When the early Christians were spreading the gospel, their preaching was very often attended by wonderful works of healing. Not only did the followers of Christ Jesus speak with conviction, but actual proofs of God's power and tender mercy marked their ministry with divine authority. Many people who heard these devoted workers couldn't fail to grasp the extraordinary significance of the preaching, for the spiritual vitality of the gospel message became apparent right in the listeners' own lives—as they were redeemed, made whole, healed by the Word of God.

In the first years after Jesus, there was probably no more vivid evidence of the power of God to regenerate hearts and minds than in the missionary work of the Apostle Paul. Among Jesus' followers, Paul stands out with a certain luminance, partly because of his own dramatic conversion and also because of the wide-ranging impact he had as he traveled throughout the Roman Empire shepherding the Christian Church.

With the dignity that surely came from knowing in his heart that he was standing on the side of divine Truth, Paul faced severe persecutions and was able to rise above the animosity to bring special blessings to people all along his path—from Jerusalem to Athens to the little island of Melita to Rome itself. A verse in the New Testament would seem to sum up concisely the essence of Paul's work. These words are recorded in the book of Acts: "And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul." ^{Acts 19:11.}

In the King James Version of the New Testament, the Greek word for "miracle" has also been rendered "mighty [or] wonderful work." Such wonders, however, should not be considered unnatural. Nor should they seem to imply an occasional, inconsistent, or irrational setting aside of normally fixed physical laws. The wonderful works of healing that come through the power of God are the purely natural result of understanding spiritually the operation of divine law, which is the only true and immutable governing power.

Inspired study of the Bible and of the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, shows that there is a God-impelled order to reality that ensures permanent harmony and goodness throughout the Father's creation. Disease, sin, death—all evils—these are the things that are unnatural and wholly apart from the divine order, because they are not created or sanctioned by God. And through prayer, as we come to realize the ever-presence of divine harmony and the falsity of all discord and evil, disease loses its apparent substance in our thinking. Christ, Truth, eliminates the deception. Healing naturally ensues, for when we are no longer deceived by error, the truth of man's perfect spiritual being as the likeness of God will obviously prevail. Our experience is thereby adjusted to conform more closely to the spiritual ideal.

In human life, the result of Christ-healing is surely wonderful, but it is entirely logical, consistent, and rational when viewed from the perspective of divine reality. Science and Health affirms: "The miracle introduces no disorder, but unfolds the primal order, establishing the Science of God's unchangeable law." ^{Science and Health, p. 135.}

Also, in the Preface to the Christian Science textbook, Mrs. Eddy makes an important observation about the healing works that are realized today through scientific prayer. She writes: "The physical healing of Christian Science results now, as in Jesus' time, from the operation of divine Principle, before which sin and disease lose their reality in human consciousness and disappear as naturally and as necessarily as darkness gives place to light and sin to reformation. Now, as then, these mighty works are not supernatural, but supremely natural. 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,

A popular magazine that reports on topics of interest in the physical sciences recently featured an article entitled "Do Miracles Exist? A Debate Between Science and Religion." The author portrays a fictional "Believer" on the side of religion and a "Skeptic" on the side of physical science. At one point in the debate the "Believer" refers to Jesus' feeding of the multitude with only a few loaves of bread and a few fish as an irrefutable example of the ability of divine power to operate in human experience. The "Skeptic" retorts by asking: "But what possible reason can you have for believing a story written hundreds of years ago by a lot of superstitious zealots...?" ^{Science Digest, September 1983, p. 18 .}

Christian Science provides an answer to this sort of skepticism. The "special miracles" of early Christianity are not relegated to days gone by. Christian Science demonstrates that the saving Christ, Truth, is present today as in Jesus' own time to bring the same natural healing power of divine Spirit to mankind.

At the back of this Sentinel there are a number of specific examples of current, verified testimonies of Christian healing. These testimonies illustrate the practical immediacy of pure spiritual healing. They are contemporary witnesses to the truth of being. And they support the authenticity of what the Scriptures record about healing and salvation. The healings cited in this Sentinel have nothing to do with superstition or zealotry. They are simply straightforward accounts, giving the glory to God and telling of demonstrable, understandable, practical laws of regeneration.

Mrs. Eddy clearly saw the need to prove the efficacy of the truths revealed to her by God, which are fully presented in Science and Health. On one occasion, she was asked to visit a Mr. Clark who had been bedridden for six months. A boyhood accident had left him with an injured hip that had become carious. The physical condition was severe, and the man's doctor informed Mrs. Eddy that Mr. Clark was dying.

The doctor left, and Mrs. Eddy later reported, "Mr. Clark lay with his eyes fixed and sightless." But the Christ and the realization of divine Life were surely active in Mrs. Eddy's consciousness. In Science and Health she writes of the experience: "I went to his bedside. In a few moments his face changed; its death-pallor gave place to a natural hue. The eyelids closed gently and the breathing became natural; he was asleep. In about ten minutes he opened his eyes and said: 'I feel like a new man. My suffering is all gone.'" ^{Science and Health, p. 193.}

The man was in his yard the next day, and two weeks later he was at work. The badly diseased hip was completely healed.

As we rely wholeheartedly on God, divine Love, and understand something of man's true being as the pure likeness of infinite Spirit, we too will see the "special miracles" wrought by God. But we need also to lead lives that prove we deserve such blessings—lives that attest our genuine humility, compassion, unselfishness, and love.

The mighty, wonderful works of redemption and spiritual healing are truly natural in the life of a Christian metaphysician. They are to be expected—with much joy.

WILLIAM E. MOODY