The following is shared with those readers who are not familiar with the teachings of Christian Science, to offer new hope and solid help in obtaining health.
The other day at the grocery store, I happened to hear one woman telling another about a report she had just seen in a magazine. According to her, on any given day in North America alone, millions of people suffer with ill health.
I couldn't help thinking about a remedy that is always available--one that does not involve an operation or dependence on prescription drugs.
The remedy I'm talking about is the healing power of Christianity that Jesus practiced and that is explained in Christian Science. Its teachings make practical the divine method of deliverance referred to in Christ Jesus' words "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." (John 8:32) The study of divine Science shows us how to heal from a purely metaphysical standpoint, through following the Master's example.
As one studies this Science with a humble, open mind, with consecration, the way of healing through spiritual means becomes clear. It is important to realize that what one refers to as a physical condition is actually the objectification of thought. And so as one purifies, or spiritualizes, his thinking, it naturally follows the that body becomes more harmonious.
Because our body is an expression of our thought, the great need is for a change of mental standpoint. Through prayer we gain a correct, spiritual view of man as the image of God. In other words, we begin to realize that sickness of any kind is not a part of our real selfhood made in God's likeness. The spiritual concept of man is basic, and this is why it is helpful to go back time and again to the Bible record that man is made in God' image. Accepting hat God is perfect spirit, as the Bible teaches, we realize that the creations of Spirit can only be spiritual, perfect. And this is the reality of our being, despite appearances to the contrary.
Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, write in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: "Become conscious for a single moment that Life and intelligence are purely spiritual,--neither in nor of matter,--and the body will then utter no complaints. If suffering from a belief in sickness, you will find yourself suddenly well." (S&H, page 14)
The last one hundred pages of Science and Health are devoted to healings that resulted from studying this book. Among those wonderful experiences, a reader can see that Christian Science has lifted countless thousands out of painful physical conditions.
As one learns that man, created in God's own image, is the perfect expression of the one divine Mind, it becomes clear that man must be spiritual and harmonious--that he cannot, in reality, be impaired in any way. He must function perfectly because he is governed by the one God. No matter how real it appears to be, infirmity has no true existence in God's sight, because made it.
The need is not to ignore ill health, but to turn thought away from the view of man as material and diseased and toward the understanding that he is actually spiritual and perfect right now, untouiched by suffering.
As the Holy Bible promises us, "I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the Lord." (Jeremiah 30:17)
