Jean Stark Hebenstreit, C.S.B., of Kansas City,
Missouri
Member of the Board of Lectureship of The
Mother Church,
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts
There are four words in the average vocabulary which, strange as it may seem, have applicability to everyone in this audience. These four words might seem unrelated to modern times, when in fact their implication must be dealt with to avoid troubles and limitation. These four words could be easily glossed over as hardly pertinent in a world intrigued with physical development, interplanetary research, concerns with personal problems, as well as global unrest, and an uncertain future.
Yet these four words present a particular challenge to one's correct conception of oneself and one's world around. These four uniquely significant words are: Once upon a time.
Once upon a time, man is considered to have been born into matter — the opposite of Spirit — to grow, mature, deteriorate, and come to an end.
Once upon a time, the usual conviction is, man had the beginning of a mortal history with all the components of mortality attached to his identity. This has been almost universally believed. Yet can anyone living in today's highly sophisticated society disregard the provocative words of Christ Jesus, the Saviour of mankind, who said plainly: "Call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven."(1)
His profound statement discounting matter in affirming who our Father really is, the only Creator, the source of all that constitutes our being, certainly invites us to reexamine the consequences of holding on to a belief of an earthly beginning and the reality of mortality. Could a mortal beginning, a mortal you, possibly be a fictional "Once upon a time" theory, with no more validity than a fairy tale?
Jesus' message raises deep questions about the long-held theory of material birth and its consequence, material death, and a pretty shaky interim. Why? Because his account of man's true origin indicates a present spiritual selfhood. His depiction of man — of you — is as the son of God, made in His likeness, not somewhat like Him, but exactly like Him, in His image, as perfect, as immortal, as all-harmonious as God. Then what does God as Father, creator, mean to you and me, His offspring, in reference to our past, our present, our future?
Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer of Christian Science, writes, "God is what the Scriptures declare Him to be, — Life, Truth, Love. Spirit is divine Principle, and divine Principle is Love, and Love is Mind, and Mind is not both good and bad, for God is Mind; therefore there is in reality one Mind only, because there is one God."(2)
That statement is confirmed by the First Commandment which commands us to have no other gods but the one God — or, to subscribe to no other creator, no other cause, no other Mind. To have no other mind but God is to be conscious only of what God is conscious, — and that includes no imperfection, no matter at all.
Have you ever thought about how the people's perception of God has had an impact on nations, ethics, health, war, peace? In a world threatened with violence, terrorism, unleashed nuclear energy, famine, strife, isn't it timely to consider whether we've perhaps been deceived by believing that we have to be victims of a mortal projection of things rather than comprehending the Master's way of freedom from all ills through a spiritual understanding of God?
And that's not to ignore the challenge of anything threatening — from a headache to nuclear winter — but to deal with challenges as did the Master Christian who utilized the power of Spirit, God, over evil. Christian Science accords with the Bible that God, Spirit, and the things of Spirit are present here and now. And if Spirit is true and real, as the Master taught, its opposite, matter, must be untrue and unreal.
Christ Jesus conspicuously looked to Spirit, God, in every kind of need, and his stunning victories emanating therefrom have revealed to you and me the healing antidote for personal and worldly problems. That healing antidote is just as available and effective today as in his era because its source is in God, unchanging good.
The all-power, ever-presence and permanence of good determine the consequent absence of an opposite, evil and its alleged power. On that basis Christ Jesus established that the so-called laws of disease, disaster, or deficiency are to be repudiated, disbelieved, eradicated as not of God, good; therefore not actualities to be endured but only errors of belief to be corrected. And what can correct a false concept but a right idea?
In a book titled The People's Idea of God, Mrs. Eddy points out: "Periods and peoples are characterized by their highest or their lowest ideals, by their God and their devil. We are all sculptors, working out our own ideals, and leaving the impress of mind on the body as well as on history and marble."(3)
As you and I consider the impress of mind on the body, and all that involves us, as well as on history, and that we are sculptors of the future, it follows that we are redeemers of the past and healers of the present, as we, like the Master, look to God to know the truth that eliminates the untruth.
Because the Master Christian knew the truth that God, good, didn't conceive His creation in terms of imperfection, deterioration, inadequacy, trouble, he healed, through spiritually mental means alone. His healing work presented us with solid proof that in healing, mortal false belief is all that ever needs to be changed. In his brilliantly successful healing ministry, he reversed matter or turned away from it to Spirit, God, the scientific Healer.
And he was emphatic in directing his followers in all ages to heal just as he did. His exemplary career of healing through the power of scientific right thought alone, the correct view of God and man, opens the way to a redeemable past and future, as well as a healthful and harmonious present.
A harmonious and healthful present was seen to be her true status by a Christian Scientist who was aware of the impress of mind on the body. She was employed by a major airline, flying its international route. While she was on a flight halfway across the Atlantic, she became terribly ill with symptoms of severe ptomaine poisoning. She couldn't continue to work so other members of the crew took over for her. When they landed, she was driven to the hotel where she was advised that because of crowded conditions, she would have to share quarters with another flight hostess. The other flight attendant had a reputation of being very worldly. When my friend got to the room, the other flight attendant asked "Whatever is the matter? You look positively green!" She explained that she was very sick. Her friend inquired, "What are you going to do?" The Christian Scientist replied "I'm going to give myself a Christian Science treatment." "What in the world is that?" her roommate wanted to know. The answer was simply "I don't think you'd be interested."
But her friend persisted "Does it have anything to do with religion?" "Yes it does," was the weak response. The next question was "Does it have anything to do with God?" "Yes indeed it does," came the reply. Then followed the query "What do you think God is?"
The Christian Scientist had with her the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mrs. Eddy, so she read the Glossary definition of God: "The great I AM; the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-acting, all-wise, all-loving, and eternal; Principle; Mind; Soul; Spirit; Life; Truth; Love; all substance; intelligence."(4)
Then her friend inquired "What do you think man is?" So she opened her Bible to the book of Genesis in which it states that man is made in the image and likeness of God.(5) The questions and answers continued as hours passed. The second flight attendant said later that it was apparent to her as the Christian Scientist read the truths about God and man, the healing effects of her uplifted thought were becoming evident, and her color was returning to normalcy.
Without mentioning what she was observing, and intent on not interrupting the discussion, the roommate suggested having dinner sent up to the room — just as if it were natural for the one who had been nauseated to want to eat a regular meal. They were in an area where most of the food was cooked in fish oil, or olive oil — hardly the most appetizing thing one could think of, even if he felt all right. But my friend agreed to order something to eat.
They talked right through dinner, until the second flight attendant got her flight call at 11:00 pm. Their conversation had begun at 2:30 that afternoon. The Christian Scientist was completely healed; and her friend said to her "I'm terribly afraid that this discussion has changed my life — and I'm not sure that I'm ready for that." But she was ready — her future got redeemed — and she is now a member of the Christian Science Church, practicing Christian healing based on her spiritual understanding and adherence to the teachings of Christian Science. Science and Health 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 as necessarily as darkness gives place to light and sin to reformation. Now, as then, these mighty works are not supernatural, but supremely natural."(6)
Sin and disease, lack and trouble, losing their reality in consciousness disappear because consciousness is always externalized. Then whatever isn't accepted as real in consciousness isn't going to be objectified in experience. Why? Because, as is now widely accepted, we see what we believe. We see only our own thought. And we can't see what we don't believe, therefore disbelief in error is what destroys it.
There's an old adage that states "out of sight is out of mind." That can be as accurately stated metaphysically "out of mind is out of sight." What has no reality in thought will not appear in experience.
But if one accepts a lie as true, it becomes his own false belief and then necessarily his own experience. In reverse, to fill consciousness with the allness and power of Spirit, the exclusive presence of good, precludes a rationale for evil, because there simply can't be more than all. And because there can't be more than the all of infinity, which is good, there is no provision for evil to come into God's divinely ordered day. And evil, claiming presence, or threatened power in the future, must be classified as illusion, mirage, a misstatement of the genuine creation, a false belief — which can be corrected with the truth.
When a mirage is found to be unreal, only an illusion, it's no longer misleading.
From the Bible, we learn that "while the Law was given through Moses, grace and reality are yours through Jesus Christ."(7) Reality, the perfection of mind and body, is ours through the application of the Science of Christ that Jesus brought to light. His remedial system of metaphysics could cast evil out of human consciousness and body because with God as our Father, the only cause, there's no authentication for evil in man, His likeness.
Then couldn't we consider that any adversity can reach one only at the door of one's own thinking, as a false concept to be accepted and experienced, or rejected and destroyed?
Of course there's the mortal theory that one is what he is today, and headed toward a questionable future — and so is his world around — because of chance, evil, lack — a mortal mode that can't be redeemed.
Yet redemption was assured to the world through Jesus' Christianity. The effectiveness, the power of spiritual right thought to counteract whatever is wrong in body, career, relationships, the world, was dramatically visible in all Jesus' Christly ways and all his Christly acts.
His life of prayer proved matter powerless before the might of spiritual right thinking. Nothing succeeds like proper prayer.
The Master Christian prayed; and proceeded to heal the abnormalities of the flesh. His teaching and his practice were in direct contrast to the widely-held beliefs about life in matter with its troubles, inadequacy, chance, sickness or what we might term today unfortunate mortal heredity, bad genes, a detrimental childhood, unproductive environment, missed opportunities, or no opportunities, mistakes in judgment and mistakes in action. Christ's Christianity has answers for those assailed with the consuming remorse of not having been kinder to a loved one; or not having taken a different career direction; of feeling bound into, or left out of, relationships; or thinking that the past was great but it's over now — or the past was terrible which has brought on an unhappy present.
Such misgivings or longings about the past can impel the feeling that the past has produced an irreversible effect on the present, and consequently the future. Yet, in fact, past mistakes and happenings can't act as present causes when we come to know — as Christ Jesus obviously did — that the only cause there is or can be is God, present and eternal, acting through spiritual law — in accord with the First Commandment of having only one God.
Then because there is one God, one cause, the only creator, the most important thing any of us can ever find out about any problem is its unreality.
Christian Science teaches that "the mind of the individual only can produce a result upon his body"(8) — and surely, then, upon his world. So we're talking about the effect of spiritualized thought, at-one with God, to determine whatever goes on.
Spiritualized thought is the way to correct bad conditions, because bad conditions are what we see or believe them to be. Inasmuch as we see only our own thoughts — and we're in position to change wrong thought — through divine help we can heal wrong conditions of the body, personal concerns, and the world.
The mental adventure to put to proof the Science that Jesus the Scientist exemplified is possible right now because God, who is Love, has never closed the door of opportunity upon the real man so actually man can't even close the door of opportunity upon himself.
The wonderfully instructive experience of the apostle Paul illustrates what a change of consciousness from the human to the divine does to redeem false beliefs and their negative effects. Spiritualized thought is imbued with the power of Spirit to correct bad conditions. Spiritualized thought, with reliance on God, is the way for a redeemable future.
Up to the time that he made a particular trip to Damascus, Saul, later called Paul, had been behaving like an adult delinquent. He'd been persecuting men and women, and creating havoc in the church. But on that trip something happened which brought a total rehabilitation project in his life. It's recorded, ". . . suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: and he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord?"(9)
Saul had been persecuting Jesus' followers. He hadn't yet learned that one's enemies are always false concepts, working mesmerically in consciousness. When the truth first appeared to him in this mental experience, the clash between his materially-minded zeal and his innate spirituality seemed to blind him; but at length spiritual light opened his eyes to the Science of Christ. He redeemed the past and redirected his future, by yielding his thinking to spiritual enlightenment. What one thinks is always objectified in one's experience.
Paul didn't go around bemoaning the past, wallowing in regret, self-condemnation, or self-pity. He didn't dwell on wasted years, on his shortcomings or even his long-goings. He made a one hundred and eighty degree turn and got involved in redeeming the past, the present, and the future by his actions, reforming of character, his actively seeking, thinking, and living his prayer. His complete change of thought was shown in repudiation of his former behavior by turning from it resolutely to the Christ, personified by Jesus.
This he described as putting off the old man with his deeds and putting on the new man who is renewed in knowledge. One translation of the Biblical account reads: ". . . you have discarded the old nature and all that it did, and you have put on the new nature which by constant renewal in the likeness of its Creator leads to a fuller knowledge of God."(10)
True redemption of the past and the future calls for a fuller knowledge of God, a putting off of the old man, the material misconception of man, for the real man, the likeness and image of God. This renewal of consciousness is never a question of time, but only a change of mentality.
Paul's redemption of thought and action brought him to characterize the falsely mental aspect of the mortal state of consciousness as the "carnal mind" which, he said, "is enmity against God."(11) However because the Master referred to God as knowing all things, the all-knowing must be the only Mind. Hence the carnal or mortal mind couldn't be a mind, but only a term, used to describe an unreality, the counterfeit of Mind.
After Paul's experience on the road to Damascus, his renunciation of the carnal mind brought a complete transformation in his life. He gave up persecuting for healing. He conclusively discarded the old nature and all that it did. A Christian Scientist once said: Never think of another as you knew him yesterday, for in this selfsame hour, he, too, may be on his road to Damascus.
In the Biblical book of James is the assurance: "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."(12)
And anyone has the opportunity to pray. Prayer may be stated with words but it is actually stated in one's life. Because how one lives articulates his prayer, isn't it reasonable that the effectual fervent life of a righteous man availeth much?
One doesn't merely say a prayer in Christian Science. He seeks it, and thinks it, and lives it. Then he sees the timeless power of prayer to reveal the truth of all things, the truth of body, the truth of activity, the truth of home, the truth of relationships, the truth of Scientific Christianity to save mankind now and to redeem the future.
Truth precludes all lies and certainly any particular lie. The idea of Truth, the eternal Christ, at-one with God, partakes of all the healing power of Truth. Then the definite essential in redeeming false beliefs is to cultivate more Christ in us. The Christ in us is, as the Bible says, "the hope of glory."(13) It is also, surely, the hope of health, harmony, success, peace. It was the Christ in Jesus that brought healing and redeeming. Christ conveys the thought of activity — healing, saving, coming, and doing.
Christ in you has to be an active state of disbelief in an opposite to God, good — so a state of unafraidness. Christ in you is true knowledge of the infinitude of God, good, and of yourself as manifestation of good, with the power of self-control, of Truth triumphant over error in individual thought and life.
Mrs. Eddy, who so unselfishly cared about posterity, discovered the power of Truth over error in individual thought and life, and that the teachings of the Master are practical today. She was indefatigable in her work for mankind, sharing and proving what she had discovered.
There was an occasion when Mrs. Eddy and one of her students went shopping to select some chairs. They were waited on by a man with a bandage over one eye. As they were being shown the chairs, Mrs. Eddy hardly looked at them. When she was asked which ones she liked, she remarked, "any that we can sit on." Later, when she was questioned about her lack of attention, Mrs. Eddy explained: "Could I think of chairs when the man was suffering?"
The following day the student went alone to order the chairs. The salesman asked, "Who was that lady with you yesterday? I had an abscess on my eye and when she went out, I took the bandage off, and there was not a sign of (the abscess) left."
The biographer who relates this experience further observes that in later years, when Mrs. Eddy was referring to her healing work, she pointed our that many times the first error held by a patient is the false belief that man created him and that life is here in the form of mortality. Instead, she taught that each one has to find out that this material birth, existence, and death are an illusion and the opposite of Truth; that this illusion has nothing to do with man, but is the opposite of man. This false concept has to be replaced so that man and the Principle of man may be understood and demonstrated.(14)
Then isn't it possible that false belief could have been at the root of all the ills and troubles of mankind? Isn't the great need one of being undeceived by the false testimony of the mortal senses to find that right where mortality seems to be, right there is the kingdom and power and the glory of God?
A renowned [historian], Arnold J. Toynbee, was quoted by the New York Times as saying: "The new worlds with whose life it is now most urgent for us to make contact are the spiritual worlds within ourselves." Jesus, who articulated the Christ Science, had clarified that urgency in all his teaching and preaching and healing.
The Master's healing of the man with the withered hand illustrates how Jesus' spiritual understanding of the allness of Truth produced immediate evidence of wholeness and health. Time was never a factor in his healing accomplishments. Truth always triumphant over error was his premise and conclusion. It's on that same basis that the future can be redeemed, because the future isn't correctly defined by a human concept of time.
The Discoverer of Christian Science says "Mind measures time according to the good that is unfolded."(15) And the great Paul wrote "behold, now is the accepted time."(16)
The now that is the accepted time refers to the present, or the presence of God and His manifestation, spiritual man.
On this healing occasion Christ Jesus had gone to the synagogue to attend the church services. A stonemason was there who had a shriveled hand which fouled up not only his well-being but his employment, his livelihood, because he made his living with his hands. The Scriptural account reads, "And he entered again into the synagogue; and there was a man there which had a withered hand. . . . And when he had looked round about on them . . . . he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other."(17)
The Master Metaphysician wasn't intimidated by the appearance of the seriousness or permanence of the condition. He had proved so many times the supremacy of Spirit, it was obvious that he was dealing with a false concept or belief of life in matter, which couldn't resist his understanding of what was already true. The great Teacher didn't examine the hand, didn't massage or manipulate it. He didn't say "What you need is some good physical therapy." Moreover he didn't say, "Sorry, my friend, you'll just have to live with it and do the best you can."
He instantaneously restored the hand, whole as the other. How? Through divinely mental means alone. He was equipped for the healing work only with his consciousness. And he was outspoken about expecting his followers to do the works he did — and as he did — turning from material means entirely to the power of God in action on human minds and bodies — to quit looking to matter for reliable information and turn to the power of God in action on all that concerns us, to awaken to the fact that God, Spirit, is supreme in the physical realm because God's law takes precedence over all else.
Jesus' theology, his comprehension of God, was his medicine, obviously his surgery, and his redeeming power.
Mrs. Eddy comments on the Master's teaching us to walk over, not into or with the prevailing currents of matter, of mortal mind, — that Jesus' healing work was really contrary to human philosophy or even physics when he annulled the laws of matter, showing them to be laws of mortal mind, not of God. We read: "Jesus stooped not to human consciousness, nor to the evidence of the senses. He heeded not the taunt, 'That withered hand looks very real and feels very real; . . .' neither red tape nor indignity hindered the divine process. Jesus required neither cycles of time nor thought in order to mature fitness for perfection and its possibilities. He said that the kingdom of heaven is here."(18)
The laws of matter were annulled — without any requirement of time — through the higher laws of God, proving the laws of matter to be unavailing because not of God. Whatever is not of God is totally lacking in power or even presence.
The Master Christian had control over his own life and what he did for others, for the world, through his own consciousness, in constant relation with God.
Falsities simply couldn't exist in the presence of Truth then and they can't now. Truth was powerful then, and it is now. The opposite of Truth was powerless then, and it is powerless now. That which has no Truth could in no way have a past, present, or a future.
Yet throughout material history, general belief has in a large measure overlooked the Master's teaching and exemplification of spiritual existence as the present fact. To heed the Master's teaching to call no man your father upon the earth because your Father is God, is to reason rightly and to be set free from the conjectural "Once upon a time" theory — or in other words — to be free of the theory of the beginning of life in matter.
There are theories and human beliefs all over the place, but Christ Jesus said "ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."(19)
In a letter Mrs. Eddy wrote to a student, she refers to God, Truth, as the healer when she says, "Do not forget to be strong in the clear consciousness that you are able to heal, and no counter mind can make you weak for a moment through fear or a lack of confidence in your power or rather understanding. Remember God, Truth, is the healer, the balm in Gilead, and our only Physician, and can never be insufficient for all things."(20)
If, as the Great Exemplar illustrated, problems of the human sense are the result of false beliefs — whether labeled past, present, or future — the remedy must be found in knowing the truth, the sufficiency of God for all things.
Many things that surface for healing originate with the belief of a mortal beginning, fleshly inheritance.
Yet doesn't the prophet Ezekiel put forth an arresting counter fact regarding the influence of fleshly factors: "The word of the Lord came unto me again, saying, What mean ye, that ye use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge? As I live, saith the Lord God, ye shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel."(21)
His account of man's immunity from his forefathers' actions, traits, and characteristics, infers the unwisdom of believing in fleshly inheritances. And, along with the Master's position about divine Fatherhood and present divine sonship, doesn't it present a viable challenge to thought as to whether eternal Life has actually ever been interrupted by material birth?
Under a heading "No fleshly heredity," Science and Health points out that the transmission of disease wouldn't be possible if it were learned that "nothing inharmonious can enter being, for Life is God." It continues, "Heredity is a prolific subject for mortal belief to pin theories upon; but if we learn that nothing is real but the right, we shall have no dangerous inheritances, and fleshly ills will disappear."(22)
Material genes are currently the subject for much media attention, being widely considered as the determining factor in what you are and what you do. The prevailing theory about the action of the gene — that it perpetuates family characteristics, as well as traits of nations and races, happens to be contrary to the Scriptural account of man made in the image and likeness of God, and its spiritual basis of like Father, like son.
From that basis, couldn't we consider that the real determining power of all that constitutes body and action is in the all-knowing, all-determining Mind of man, God?
And couldn't we conclude that that which produces our distinct and eternal individuality could come only from the one creator, God, before whom we are to have no other gods, according to the Bible?
The world is in just as great need of being spiritually informed and consequently healed now as when Jesus went about his instructive mission of expressing daily his divine selfhood, the Christ. But in no way did he ever claim a monopoly of the Christ. Instead he set the example for us in choosing to let the Christ monopolize him.
What is the relation of the Christ of Truth to discords of past, or present, or future? It's the same relation as the relation of Truth to any lie. Truth destroys the lie. Christ Jesus said he came to do the will of his Father and in doing God's will he destroyed sickness, discords of all kinds. Then we ask are they real or do they constitute a lie? We redeem the past when we square today's thinking about the past with the knowledge of the forever goodness of God. All the good the past hath had remains — and that's all that could remain because nothing else was ever true. Christ Jesus' Christianity is the model for a redeemable past and future.
So there's good reason to heed the counsel of the Scriptures, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus."(23) The Mind which was in Christ Jesus was expressed with supremacy and power, and loving care for all mankind. As the Psalmist perceived, "The fortunes of the upright are the Eternal's care."(24)
That the fortunes of the upright — or one who thinks rightly, spiritually — are cared for by God, whenever and wherever the occasion, regardless of time, was illustrated in the experience of another friend of mine.
In early 1973, while he was teaching at the University of Ile-Ife in Nigeria, he became seriously ill. In the hospital he underwent extensive laboratory tests and was examined by many physicians. The test showed his red blood cells were diminishing, and the condition was diagnosed as leukemia.
One of the doctors suggested that more effective treatment might be sought in America, as the symptoms were alarming. He had extreme weakness and great pain, and could eat very little. His wife and he discussed the gravity of the situation, as he had already lost forty pounds. He had earlier done postgraduate work in Canada, so that was where he went for more specialized treatment.
The hospital there put him through a series of tests, including x-rays, bone marrow, sugar, and barium meal test. He was told, and it was later confirmed by still another doctor, that the earlier diagnosis of leukemia was correct. Then he was informed that the doctors felt his condition had deteriorated too far to be helped medically.
In his earlier student years in Canada, he had passed a Christian Science Church in Toronto every day on his way to the University but had had no interest in it. In fact, he said when he read the name "Christian Science," he thought it interesting that Science and Christianity could be related.
On the day he spoke with the doctor about the grim test results, however, he remembered a Bible passage he'd seen in the window of the Christian Science Reading Room. It had referred to God, who "healeth all thy diseases." He looked up the number of the Reading Room in a telephone directory to call the librarian to inquire about that statement. The librarian answered his questions and upon his request, gave him the names of Christian Science practitioners in his area.
He called a practitioner that evening and requested help through prayer. He went to bed and slept through the night peacefully — something which hadn't occurred for several months. He awoke with absolutely no symptoms of leukemia. There was no more pain or weakness and he was hungry. His wife prepared a big breakfast for him. When he was finished, she asked what he planned to do next, and he told her that he would like another big breakfast. So he had a double breakfast that morning. In a few weeks he had regained all the lost weight.
Three days after he sought Christian Science treatment, he returned to the doctor to cancel the scheduled treatments, informing him that the symptoms had entirely disappeared. The doctor was reluctant to release him, so there were then more laboratory tests which confirmed the healing. In my friend's own words, "I was so grateful to God. This healing was the beginning of my true liberation."
This healing has been verified, with the names of the doctors and the hospitals on file. And I've seen him in glowing health and radiating the joy that accomplished his freedom.
Divine healing is an essential element of Christianity. In fact the Christian Science Church was organized to "reinstate primitive Christianity and its lost element of healing" — as Mrs. Eddy worded it.(25)
Truth's healing remedy is the Life-giving power of Truth acting to eliminate false beliefs. Christ Jesus, the great Way-shower, showed us the way in his bringing the Christ or Truth upon the widely believed theory of life, substance, or mind in matter. His healing ministry set before us unmistakable proof that, as recorded in the Johannine writings, "Christ (is) the Saviour of the world."(26) And the Christ, so magnificently embodied by Jesus, has never left.
That's why Paul could write, "behold now is the day of salvation."(27)
Behold, now we have the inspired teaching of the Galilean Prophet, who understood better than anyone else what acquainting oneself with God really means to the redeeming art. Jesus' work of redemption and salvation wasn't confined in any time-space continuum. His consistent approach in all problems was that the law of God always governs man — always has and always will. He acted as if God's presence is an ever-available healing presence.
That ever-available healing presence for him is today an ever-available healing presence for you and me. It will redeem us from all false beliefs of past, present, or future, when we acquaint ourselves with Spirit, God, through spiritualization of consciousness.
Christian Science accords with Christ's Christianity and follows the teachings of the Master who showed to the world the superiority of spiritual over physical power.
The Bible tells us to "Rejoice in the Lord alway."(28) Mrs. Eddy observes, "And why not, since man's possibilities are infinite, bliss is eternal, and the consciousness thereof is here and now?"(29)
With possibilities that are infinite, unlimited in any way for you; with bliss that is eternal and true without any time reference — past, present, or future; and with the consciousness thereof available right here and available right now, there is every reason to rejoice.
The future is indeed redeemable. Christ's Christianity heals!
1. Matthew 23:9
2. S&H p. 330:19
3. Peo. p. 6:28
4. S&H p. 587:5
5. Genesis 1:26
6. S&H p. xi:9-15
7. John 1:17, Moffatt
8. Hea. p. 6:21
9. Acts 9:3-5
10. Col. 3:9,10 (J.B. Phillips, The New Testament)
11. Rom. 8:7
12. James
5:16
13. Col. 1:27
14. Twelve Years With Mary Baker Eddy, Tomlinson p. 53-54
15. S&H p. 584:5-6
16. II Cor. 6:2
17. Mark 3:1,3,5
18. Un. p. 11:14-17 & p. 11:23-26
19. John 8:32
20. Historical Sketches, Clifford Smith, p. 229
21. Ezek. 18:1-3
22. S&H p. 228:5-10
23. Phil. 2:5
24. Ps. 37:18, Moffatt
25. Manual, p. 17
26. John 4:42
27. II Cor.6:2
28. Phil. 4:4
29. Misc. p. 330:11-13
[Note: The original lecture stated that Arnold J. Toynbee was a physical scientist. He was actually a historian, and this fact has been substituted in brackets above.]