Gilead, a mountainous region east of the river Jordan, was occupied in early Biblical times by certain Israelitish tribes. In this district grew balsam trees which exuded a gummy, fragrant, resinous substance that was given the name "balm of Gilead" and was used as an ointment.

Jeremiah speaks figuratively of this balm when he laments about the unhealthy moral climate that prevailed in Israel in his day. He asks, "Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?" ^{Jer. 8:22;} Why indeed, we might ask, when the spiritually fragrant and uplifting influence of the great Physician, divine Love, was present and active to save and heal? But the prophet's countrymen were not willing to awaken to spiritual perception. They had bitter lessons to learn before idolatry yielded to true worship.

Christian Science teaches that all the seeming wounds that plague mankind are based on a material conception of the nature of man. This view of man is wholly false, a mortally mental dream picture which must be rejected and progressively outgrown. Mrs. Eddy says, "Progress, legitimate to the human race, pours the healing balm of Truth and Love into every wound." ^{No and Yes, p. 44;}

As we learn in Christian Science the Biblically supported fact that God is Spirit, Mind, Soul, infinite good, we then discover the real man to be the image, reflection, or self-expression of this perfect, boundless God. This Science shows that the true identity of man is not encased in a physical body but rather that man is the spiritual embodiment of all God's wonderful attributes and qualities, a compound idea fully expressing the nature of Deity. Understanding something of these facts is "the healing balm of Truth and Love" that quiets and harmonizes the human mind and heals its ills.

All disease arises from disturbed, excited thought. Disease is mental disease, lack of ease. The human body is merely the embodiment of human thinking, and it will express the quality of thought impinged upon it.

Mrs. Eddy says in Science and Health: "Anatomy, when conceived of spiritually, is mental self-knowledge, and consists in the dissection of thoughts to discover their quality, quantity, and origin. Are thoughts divine or human? That is the important question. This branch of study is indispensable to the excision of error. The anatomy of Christian Science teaches when and how to probe the self-inflicted wounds of selfishness, malice, envy, and hate." ^{Science and Health, p. 462;}

Spiritual growth alerts us to mental cause and effect. We learn that through Godlike thinking we can rule out all evil suggestions and their deleterious effects upon the body. We can halt disease in its tracks and destroy it by annihilating the evil thoughts that seem to produce it. Christ Jesus demonstrated this throughout his healing ministry, and we can do it, too, if we obey his directions.

If we detect certain aspects of error in our thinking, perhaps "selfishness, malice, envy, and hate," we can at once know that God, divine Love, is our only real Mind, and as such cannot know or feel any quality the opposite of itself. As we consciously maintain the fact of one Mind, acknowledge it to be the supporting Principle of our being, then nothing is left in consciousness but good.

The great truth that God, Mind, is the Ego of His entire creation, the only knower or doer in the universe, acts as a law which is destined to bring about the total destruction of evil in all its forms. If God is here, then nothing unlike Him is here. If Mind is doing all the knowing there is, then nothing unlike Him is knowing anywhere. God is saying I am throughout infinity, and there are no little, personal minds anywhere that can say, "I am sick; I am old; I am poor and unhappy." The identity of the real man individualizes the healthful tranquillity of infinite Soul. Man feels the eternal balm of Mind's restful serenity.

Christian Science teaches us the healing effect of quiet, unruffled thought. And this Science shows us that the balm of inner peace may be felt only as our thought becomes increasingly Godlike. As we bring our thoughts and acts into line with God's standard of righteousness, then we begin to experience the divine peace. God is the infinite stillness, and we become aware of this stillness as we blend in quality with the divine nature.

As we learn to express love to others, we feel the soft touch of joy and serenity in our own heart. Mrs. Eddy says: "Sweeter than the balm of Gilead, richer than the diamonds of Golconda, dear as the friendship of those we love, are justice, fraternity, and Christian charity. The song of my soul must remain so long as I remain. Let brotherly love continue." ^{The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 175.}

Alan A. Aylwin