understanding of the ever-presence of God's love can be attested only by his own loving heart. If, therefore, he finds himself unable either to accept a case for healing or to continue healing work already begun because the patient turns to material remedies, the explanation must be found in something other than a lack of love on his part.

The fact is, the rule in Christian Science is absolute. Being absolute, it ceases to be a rule for anyone who seeks to employ it in conjunction with some other rule. The compassionate woman, Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered Christian Science and made an incalculable contribution to the welfare of humanity through understanding and practicing pure love, nevertheless admonished an inquirer (Miscellaneous Writings, pp. 88, 89): "Mind-healing, and healing with drugs, are opposite modes of medicine. As a rule, drop one of these doctors when you employ the other."

Under Mrs. Eddy's tutelage the Christian Scientist is pursuing one purpose, and one purpose only, that of contributing all he can toward establishing the kingdom of God on earth. He is engaged in demonstrating that the only right concept of man and of the universe is the concept entertained by divine Mind, God. He is proving by the spiritual method of his religion that it is possible to align one's consciousness with divine Mind, the only Mind of man, and thus to see, feel, know, as divine Mind sees, feels, knows. This is what Christian Science calls reflection, the status in which man dwells throughout eternity, deriving his existence from the Mind which is God.

Thus the Christian Scientist is not engaged primarily in healing sick persons. To make that statement is not in any way to belittle the necessity for healing or the value of it. Healing of sick or impaired persons is in the category of effect, not primary purpose. The sick are inevitably healed in the exact degree in which the Christian Scientist accomplishes his purpose, his making evident the reality of God as the Mind of man. Healing is therefore inseparable from his work. It is in the category of the signs which Christ Jesus indicated would follow adherence to his religion when he promised (Mark 16:17), "These signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues."

In contrast to this purely spiritual rule, the application of which is prayer, constituting the only justification for the Christian Scientist's presence in the field of healing activity, the rule accepted by one who employs material remedies has a totally opposite basis. The purpose of one applying the latter rule is indeed to heal sick people. It is to restore lost physical and chemical constituents in what is called an individual's physical and chemical body. If this purpose is accomplished, or seems to be, then the seeming conclusion is that man is material and his origin is matter, not Spirit. The same conclusion is presented when healing seems to be accomplished by manipulation of the mentalities of persons, such mentalities being imperfect and therefore essentially material.

Naturally the Christian Scientist has no place in seeming to supply support for such a rule. In accordance with the teachings of his religion, he regards such a rule as erroneous. He further regards the evidence favoring such a rule as mesmeric, existing only in the so-called mind of mortals, a mind which vanishes in the degree that the reality of divine Mind is recognized. Nevertheless, the Christian Scientist would not and could not deny to anyone under any circumstances the immediacy of God and His love. Mrs. Eddy herself has stated the fact for the comfort of all mankind. "Remember," she says in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (pp. 149, 150), "thou canst be brought into no condition, be it ever so severe, where Love has not been before thee and where its tender lesson is not awaiting thee. Therefore despair not nor murmur, for that which seeketh to save, to heal, and to deliver, will guide thee, if thou seekest this guidance."

When healing seems to be accomplished by material means, Mrs. Eddy has made it clear that it is the result of replacing one human belief with another (see Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 370). As the temporary nature of all human belief dawns on individual human consciousness, the individual seeks the permanent rule, the anchored understanding, and thus ultimately or immediately comes to know God as Christian Science reveals Him. He is not to condemn himself, nor to permit others to condemn him, for the experiences which prodded him to spiritual clarity. He is merely to rejoice in the lessons accepted and utilized.

Sharing in the lessons accepted and utilized in the privacy of spiritual regeneration are all members of the human race, including those who use material remedies. Spiritual forces are always at work accomplishing this regeneration. The divine influence, understood in Christian Science as the Christ, is in every human consciousness. The desire to apply one's energies toward easing human suffering brings the honest medical doctor very close to divine Love. He is essentially compassionate. He would not otherwise have chosen his profession. He offers his services on the basis of his present beliefs as to what is needed to help.

The Christian Scientist quarrels with no one who accepts those services, and with no one who administers them. It may even be said that he is glad for the temporary relief which those bogged down in material belief may seem to receive by this means. He simply knows that his own spiritual rule in all its purity and clarity is demanding of him his exclusive allegiance, is removing him from any side-by-side activity with the demonstrators of any other, so-called rule. He knows that the awakening of human consciousness, through its experiences, to the recognition of the divine source of all consciousness must appear, whether before what is called death or after. And he rejoices in his present opportunity to speed that awakening through faithful allegiance to his rule in behalf of both himself and others who are ready for that glimpse of reality which expands into full understanding.

As for his relationships with his fellow men, he is mindful of, and lives in conformity with, Mrs. Eddy's magnificent statement in his behalf (Miscellany, p. 4): "A genuine Christian Scientist loves Protestant and Catholic, D. D. and M.D.,—loves all who love God, good; and he loves his enemies. It will be found that, instead of opposing, such an individual subserves the interests of both medical faculty and Christianity, and they thrive together, learning that Mind-power is good will towards men."

George Channing