Turn on the radio or television, and you’re likely to find advertisements for drugs, reports on new medicines that claim to be even better and more intelligent in their ability to find disease and cure it. But none of them offers permanent healing. Some include serious side effects, and others offer only temporary relief. So the question arises: Is it actually possible to be free of a particular sickness forever? 

Christian Science, as discovered and taught by Mary Baker Eddy, insists that permanent healing is possible. Healings on the pages of this magazine and previous issues—right back to 1898 when it was founded—show that this promise can be a reality. 

To prove it requires a change of thought, a shift from belief in matter to a conviction of Spirit’s reality as a present power in one’s life. This is different from an intellectual change—“If I only think the right thoughts” or “If I read the Bible Lesson one more time.” It’s a demand to plunge deep into spiritual reality and to understand the nature of God and one’s relation to Him. It’s to accept the spiritual fact that one really is the child of Spirit, and then live out the implications of that status.

Mrs. Eddy made clear that material methods don’t truly heal. Nor do they prevent future vulnerability. She wrote in her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “According to Holy Writ, the sick are never really healed by drugs, hygiene, or any material method. These merely evade the question. They are soothing syrups to put children to sleep, satisfy mortal belief, and quiet fear” (p. 230).

When one looks deep into the heart of reality to find and obey Spirit, one discovers that this reality defines one’s own likeness—and it is good.

Jesus of Nazareth opened the way to this Science, and he was willing to put his own life on the line in the most literal sense to prove its ultimate power. He did this so that we wouldn’t have to make that kind of sacrifice, though he made clear to his disciples that he expected them to carry on his teachings and healings. Eddy devoted her life to articulating the Science of his teachings and establishing a body of proof to show its roots in the Master’s work. Her work makes it possible for people now, in these times, to bring Jesus’ teachings alive for themselves and their families. The result is that we can reap the benefit of his promise, given not long before the crucifixion: “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

For the Christian Scientist, this “overcoming” is the promise that sickness and sin can be defeated permanently, and it is also a call to action. To whatever degree students of this Science can lessen the world’s suffering, they are following in Jesus’ path and emulating his disciples. There are times, however, when even a dedicated Scientist might wonder if some “soothing syrup” would be an answer. The steady drumbeat of advertising about the usefulness of drugs, warnings about diseases—especially the seasonal variety—can become hypnotic after a while. If this occurs, the student of this Science needs to rise up in protest and resist their arguments. 

It isn’t that one is “bad” if one resorts to medical care. It’s that the “soothing syrups” are just that—meant to soothe, not to heal. The result is continued vulnerability to disease. Christian Science is not just an advanced means of hoping that a changeable God might reach out and heal. As a Science, it is accessible to anyone willing to study and apply its teachings. Like any Science, however, it does need to be studied and proved. No feeling of unworthiness, lack of ability, or some other material reasoning (“I just can’t get it”) should be allowed, because what’s being put into practice isn’t a belief system; it’s a Science. Often this is overlooked or hard to accept. Yet it’s possible to approach this Science with the same confidence one has when one expects water to boil when it reaches the right temperature, or a properly functioning vehicle to stop when the brakes are applied. 

Actually, it is even surer because its structure is the product of divine Mind—the same infinite intelligence that created the universe and holds the stars in their courses. This intelligence isn’t limited by matter’s unreliability or ignorance. It includes the heights and depths of all true knowledge. And this knowledge of infinite Spirit sets one on the right course to permanent healing.

When one looks deep into the heart of reality to find and obey Spirit, one discovers that this reality defines one’s own likeness—and it is good. As thought changes, one realizes that the sickness truly is no part of one’s nature and never has been. In the process, the body is restored. 

The outcome of such healing is often a desire to free others of the suffering, to see hearts uplifted, to express Christly compassion toward those in tribulation—not out of pity but with the knowledge that Jesus’ proof of divine law has indeed overcome the world.