Dr. Walton Hubbard, C.S.B., of Los Angeles, California
Member of the Board of Lectureship of The
Mother Church,
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts
A lecture on Christian Science was given under the auspices of Fourteenth Church of Christ, Scientist, of Chicago, in the church edifice, Sunnyside Avenue and North Paulina Street, Friday evening, May 6, by Dr. Walton Hubbard, C.S.B., of Los Angeles, California, member of the Board of Lectureship of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts.
The subject of the lecture was "Christian Science: Its Healing Ministry." Dr. Hubbard spoke substantially as follows:
Were it possible to call upon the students of Christian Science who form a large portion of this audience to explain the reason for their presence here and their allegiance to Christian Science, it would be found that most of them have been healed by Christian Science of sicknesses which have defied other methods of treatment. And the range of these sicknesses which have been healed would be found to be so wide and so varied as to indicate with certainty that the law of God, as taught and applied in Christian Science, heals all manner of sickness and sin.
While the growth of the Christian Science movement has been exceptional since its discovery by Mary Baker Eddy but little more than seventy years ago, it would no doubt be much more rapid if the people knew the blessings it would confer upon them if they would study and practice it.
In approaching Christian Science one must be willing to give up preconceived notions and prejudices. In my own experience, in order to accept Christian Science, it was necessary for me to recognize that the medical methods which I was using were effective only according to the degree in which they were believed; that is, that the result following the use of material means, when there is a result, is always mental, not material.
It is my intention not only to discuss the teachings of Christian Science, but to tell you something of my own observations in connection with my problem of growing out of the practice of medicine and into the practice of Christian Science. Perhaps these observations may be helpful to some of you.
A discussion of Christian Science may quite properly begin with its Discoverer and Founder, Mary Baker Eddy. Whatever I may say of her in the limited time at our disposal must of necessity be brief. I would earnestly recommend a study of her life. Several biographies are available at Christian Science Reading Rooms, and she has written something of herself in her book "Retrospection and Introspection." To understand how Christian Science unfolded in her consciousness will make it easier for it to unfold in yours.
Mary Baker Eddy was a woman of unusual spirituality and deep religious sense. She was a consistent and tireless student, an analytical student, and through years marked by sickness and trials her profound religious sense led her always to strive to see and to understand the infinite Principle in every blessing which she received. This persistent search for Truth was finally rewarded by the discovery of the divine laws of God, which she named Christian Science.
For three years following her discovery she devoted all of her time to a searching study of the Scriptures, seeking further unfoldment of this revelation. Quoting her own words from page 109 of Science and Health, she says: "I knew the Principle of all harmonious Mind-action to be God, and that cures were produced in primitive Christian healing by holy, uplifting faith; but I must know the Science of this healing, and I won my way to absolute conclusions through divine revelation, reason, and demonstration. The revelation of Truth in the understanding came to me gradually and apparently through divine power."
Jesus declared that spiritual perception is necessary in order to understand his teaching. On one occasion after declaring the grossness of their thought to be the reason the people could not understand him except he spoke in the simplest parables, he commended the spiritual receptivity of his disciples by saying, "But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear." And may I say that the eyes and ears of Mary Baker Eddy were likewise blessed.
Her study of the Scriptures revealed the fact that the entire Bible record teaches conclusively that a right understanding of God has always brought dominion over all material conditions, and that when the knowledge of Truth has been correctly applied, it has always been attended by healing and regeneration. The Scriptures abound in evidence that to understand God brings healing. Especially is the New Testament replete with the statement of the liberty that comes, as Mrs. Eddy declares, through "a right apprehension of Him whom to know aright is Life eternal" (Science and Health, p. vii).
The fact that healing, and the knowledge of Truth by which we are to get it, has been passed over as not meant for this time or for all mankind, has been due to no fault of the Bible in presenting it, but to our attitude of thought in approaching it. Because we have been educated to believe that physical healing must be brought about by material means, we have not deemed it possible that God has provided spiritual healing from sickness and every form of error; so we study the Bible with the view of substantiating our preconceived notions about what the Bible ought to teach. We are led through the study of Christian Science to stop viewing man as sick and sinning and to accept the fact of his righteousness and dominion which is insisted upon throughout the Bible, and to endeavor to manifest this dominion over all things.
Luke says of Jesus' teaching, "Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures." It is the common experience of those who study Christian Science that their understanding is opened so that they understand the Scriptures.
Now there can be but one reason to account for the light that is thus thrown upon the Scriptures, and that is, that the teachings of Christian Science give the student the same spiritual viewpoint as that of the inspired writers of the Bible, and thus make their writings plain.
Mrs. Eddy has also provided Bible helps of immense value to the searcher for Truth. In this connection, an interesting thing about the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," is that the "Key to the Scriptures" is a separate and distinct part of the volume, with its own heading and flyleaf. It includes the chapters Genesis, Apocalypse, and Glossary.
The opening statement of this latter chapter is very important. Let me quote it as follows (Science and Health, p. 579): "In Christian Science we learn that the substitution of the spiritual for the material definition of a Scriptural word often elucidates the meaning of the inspired writer. On this account this chapter is added. It contains the metaphysical interpretation of Bible terms, giving their spiritual sense, which is also their original meaning." Note that Mrs. Eddy declares that the definitions of Bible words which appear in the Glossary are their original meaning.
Biblical writers seem to delight in metaphors, and in allegorical statements of spiritual facts. As students of Christian Science follow out Mrs. Eddy's instruction and substitute the spiritual for the material definition, the Scriptures are marvelously unfolded. In the chapters Genesis and Apocalypse, the latter being the Revelation of St. John, the author has commented upon and interpreted metaphysically many verses of the inspired writing.
The student of Christian Science possessing an understanding which is at one with the inspired writer, an understanding of the metaphysical meaning of Biblical words and terms as given in the Glossary and the metaphysical interpretation of Genesis and the Apocalypse, together with other Scriptural interpretations in which Mrs. Eddy's writings abound, finds himself in possession of the "Key to the Scriptures," and he recognizes clearly that primitive Christian healing has been restored to the world through the teachings of Christian Science.
Why is it so important that the healing of sickness should be brought about through the use of spiritual means? Would not the healing of sin be enough to expect of one's religion? It is the contention of Christian Science that the law of God inevitably heals all discord, and we are usually much more desirous of getting rid of sickness than of sin. We are uncomfortably conscious of disease, while we frequently fail to recognize the most consuming mental discords and sins. The application of Christian Science in the healing of disease enables us to become more proficient in its use, and more grateful for its blessings, and helps to awaken us to the need of destroying sin and every other discordant condition.
The usual reason for people turning to spiritual means for healing is that the use of material means for the alleviation of their sicknesses has been so disappointing. The history of medicine over the past hundreds of years has been one of constant change. New remedies and new measures are constantly brought forth and marvelous things are claimed for them, only to be discarded later on for newer remedies or newer measures, in which, for the moment, there is greater faith. They are effective only to the degree in which they are believed.
At the time I graduated from medical college, a new and wonderful remedy was advocated for the treatment of pneumonia. Several medical journals were full of the records of the almost instantaneous cures which had come about through its use. The reports were from hospitals where there were many cases, and where every case received this same treatment which was said to be invariably effective. I cannot doubt but that the physicians who were using the remedy and reporting the cures were really having the marvelous results which they described, yet, within a year I tried it without the slightest result. It was effective in the hands of those who thoroughly believed in it, but of no effect in the hands of one with only mild expectation of its potency.
Another incident along this same line will illustrate this point further. An article describing a certain method of treatment appeared in a well-known medical journal. The physician who wrote the article was a man of my own acquaintance living in a distant city, and I wrote to him for further corroboration of the results which he claimed for his method. He declared that it was always successful with him, yet I could get no results although I carried out his instructions faithfully. Evidently he had full faith in the method and got results, while I was neutral in my thinking, which did not give it the necessary mental support.
A few years ago two well-known and reputable physicians brought forth a method of treatment which evidently was very highly successful in their hands in curing a prevalent disease which had largely resisted both medical and surgical efforts to heal. These physicians proceeded cautiously. They wanted to safeguard their method from any unethical exploitation. They established clinics in two large cities and carried on their work with the greatest ethical regularity and dignity. There was no hint of any mercenary motive, but rather the motive was evidently to help suffering humanity. At first the newspapers told stories of improvement in cases under treatment, but shortly nothing more was said. Three or four years later I came across a small item in a daily paper which mentioned the men and method and described their former clinical effort as a fiasco.
No doubt they had results while the method was supported by their own enthusiastic faith in it, and while it was sheltered from mental opposition during the experimental stages of its use. But the method could not withstand the negative thinking of a doubting medical profession, and so failed completely when it came out from under the sheltering wing of its sponsors.
During the time I practiced medicine I discussed the use of drugs with my physician friends and discovered what at first was quite disturbing to me; that we all had our favorite drugs. Each one got good results from some drug which was without any results in the hands of another. Each one got results from the particular drug in which he had faith, and yet no one recognized that it was his own thinking which gave to the drug or took away from the drug its false claim of power to heal.
If you observe such things you will notice from time to time front-page newspaper statements of some great medical or bacteriological discovery which it is believed will accomplish wonders. Do not believe them. Reserve judgment. You may mentally pigeonhole such items, but do not accept them. Such statements only mean that a laboratory physician has become convinced that he has discovered or developed something; but whether or not it ever becomes established in medical practice depends on whether it can run the gauntlet of the pessimistic professional opposition which it will receive. There is a large mortality among such discoveries. In three or four years we may learn whether it has become an accepted medical belief or has lapsed into oblivion.
Sometimes in the continued changes that are coming about, there may even be a return in modified form to old methods thought to have been outgrown. Years ago blood-letting was thought to be a helpful procedure. But for a long time it has not been in vogue, having been discarded as a foolish and useless method, yet a new and revised form of it came to my attention quite recently. A certain man was suffering from what was said to be an inflammation of a nerve in his hand and arm. A physician who had just returned from postgraduate work abroad proposed to give the man a small transfusion of blood, claiming that it would heal the condition. The remarkable thing about it was that he proposed to take the blood from the patient, and then put it back again. In other words, the blood that was to effect this healing was already flowing in the patient's veins. I am unable to say whether there would have been enough faith in this procedure to show any result. Probably not, for it seemed unreasonable to the sufferer, and he turned to Christian Science for help and was healed.
In all that I have said there is not the slightest desire to criticize the medical profession. In the main, it is made up of great and good men who are honestly and earnestly endeavoring to alleviate sickness and suffering, and who are doing great good. But this does not alter the fact that the weapons of their warfare are carnal, while the weapons of Christian Science are spiritual.
In practicing medicine, I soon found that there is a mental element in every case, and as it was obvious that this mental element could not be reached by any material means, I began to try to estimate just how large a factor the mental element was in every case that came to me. At first I thought that some diseases were quite largely physical and others quite largely mental, but as time went on, my observation of the mental side of the question became more keen, so that I saw that many types of sickness were wholly mental, and finally I came to see that they were all entirely and completely mental.
Now this did not mean that I became a Christian Scientist when I arrived at this point. It only meant that I had come to recognize that all disease is mental. However, since I had so large a mental question to deal with, which at that time the medical profession almost wholly ignored, I decided that I would study the question of mental healing from every standpoint from which it had been presented, with the view of finding in all these writings the presentation of the same principle. I was convinced that this would give me a broader view of the question than could be obtained from any single one of them, and that with this knowledge I would be able to accomplish healing. With this thought I studied everything I could find from mental therapeutics to Christian Science. And as I studied, I saw that they were all alike except one, and that one was Christian Science.
Christian Science was the only one that refused to admit that anything that God had made was imperfect, or could become imperfect; was sick when He created it, or had within it any God-given quality that could allow it to become sick. It was the only one in which there was no compromise with matter, and which dared to deny the reality of the material world, the flesh and the devil, because in their essential nature they are contrary to His creative perfection and spirituality. It was the only method that dared to deny the actual existence of anything unlike God, and it was therefore the only one that offered hope of healing after every material means had failed.
And yet, having arrived at this point I was filled with fear; for I saw that the spirituality of Christian Science would not mix with the materiality of my profession, and I did not want to give up the practice of medicine. But the leaven of Truth was working in my consciousness, and I was drawn to it with greater and greater conviction until at last I gave up the practice of medicine and began to practice Christian Science.
Christian Science declares itself to be the law of God. It further declares that this law is demonstrably true; that we may understand it, that we may apply it, and that the results will prove its truth.
Obviously, if we are to understand God's law, we must first understand the nature of God. And in order that the nature of God may unfold in our thought, we must contemplate the Supreme Being, we must dwell upon His nature and character. Men have so contemplated God in times past, and they have called the Supreme Being by the name of the quality in which God has been revealed to them. So God is Elohim, the all-powerful. He is Jehovah, the eternal Being, who was and who is and who will be. He is Spirit. He is Life, Truth, and Love. He is all of these because men recognized in Him the qualities and characteristics which these terms bespeak.
The Bible speaks of God as Spirit, as Life, as Truth, and as Love. It also speaks of Him as the creator — that from which all proceeds. This thought is expressed in Christian Science by the use of the word Principle for God, since Principle is that from which all proceeds and by which it exists.
Mrs. Eddy has also given us the term Father-Mother, by which there is brought to consciousness the completeness of the divinity, the motherhood as well as the fatherhood of God, and also a larger thought of God as Love. When we think of God the Father, our thought of Him is limited by our earthly sense of fatherhood, which no matter how complete, is still lacking in the fullness of those qualities of love and tenderness which the mother-thought expresses. The word Spirit, as used in Genesis, and the word which is translated Almighty God, had something of this same thought of motherhood, but through the difficulties in translating these words this phase of their meaning has been lost to us.
No matter by what term we may think of God, whether it be as infinite Life, or infinite Principle, or infinite Mind, a logical deduction as to the nature of man and the creation will always bring us to the same point — that of the eternal perfection of all that God has made, and the unreality of sickness and all that is contrary to His divine nature. The only way we can fail to arrive at this conclusion is by making no effort to understand the divine nature, and by insisting that the sicknesses and sins which we see about us are in some way in accordance with His infinite and loving design.
It should be obvious that infinite Life cannot be made manifest in death. Nor can infinite Life be made manifest in sickness, for sickness may ultimate in death. Infinite Life can only be made manifest in life and health.
God, who is infinite Truth, cannot be made manifest in sickness, for every idea of Truth is in absolute harmonious accord with every other idea of Truth, just as one mathematical truth is in harmony with every other mathematical truth. Infinite Truth can tolerate no inharmony, even though it calls itself sickness and claims to be true.
God, who is infinite Love, cannot do less for His children than to manifest that Love and supply them with infinite good, and infinite good does not include sickness. What earthly father, as a manifestation of love for his child, would bring sickness upon it if he could prevent it? "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?"
When we consider God as Principle, that from which all proceeds, we find it impossible to conceive of both sickness and health proceeding from this one infinite Principle, and yet there is no other source from which anything could come, for, as John declares, "without him was not any thing made that was made."
When we consider God as Mind, we arrive at this same conclusion, for the manifestation of Mind is thought, and the thoughts of infinite Mind are not sick thoughts, but perfect and healthful and holy.
Now, we have been discussing the nature of God, and our relationship to Him. Let us see if we cannot become sufficiently conscious of this relationship to destroy some erroneous belief which we may be entertaining. In my own experience I have found that the concept of God as Mind is the simplest one from which to reason. Mrs. Eddy has said on page 467 of Science and Health, "Reasoning from cause to effect in the Science of Mind, we begin with Mind, which must be understood through the idea which expresses it and cannot be learned from its opposite, matter." So, in undertaking to determine what man is, let us go back as far as possible to a beginning. And this beginning must be some conclusion which we entertain with absolute certainty. Some excellent results in healing have been obtained by simply declaring spiritual truths, but continued and consistent results are attained through an actual consciousness of Truth.
I am sure that we are all convinced that there is divine intelligence. We are just as certain of it as we are of our own existence. Who can contemplate the heavens without recognizing that there is divine intelligence? David realized it when he said, "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork." And there is a line in one of our hymns to which we can all subscribe, "In beauty, grandeur, order, His handiwork is shown."
So we are certain of divine intelligence. But there can be no intelligence without Mind, for intelligence is the activity, the expression, the quality of divine Mind. If we are certain of intelligence, we must be just as certain of Mind, as certain of it as we are of our own existence.
It is evident that the sole and only function of Mind is in expressing ideas. On page 256 of Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy puts this fact in very concrete form by saying, "Infinite Mind is the creator, and creation is the infinite image or idea emanating from this Mind." Again, Mrs. Eddy declares on page 503 of Science and Health: "This creation consists of the unfolding of spiritual ideas and their identities, which are embraced in the infinite Mind and forever reflected. These ideas range from the infinitesimal to infinity, and the highest ideas are the sons and daughters of God." Surely we can entertain these truths with certainty and conviction.
Having then accepted these interrelated facts, let us take the next logical step and "move in" on this conclusion. That is, let us not only admit, but insist, that we are ideas in divine Mind.
Presuming, then, that we have admitted it, or better still that we have accepted it to the limit of our ability, let us take the consequences of this admission, this acceptance. And the consequences are portentous, for it means that in our real being, we are spiritual and perfect. It means that every function, action, and expression which we manifest as children of God, comes from the one perfect Mind in which we exist. Thus we are setting up a divine ideal in human consciousness, and it is essential that we do this, and that we make every effort to hold it, to permanently entertain it. With a clear realization of our true selfhood in Mind, we can see the falsity and deny the reality of any error which has gained admission to our thought.
Whatever of strength the sicknesses and discord which fret and disturb human consciousness seem to possess, lies in the belief that they are conditions and effects of matter, and that matter is substance and is governed in all its conditions by laws pertaining to itself.
It would be much easier to be rid of sickness if we could gain the actual realization, through an understanding of Christian Science, that there is no matter. The proposition is very simple in its statement. It is this: since God is All, and God is Spirit, there is no matter. But in practice, it is not quite so simple, for the reason that we are beset on every hand by the insistence of the human or mortal mind that the supposed laws of matter are valid and real.
If we accept the proposition that divine Mind and its ideas constitute all reality, we have definitely done away with matter, because matter is not included in this spiritual declaration which defines the complete creation. So Christian Science definitely declares that there is no matter.
In logic this is obviously correct, but what are we going to do about it? How are we to account for all the objects and things which we have thought of as matter? Christian Science teaches that they are beliefs, false mental concepts, and it is perfectly logical in doing this; for it is evident that all reality is embraced in divine Mind and its idea, or, as the Christian Science textbook also states it, "God and His thoughts" (Science and Health, p. 114).
Any other thoughts which we accept are but lies about God's thoughts. The objects of sense which we call matter, and the material body, are included in this category. They are false mental concepts. They are beliefs. They do not express God's nature or perfection.
The recognition that the things which we have called matter are not matter, because there is no matter, and that they are but beliefs, does not change their qualities. A piece of wood is just as hard and just as heavy when it is seen as a belief as ever it was when it was thought of as matter. It is a form of mortal thought with various counterfeit qualities, which include form and color and size.
It should not seem difficult to recognize that there are forms of thought that we may see and touch as well as perceive. Through continued alertness in our thinking, we are able to see beliefs where before we saw material objects, and the strength of an error is more readily broken when it is seen as a deceptive belief, and not as matter.
It should be noted that Mrs. Eddy uses the word belief to indicate the counterfeit of, or lie about an idea. Thus it never indicates other than that which is falsely mental. Great care should be taken to see that when we call a material object a belief, we really recognize it to be falsely mental and cease thinking of it as matter. Remember that belief is not another name for matter; rather that matter is another name for belief. To recognize the body as a belief, a part of human consciousness, and not as matter, begins at once to free us from the false laws of matter, and makes it easier to heal the body.
Having set forth a method by which the nothingness of matter becomes more evident to us, let us again declare the spiritual facts about God and his man in an effort to further realize man's perfection.
Let us begin with Mind. We are certain of infinite Mind because we see unquestioned evidences of divine intelligence. We recognize that divine Mind can only be expressed in ideas. We are certain that these ideas are as perfect as the Mind which forms them, hence that man is altogether perfect and spiritual. In Miscellany (p. 242) Mrs. Eddy declares, "Unless you fully perceive that you are the child of God, hence perfect, you have no Principle to demonstrate and no rule for its demonstration." We can realize our perfection now, and we can apply it to some sense of sickness, or discord, or lack. We can become conscious that there is no such entity as matter, that its supposed laws are all false, that its claims are all deceptive, and that in the light of our realization of that which is true about us, we can effectively deny them and refuse to believe them, and we can demonstrate the healing.
Let us not look too long or too closely at error — just a sidelong glance. Just enough to deny that which needs to be destroyed. Then let us return in thought to the contemplation of our true being. Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health (p. 495): "When the illusion of sickness or sin tempts you, cling steadfastly to God and His idea. Allow nothing but His likeness to abide in your thought." She tells us that we should cling steadfastly to God and to His perfect man. Be careful not to cling steadfastly to sick and sinful man through much denying of error together with little realization of Truth.
Having applied Christian Science in any given condition as prayerfully, as thoughtfully, and as completely as we know how to do, we should let the power of Truth operate without wondering every few moments if it is working or if there is anything left unthought or undone. The old saying that "a watched pot never boils," is just another way of saying that impatience makes the result seem slower in appearing. In Christian Science, impatience and anxiety are definitely deterring thoughts and should be destroyed. The child of God is neither impatient nor anxious. On the contrary, he is serene and fearless in the consciousness of his at-one-ment with God.
Does a healing seem delayed, and are hope and faith at a low ebb? Remember that God's child expects only good. He has never experienced anything but good, for there is nothing but good in divine Mind to expect. He is as certain of it as we are of tomorrow's sunrise. The sun has always risen in our experience and we are certain that it always will. So the child of God is fully expectant of good, and this realization builds up hope and faith. Christian Science is God's law, and its declaration and realization heal.
Some who are unfamiliar with Christian Science might ask for proof that it heals, that it annuls so-called material laws. Let me cite one or two instances of healing which occurred in my own experience, where the result was such as to indicate quite definitely the setting aside of material laws. I recall the case of a young man whose arm was badly shattered just below the elbow. Three physicians would not attempt to set it because, they said, the swelling was too great. The material laws that were declared about it were that the result would be a stiffened elbow, that the bones could never be set in proper position because the fracture was too close to the elbow, and that even with an imperfect result, the man would not be able to use the arm for six months.
The result under Christian Science treatment was that the elbow joint was not stiffened in the slightest degree, that without any human effort to set the bones, an X-ray picture taken on the twentieth day showed the bones so perfectly set and so completely healed that it was difficult to detect the points of fracture, and instead of this man being kept from work for six months, the healing was so complete in twenty days that he returned to his work. Mrs. Eddy has recommended in Science and Health (p. 401) that "Until the advancing age admits the efficacy and supremacy of Mind, it is better for Christian Scientists to leave surgery and the adjustment of broken bones and dislocations to the fingers of a surgeon." This was done in this case, but when material efforts failed, the realization that matter and matter's laws are only beliefs, which yield to the supremacy of divine Mind, brought about a perfect result and upset every material calculation.
Another case with which I am personally familiar is that of a young girl who was in an unconscious condition in the last stage of what a consultation of physicians said was tubercular cerebro-spinal-meningitis. The child had had medical treatment from the inception of the disease. In this last extremity Christian Science was called for and the physician dismissed. The child began to recover at once, and during the recovery the physician who had previously been in attendance, hearing that the child had not succumbed, wanted to see her. I was informed that he declared he did not come to interfere; instead he said, "There is a miracle going on here, and I want to see it." Now, the medical belief in this case was that microscopic forms of vegetable life called germs had gained entrance to the membranes of the spinal cord and brain, and that they were growing and developing there, inflaming and destroying these portions of the body to the point where, according to material laws, death was inevitable. But Christian Science set aside these material laws. It destroyed their claim of destructiveness and inevitability. It proved them to be but lying beliefs, which were readily destroyed through the apprehension of spiritual facts.
And what do you suppose became of the germs that were said to be in there, causing all the trouble? When destructive thoughts are believed to be preying on the mental concept called body, and through Christian Science the conviction is entertained that right thoughts, God's thoughts, divine ideas, do not prey upon each other, what happens? Why, the lying beliefs disappear, and the destructive germs cease to be. Easy to see, if we realize that they are only beliefs, false mental concepts; but hard to see if we believe them to be matter. Fortunately, there is no matter.
The various healings which Jesus, the master Christian, brought about are of especial interest to those who are endeavoring to follow his command to heal the sick, for he instructed his disciples to go into all the world and teach all nations to do whatsoever he had commanded them to do, and he certainly commanded his disciples to heal the sick.
Among the recorded healings which Jesus brought about are several where the sufferers were said to be possessed of devils. It seems to have been the accepted belief of that time that the devils came from somewhere and entered into a man, who was possessed of them until they departed and entered into someone or something else. Of course, we all know that in this day a person so suffering is thought to have lost his mind, or to be demented. Now, Jesus healed his cases quickly and certainly. Christian Science also heals insanity today. It would be possible for me to tell of numerous healings. Yet, when Jesus healed his cases, he did not say to them: "Your belief is all wrong. Two thousand years from now the people will be very wise, and they will know that you are not possessed of devils, but that, on the contrary, you have lost your mind, and that is what ails you." No, that is not what he said. He said, "Come out of him, and enter no more into him." That is, he addressed his treatment to the belief of his time. Today, if the belief is that a man has lost his mind, we declare and realize that man possesses and reflects the one, perfect Mind which is infinite. And this truth heals. So, God's law is always available and applicable, no matter what the changing belief may be.
Jesus said a great many things about healing and the requisites for healing. He insisted that to see the kingdom of God it is necessary to be born of the Spirit, and our experience in Christian Science demonstrates that to perceive the power of Truth, it is necessary for one's consciousness to be spiritualized. Jesus described the human qualities which we must be rid of, and the spiritual qualities which must be cultivated. He declared that by following his teaching we would demonstrate an abundance of every good thing, and would be able to withstand storms of error. He taught that prayer must be deep and heartfelt communion with God. Read the chapter on Prayer in the Christian Science textbook and compare it with Jesus' teaching on this subject in his Sermon on the Mount.
While Jesus preached salvation and taught how it was to be gained, on only two occasions does the Bible mention his using the word "salvation." On one of these occasions he said of Zacchaeus, who was the wealthy little man who demonstrated his goodness in honesty and generosity, "This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham." Strong's' Bible Concordance defines "forsomuch" as meaning "as far as," and in Galatians Paul writes, "Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ." So, according to Paul, a "son of Abraham" was one who manifested the Christ. And so I like to think that Jesus said of Zacchaeus, "This day, right now, is salvation come to this consciousness as far as he manifests the Christ." In the twenty-second chapter of Matthew, Jesus also speaks of David's consciousness of the Christ, and there are many other statements throughout the New Testament which indicate that the Christ comes to each one of us, and that Jesus recognized and taught this fact. While Jesus manifested the Christ in fullest measure, the Bible declares that "of his fulness have all we received."
So to each one who studies Christian Science, there comes some consciousness of the Christ. This divine anointing results in healing now as inevitably as it did in Jesus' time, and it brings a definite reward in peace, and healing, and blessing.
[Delivered May 6, 1938, in Fourteenth Church of Christ, Scientist, Sunnyside Avenue and North Paulina Street, Chicago, Illinois, and published in The Chicago Leader, May 20, 1938.]