Until  the discovery of Christian Science by Mary Baker Eddy, the world believed that disease controls human beings and that men are the helpless victims of it. Now, through this Science, great numbers of people are proving that sickness is a mental state and that they are not helpless before it, because spiritualization of thought removes all evidence of disease from their bodies.

The spiritualistic medium's belief that he is controlled by the spirits of the dead is not far removed from the mortal's belief that he is controlled by sickness. On page 6 of her sermon "Christian Healing," Mrs. Eddy uses this illustration of mediumship to teach the important lesson that we control our own bodies. She says: "Man thinks he is a medium of disease; that when he is sick, disease controls his body to whatever manifestation we see. But the fact remains, in metaphysics, that the mind of the individual only can produce a result upon his body."

That one may be personally unconscious of the belief which produces sickness does not make less true this fact: that the individual's thought is responsible for his physical state. Regrettable points are that he has not been alert enough to his mental state to detect the developing disorder and spiritually minded enough to stop its development. Mrs. Eddy speaks of the unconscious development of sickness on page 374 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" and says, "This mortal blindness and its sharp consequences show our need of divine metaphysics."

The Christian Scientist learns to be alert to the mental atmosphere surrounding him as well as to the forces which act in his own thinking. His natural state of thought should be a consciousness of his unity with God and a consequent peace of mind that accompanies such realization. There should always be a spontaneous turning to God for fresh inspiration and a sense of harmony in human relationships. Christian Science establishes such right mental states by demonstrating the truths of God's allness, of man's spiritual perfection as His expression, and of man's perpetual unity with his brother man.

One who has attained a normal, spiritualized consciousness through Science is immediately alert if he finds himself slipping from this metaphysical calm and experiencing discord, depression, an unhealthy sense of excitement, or symptoms of pain or disorder. Instead of fearfully watching the development of physical symptoms, he prayerfully watches his mental states and seeks to demonstrate man's eternal unity with God as His healthy expression. The Scientist knows "that the mind of the individual only can produce a result upon his body" and that therefore disease is not controlling him. This knowledge places him on the side of dominion over disease because it assures him that with God's grace he can change his state of thought and destroy the false phenomenon of disorder. He no longer believes that he is helpless, and this silences the self-pity and fear that often accompany sickness and aggravate it.

In order to prove God's presence and grace, the Scientist does not tarry in the belief that he is a mortal and capable of producing physical inharmony. He goes higher in his grasp of the scientific truth that he is God's spiritual idea and that he is completely separate from the mortal sense, which presents him as a fleshly organization capable of becoming disorganized. He knows that this false sense is a dream of mortality without divine Principle, law, power, or presence. He faces the human predicament dispassionately and goes about establishing in his consciousness the understanding of the powerlessness of the carnal mind, which presses its claim to make man mortal and helpless to prevent disease.

Christ Jesus was never deceived by the appearance that disease is stronger than thought. Although his arguments were few, they were generally designed to show that the physical condition of the individual harked back to his belief, or mental state. He said to a woman he healed (Mark 5:34), "Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague." To the man at the pool of Bethesda he said (John 5:14), "Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee."

We shall increasingly prove our dominion over ill-health as we realize that we are immortals, incapable of experiencing disease, and that the mortal self which seems to be the medium of disease is an illusion which Christian Science dispels. The mortal and his sickness disappear together, and man, made in God's likeness, gradually comes to light, radiant in health and freely reflecting the spiritual mental state which is his everlasting birthright.

Helen Wood Bauman