By John Robert Howell
To those wandering in the wilderness of sickness, disease, financial woes, joblessness, immorality, or despair Christian Science is the "true Light" which can lead out of this miasma of materiality and fleshly woes. It has done so for tens of thousands worldwide for over a century.
Some may immediately counter by saying that they have tried Christian Science and it just didn't or doesn't work for them. It is safe to say that somewhere within the root of such withered hopes is a halting, fearful, timid, and half-hearted commitment to the Truth Jesus taught.
Christian Science cannot be admixed with any other system and certainly not with any medical belief or solution. If one has in thought even the subtlest belief that if Science doesn't work, he can always go to a doctor or take medicine to correct the problem, he is then already trusting in and committed to matter for a solution and shouldn't be surprised at his failure to find healing through purely spiritual means in Christian Science.
Jesus made it clear that anyone who put his hand to the plow (of Truth) and then looked back (to matter) was unfit for the Kingdom of Heaven. One simply cannot put one tentative foot in the boat of Divine Science as it launches forth and yet keep for security's sake, one foot on the dock of belief in material reality. The embarrassing and disheartening result of such an attempt to give power to both Spirit and matter should be evident.
The principles of mathematics are generally accepted without demur. We know the rules of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division have to be obediently and exactly applied to get the correct result. The rules of Divine Science, Christian Science, can only be applied in the same unquestioning and undeviating manner. It must be clear beyond the slightest doubt or equivocation that the laws, so-called, of matter and medicine cannot be applied in conjunction with Christian Science. To do that would be very little different from professing at the same time adherence to atheism and Christianity.
The very first sentence of the first chapter of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, states: "The prayer that reforms the sinner and heals the sick is an absolute faith that all things are possible to God,--a spiritual understanding of Him, an unselfed love." (S&H, p.1)
The term "absolute faith" should not be read over hastily. The prayer that reforms and heals cannot be based on vacillation or timorousness, but on complete and resolute faith in God and belief in His capability to heal and save.
When Lot, his wife, and two daughters were told by angels to flee from Sodom and Gomorrah before the impending destruction of those cities, they were also told not to look back. Lot's wife could not resist doing so and was changed into a pillar of salt. We can't trust God for our welfare and at the same time look back longingly or fearfully to matter for comfort and support as well.
For those who are inclined to temporize on the issue of absolute fidelity to Science, but who are unwilling to capitulate completely by getting medical treatment, there may still be the irresistible temptation to get a medical diagnosis to a problem, particularly one which has not been readily met in Christian Science, as some sort of aid to metaphysical treatment. The real result of this approach will probably be, however, to find oneself to be obliged to dance wit the one he invited to the party.
Medical diagnosis invariably succeeds in fixing a problem even more firmly in thought by giving it a name, attaching consequences, and vividly outlining a material picture in mortal mind. No matter how practical or informative a physical diagnosis may seem to be, it only adds to the errors to be overcome if the case is to be treated metaphysically in Christian Science. No medical pronouncement is ever going to assist in spiritual treatment. When seeking a material solution one pays his money, but it will be a sort of Hobson's Choice, not God's will, which will determine the outcome.
We live today in a highly materialistic age, one where the great god is medicine, not our heavenly Father-Mother God. The arrogant dogmatism of this medical religion confronts, indeed assaults, us at every turn: television (news and commercials), newspapers, magazines, conversations, billboards, radio, and so on. One can't even stand in line at the grocery store without getting a thorough dose of it. It take daily work just to refute and counteract all that we encounter in the course of normal lives. To find oneself attentive to any of the medical claims or pictures is only to raise the spiritual portcullis of our consciousness and invite the invasion and destruction of our confidence in God's willingness and ability to govern our lives.
"Only through radical reliance on Truth can scientific healing power be realized" (S&H, p. 167) This unequivocal and unambiguous statement is not even a gossamer endorsement of any medical diagnosis or treatment. If one truly believes that God is omnipotent and omnipresent then where is any possible need or requirement for supplementing His care?
To be a Christian Scientist one must choose whom he will serve. As Jesus said, we cannot serve God and materiality at the same time. Giving up as fast as practical even material pleasures may seem about as appealing as wearing a hair shirt, but the sooner it is done and to the degree it is done, we win the spiritual freedom, health, completeness, and joy which can never decline, fade away, or be taken from us.
In her article "Truth-Healing", Mrs. Eddy states: "It is impossible to be a Christian Scientist without apprehending the moral law so clearly that, for conscience' sake, one will either abandon his claim to even a knowledge of the Science, or else make the claim valid." (Mis. p. 261) This is quite a challenge to our commitment, but what an opportunity to prove our worthiness to be called Christian Scientists.
