SPEAKER: It's not uncommon for people to have questions about spiritual healing. The Master, Christ Jesus, was often questioned by both his disciples and those who witnessed his healing works. To some it seems hard to realize that the prayer of spiritual understanding alone is powerful and effective.

A young couple from Arcadia, California, have had proof of the effectiveness of prayer. John and Kathleen Morgan have two children, Janet and Kenny, and we've asked them to tell you about a healing of Janet's.

Suppose you start. Mrs. Morgan.

MRS. MORGAN: Well, this begins at the time our daughter was born. She had an ugly red mark on her face. The doctor said this would fade away gradually: but it didn't, and by the time she was ready for school it seemed worse than ever.

When she was four and one half years old the doctor who was present at her birth saw her. The spot had become quite aggravated in appearance. He said, "That spot should be removed right away."

MR. MORGAN: He was just as emphatic as he could be.

SPEAKER: Well, what did you do then, Mrs. Morgan?

MRS. MORGAN: We decided then we had to be more energetic than ever with our efforts in Christian Science and called a practitioner to help us through prayer. In talking with him, I mentioned that whenever I took the little girl shopping or out with me people would come up and ask about the spot and offer advice as to what to do about it. And the child was becoming more aware of the condition—all this disturbed us a great deal.

MR. MORGAN: So the practitioner asked us to refuse to look at the mark as much as possible. He told us this wouldn't be easy, and it wasn't! But he wanted us to turn away from the material evidence and recognize our daughter in her true sell hood as a spiritual idea, the perfect image and likeness of God, divine Mind. Of course, an idea of the infinite Mind is without spot or blemish, showing forth the perfection of this Mind.

MRS. MORGAN: We looked up statements along this line in the Bible and "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy. I loved the statement in Job, "For then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot; yea thou shall be stedfast, and shalt not tear." And I remember especially Mrs. Eddy's words (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 463), "A spiritual idea has not a single element of error, and this truth removes properly whatever is offensive."

SPEAKER: Tell us how that helped you.

MRS. MORGAN: Well, it helped me to understand that a child of God is actually a divine idea, the spiritual image and likeness of God, and therefore untouched by a material birth that could have harmed him or left a mark.

MR. MORGAN: We couldn't just tell ourselves these things; these truths had to be understood, and we knew that with this understanding would come healing. It was helpful to recognize that God is the only cause and creator. Little by little all this became clearer as we continued to study and pray. We tried to be faithful in looking away from the material condition and not even watch for improvement. We also continued to have treatment through prayer from the practitioner.

MRS. MORGAN: Soon after this, I can't tell just how long, a friend who was a Christian Science nurse stopped by for a visit. After the little girl had left the room she said. "when did that spot disappear?" I didn't even know it had gone; so I called Janet back to me, and her face was absolutely perfect. There was nothing there whatsoever. Her skin was beautiful and clear.

SPEAKER: That was wonderful proof to you! How long ago did this occur?

MR. MORGAN: It must be over seven years now. This healing has been a blessing in many ways. I became a much more active student of Christian Science. And we've both been more alert in overcoming problems that have come up with the children and in business.

SPEAKER: Thank you both very much for telling us about this experience.

You know, friends as I listened to this account of the healing of the Morgans' daughter, my thought went back to the occasion when Christ Jesus healed the man who was blind from birth. You remember the disciples asked him, "Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" And Jesus gave that wonderful answer, "Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him."

Now why do I call this a wonderful answer? Well, it showed so clearly that the Master was concerned with the fact that here was an opportunity to see evidence of the power and love of God in a practical way. It didn't make any difference whether the world believed this condition of blindness was due to some sin on the part of the parents or of the man himself. Instead, our Master saw it as an opportunity to prove once again that disease or deformity is not the result of material conditions or heredity. Why? Because man is spiritual and as the Bible declares, is made in the image and likeness of God, divine Love and Spirit. What we call disease or deformity or disfigurement can only be the manifestation of ignorance, ignorance of the fact that God is the only cause and creator. This was the lesson our guests had to learn before their daughter was healed.

When we begin to grasp the fact that man is made in God's likeness, complete and perfect, we are bringing our thought into accord with this powerful spiritual truth that has always been true and always will be true. The humble, prayerful acceptance of this truth brings freedom to us and to our children.

You see the understanding that man in his true being is spiritual and perfect enables us to let go of the wrong conception of man: that he is mortal and subject to material laws of chance, accident, or heredity. This understanding replaces the misconception that God's will could ever be anything but good for the man of His creating. Then we see the operation of God's care in every phase of our daily life. We see the effects of His supreme, all-powerful law in the healing of all discord, including both functional and organic disease.

In closing, let's think over these very helpful words from the Christian Science textbook (p. 494): "Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need. It is not well to imagine that Jesus demonstrated the divine power to heal only for a select number or for a limited period of time, since to all mankind and in every hour, divine Love supplies all good."

The musical selection was a solo, "Behold, What Manner of Love."