[The above is substantially the text of the program released for broadcast the week of October 11–17 in the radio series, "The Bible Speaks to You," heard internationally over more than 800 stations. This is one of the weekly programs prepared and produced by the Christian Science Committee on Publication, 107 Falmouth Street, Boston, Masschusetts 02115.]
RADIO PROGRAM No. 80 - A Gift You Can't Lose
INTERVIEWER: From earliest times health has been a subject of deep interest to most people. A magazine article some years ago described health in a provocative way. It said: "Buoyant health is not a free and unlimited gift of nature. It is a prize often and easily lost."
What are your views on this subject?
SPEAKER: The Christian Scientist shares his neighbor's deep interest in health. Actually both want the same thing. The difference lies in where each thinks health comes from and how it can be found and maintained. Because the Christian Scientist looks to God as the source of his health, he naturally turns to the Bible for guidance with health problems as with all other problems.
The Bible abounds with statements about health, statements that show God not only as the source of health but also as the restorer of health. In Psalms we read,
"Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God" (43:5).
And God is the restorer of health. In Exodus we read,
"I am the Lord that healeth thee" (15:26).
Paul showed the connection between spiritual thinking and health when he said,
"To be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace" (Rom. 8:6).
The fact that health is God's gift to each individual is pointed up in the account of the healing by Jesus of the man who was born blind:
"His disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him" (John 9: 2, 3).
INTERVIEWER: Those verses give views of health. But are they really practical?
SPEAKER: They are supremely practical to the Christian Scientist. They go to the root of questions about health and cut right through today's preoccupation with such things as heredity, disease, physical conditions. God, not material conditions, is the source of health. This is brought out in both the Old and New Testaments. Christ Jesus taught and demonstrated this. He wasn't performing miracles when he healed the sick. He was utilizing spiritual laws which he understood. And it is these same spiritual laws that the Christian Scientist utilizes to the degree that he understands them in maintaining and restoring health.
As we see it, health is found as we gain a spiritual state of thought. Mary Baker Eddy says. "The true consciousness is the true health" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 298). You see, it's not blind faith, it's not willpower, it's not positive thinking but spiritual understanding that is the basis of real health.
God is the supreme cause and creator. He is infinite Spirit and Life. He is divine Mind, the source of man's true consciousness. Therefore man's real identity as the conscious image and likeness of God includes God-given health. Man is spiritual, not material. Health is as much a part of man as God-given love, intelligence, integrity, other spiritual gifts of God. God's gift of health is impartial, belonging to all.
INTERVIEWER: If God's gift of health belongs to all, how do you account for so much illness?
SPEAKER: We find in Christian Science that illness is the result of material-mindedness, wrong thinking, wrong concepts of God and man. Now this includes lustful, fearful, dishonest, selfish thoughts. It may be a specific mental state that is destructive to health or just the general weight of human thinking. There is increased recognition that there is no real health when thought is in turmoil.
As we see it, lack of health is a symptom of separation—estrangement from God—ignorance of Him. We need to know God, to come into harmony with Him. Because thought governs the body, a healthful sense must be restored to thought. As Paul said, "To be spiritually minded is life and peace" (Rom. 8:6). This means acknowledging the supreme control of divine Mind in our lives—letting the divine influence wash away fear, hate, envy, lust, and letting in love, peace, joy, trust in God's care.
In the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mrs. Eddy explains it in this way: "Mortals obtain the harmony of health, only as they forsake discord, acknowledge the supremacy of divine Mind, and abandon their material beliefs" (p. 400). Such reasoning replaces a feeling of estrangement with a sense of at-one-ment with God, with the perfect source of health. This brings health to the physical body.
I know a man in London who was restored to health in this way. He had been plagued with health problems for a number of years. But when the First World War started, he left a cattle ranch in the African bushveld and enlisted in the British Army. In less than a year, however, he had a severe heart attack and was medically discharged with a pension. He was told he had consumption of both lungs in addition to the heart trouble. He had a great deal of skilled treatment, but things rapidly went from bad to worse. Finally at the age of twenty-one, he found himself at the point of dying.
In this extremity, and as a last resort, he reached out to God, earnestly praying to be allowed to live and do some good in the world. The very next day a Christian Scientist visited his home, and hearing of his plight, she asked to see him. She gently and firmly lifted his thinking above fear and sickness to God and to God's everpresent law of health and life. She explained the truth which Christian Science brings out so clearly: that God made man perfect, in His own spiritual image and likeness. She said that the understanding of these spiritual facts would remove his fear of disease and death and bring about his freedom.
He decided to turn away from fear and self-pity and the symptoms of disease and to hold to this new sense of God and man that he was gaining in Christian Science. He discontinued all medicine and all medical treatment, and with the help of a Christian Science practitioner he was up and about in two days.
As his material beliefs gradually lessened and his spiritual understanding improved, one by one the ailments left him, and he knew he was healed. This was confirmed by an Army medical review board. The doctors actually wrote "nil" against all symptoms enumerated on his records.
He left the examination rejoicing in God's goodness. From that day to this, he has had no medicine and practically no illness. Christian Science showed him that health is not a mysterious gift for a fortunate few but a God-given gift that all possess.
