How can we know when the Messiah, or Christ, has come? The Bible promises we will see signs that are undoubted proof of God's presence—signs of healing.

Christ is the true idea of God, and Jesus typified this perfect spiritual idea on earth. The Master not only spoke of the divine nature of the creator of the universe, who made man in His image, but he lived in accord with it. Through his sinless, gracious, loving nature he represented on earth God's ideal reflection as fully as any human being can. He set an example for mankind and promised that if others followed him they would overcome, as he did, the limitations and discords of the world. They would be able to prove the presence of harmony and well-being for others as well as for themselves.

Jesus' whole life was a sign of Immanuel, "God with us"; and so may ours be if we follow his example. A natural outcome of such proof as he gave of the presence of God is, in all ages, healing —healing of character faults, mental and physical discords, lack, and despair. Any condition other than that produced by God, good, is destroyed when the divine nature is recognized as present. When evil is dissolved through the Christly consciousness and expression of divine Life and Love, the power of eternal Principle to correct mortal injustice and lawlessness is proved supreme.

To prove he was the Messiah, the Master referred to the cures resulting from his ministry. When John the Baptist's disciples asked him, "Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?" ^{Matt. 11:3;} he pointed to his healing works as undoubted proof. He expected them to acknowledge these as signs of God's powerful presence— signs of Immanuel, "God with us."

Today, as we hear and read of the sick in mind and body being healed through Christian Science, we can safely accept these cures as likewise being signs of Immanuel—of the presence and activity of God and of His Christ, or true idea, in human consciousness. The alert and discerning thinker may also see signs of healing in the wider context of world thought. As we read the mental signs of these modern times, we must surely feel confident that they are evidence of the activity of the Comforter. Limitations of the carnal mind are being overcome. Barriers of time and space are being broken down. Significant progress is evident in clearer views of the nature of God, demands for higher moral and spiritual values, recognition of the healing power of God's Word.

Referring to physical healings, Mrs. Eddy says in the Preface of Science and Health: "They are the sign of Immanuel, or 'God with us,'—a divine influence ever present in human consciousness and repeating itself, coming now as was promised aforetime,

Every healing sign of Immanuel is an indication of the eternal presence of God's perfect universe. It delivers us from the belief that there is another—an evil—power and presence. The ideas God created—man and woman in His image—are always spiritual and perfect. They are whole, governed by divine law, harmonious in every action and function of their being. They never fall below the standard of perfection set by God, divine Principle.

These divine facts, discerned through spiritual sense, bring healing light to human consciousness. This divine light dissolves the darkness of ignorance and false belief imposed by the carnal mind —the devil, or evil. It liberates humanity from the mesmeric influence that seems to produce diseased and discordant conditions upon the lives and bodies of unsuspecting and often quite innocent people, leaving them free to enjoy the harmony God gives.

The action of the Christ, God's true idea, is penetrating—devastating to the erroneous beliefs of the carnal mind, which it utterly annihilates. Christ Jesus said he did not come to bring peace "but a sword," ^{Matt. 10:34;} and he referred to the afflictions that would come upon the earth before the mesmerism of worldly beliefs would end. False, material belief is so firmly entrenched in mortal thought that it is not always destroyed without a struggle.

We need not fear any disturbances that may seem to accompany Truth's stirring and dissolving of mortal belief. Our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, exposes the essential nothingness of these disturbances. She writes, "The breaking up of material beliefs may seem to be famine and pestilence, want and woe, sin, sickness, and death, which assume new phases until their nothingness appears." And promising discord's certain end, she writes, "These disturbances will continue until the end of error, when all discord will be swallowed up in spiritual Truth." ^{Science and Health, p. 96.}

But even while these disturbances seem to be taking place we can—through understanding the law of Love in Christian Science —find safety, peace, calmness, protection. God is with us now. This fact has been plentifully proved through incidents of healing during the past century, and His power is being felt today. The kingdom of heaven is at hand, and the reign of harmony is established. How do we know? We can discern the signs of the times.

Naomi Price