Being a lover of good books, there are many I could recommend. But at the top of my list -- next to the Bible -- is Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. The teachings contained in this unique volume stress that Christ Jesus' life purpose was not only to inspire, but to show how to be free from every form of material bondage, physical suffering included. He promised, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also" (John 14:12).
Thousands upon thousands of readers of Science and Health can attest to this. To their great joy, they've found (and am I one of them) that when the divine facts that Jesus illustrated and practiced are brought into contact with one's fears, beliefs, and attitudes about disease, the result is a change of thought, a spiritualization of thought, a removing of the mental state causing the physical difficulty. The Christian Science textbook explains: "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 necessarily as darkness gives place to light and sin to reformation. Now, as then, these mighty works are not supernatural, but supremely natural" (p. xi).
Take it from me, through the understanding that Christian Science affords, anyone may gain a correct, spiritual view of man as the image of God. One comes to realize that sickness is not any part of our real and only selfhood as made in God's likeness. This spiritual concept of man is basic to scientific Christian healing, and this is why it is helpful to go back time and again to the Bible record that man is made in God's own image (see Genesis 1:26). Accepting the premise that God is perfect Spirit, as the Scriptures teach, (how could we think otherwise?) one recognizes the fact that the creations of Spirit can only be spiritual, perfect. And this is the reality of our being, despite appearances to the contrary.
As I have found, the need in healing is always for a change of mental standpoint. As Science and Health points out: "Mortals must change their ideals in order to improve their models. A sick body is evolved from sick thoughts" (p. 260). Christ Jesus himself emphasized that what we entertain in thought has its effect. He said, "Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man" (Matthew 15:11).
The discovery Mary Baker Eddy made, that matter is really a mental phynomenon, was and is revolutionary. Though you may never have considered it in this way before, both the image of disease and its expression in the body are false beliefs about you and me -- not actual conditions. The understanidng of this fact is a potent force in destroying disease.
It is by turning thought from an inharmonious physical condition and turning to God, contemplating our real, spiritual selfhood as His idea, that one is restored to health and well-being. We can thank God for the eternal fact that we are His reflection, the expression of infinite, harmonious Spirit. Being His offspring, we include only those qualities that Spirit imparts -- peace, joy, wholeness, dominion. By abiding in this true consciousness, we see that the fear and suffering which seemed so real have no actual power. Disease is seen for what it is: a misconception, a false state of mortal thought; it has no God-created reality. Since we are inseparable from our heavenly Father, God, our well-being as God's reflection has never been interrupted.
Christ-healing is dependent on the removal of disease beliefs and fears. And it is the activity of the Christ in human consciousness that removes these false beliefs we don't have to put up with. As the divine facts of existence displace mortality's lie in our thought, a more normal, harmonious sense of being inevitably appears.
To yield to God as the only power governing us, is to realize the power of Jesus' words "The kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:21). This is where sound health is as well. Intact within you and me right now are unimpaired wellbeing, unchanging God-given harmony, and freedom.
I have experienced this more times in my own life than I can tell you about. And you dear reader of this blog--wherever you may be in the world--can be equally as blessed.
