One hears more and more of investigations being made of spiritual means of healing. The subject is demanding the attention of religionists and, in some instances, of the medical faculty. The demand of Christ Jesus (Matt. 10: 8), "Heal the sick," is being more thoughtfully considered than ever before. Individual healings brought about by prayer are being sought out and their recipients interviewed. This field of healing is being widely explored.

Frequently, however, one finds that the investigators do not include the healings brought about by Christian Science, nor do they recognize this Science as a bona fide means of spiritual healing. And this, regardless of the fact that actually countless healings have been wrought through Science by prayer alone. Among the authenticated records in the files of The Mother Church and The Christian Science Publishing Society are testimonies of the healing of cancer which reach into the hundreds, of tuberculosis, insanity, heart disease, arthritis, and practically every kind of chronic and acute sickness, of every functional and infectious ill known to humanity. These testimonies tell also of grief assuaged, sin destroyed, human relationships restored to harmony, drunkenness overcome.

Are these records to be passed by lightly? Or is simple justice to impel the committees investigating spiritual healing? It is true that Christian Science sets aside the generally accepted beliefs of the world concerning the nature of life and matter. But the very fact that its fruitage has been so unmistakably good should provoke a deeper inquiry into its method. Christ Jesus himself taught (Matt. 7:20), "By their fruits ye shall know them." His precept should set the pattern for all honest investigation.

Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered Christian Science and founded her Church upon the rock of Christ-healing, asks in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 344), "Why should one refuse to investigate this method of treating disease?" And in her Message to The Mother Church for 1902 she says (p. 1), "Whatever seems calculated to displace or discredit the ordinary systems of religious beliefs and opinions wrestling only with material observation, has always met with opposition and detraction; this ought not so to be, for a system that honors God and benefits mankind should be welcomed and sustained." Then she adds, "While Christian Science, engaging the attention of philosopher and sage, is circling the globe, only the earnest, honest investigator sees through the mist of mortal strife this daystar, and whither it guides."

While Christian Science does point to the mistake of religious and medical systems in dealing largely with traditionally accepted material beliefs, it does this for the sake of progress. Its purpose is to open new fields of Christian thought by interpreting the teachings and deeds of Christ Jesus correctly. We live in an age of vast unfoldment. The change of thought regarding the nature of matter, for instance, is opening new possibilities for breaking down human limitations. This very change should point the way to enlarged possibilities through theological sincerity and truth. When one considers the works the Master did and remembers his words (John 14:12), "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father," he begins to realize the possibilities of the Christian who has scientific knowledge of God. He is likely to see that his own theories of life and of Jesus' teachings need renovation.

It may have taken considerable humility on the part of some physicists to admit that matter is physical force. It will take more humility to admit that matter is illusion, that there is no life or intelligence in it, that the force which constitutes matter is the suppositional consciousness termed by Paul "the carnal mind"—the mind which is "enmity against God" (Rom. 8:7). But this admission must be made if individuals are to put off material discords and break down mortal limitations; if they are consistently to heal the sick and destroy sin.

The words of Jesus quoted from the fourteenth chapter of John should gauge the rightness of every theological system. Mrs. Eddy bases a Bible lesson on this quotation which may be found in "Miscellaneous Writings." In this lesson she says (pp. 195, 196), "The 'I' will go to the Father when meekness, purity, and love, informed by divine Science, the Comforter, lead to the one God: then the ego is found not in matter but in Mind, for there is but one God, one Mind; and man will then claim no mind apart from God."

Even a glimpse of the fact that God is the only Mind and that man, God's image, reflects that Mind has wrought wonderful release from sin and pain. To go on to a consistent and progressive demonstration of this truth takes character and courage. But if the basic premise of Christian Science—that God is Mind, the only Mind, divine and all-embracing—is true, then every statement following it in Science is consistent and demonstrable.

Investigators of spiritual healing will do well to seek out those whose lives have been transformed by the truths of Christian Science. They will do better by adopting those truths—putting them to work in their own experience. By acknowledging that the metaphysical healing system of Christian Science has been fully tested and that it is continuing to do the works of the Master, they will bless the world. They will be acting justly, honestly, humanely, and in this way they will be tools of the Almighty in bringing to all men the power of Spirit, which has existed eternally to preserve man in God's likeness.

Helen Wood Bauman