The freshness of Christian Science treatment

James Spencer | from The Christian Science Journal

There’s nothing formulaic about Christian Science treatment, a spiritually based approach to perceiving spiritual facts that heal.

Treatment in Christian Science, or healing through prayer, is definitely not staid or formulaic—a materially structured way of addressing a materially structured abnormality. It’s just the opposite. It’s a fresh, vital, spiritually based approach to perceiving spiritual facts. Those facts are the way things actually are, the way God has fashioned them and maintains them under His own loving care. No matter how things appear to be, the facts of our being are entirely good, because our creator, God, is good. And discerning those facts through divine inspiration has a direct healing effect on our experience, including the physical body. This spiritually based approach to healing expresses a higher sense than physical seeing and reasoning. It destroys abnormalities by revealing their falsity—their impossibility in the allness of good.

Christian Science treatment in any instance is entirely individual and inspirational.

Christian Science treatment in any instance is entirely individual and inspirational. The most important thing isn’t so much the process—for instance, merely affirming specific spiritual truths—but the reality that’s glimpsed and the result that comes as the process fades into the background. Mary Baker Eddy writes in Science and Health, “By the truthful arguments you employ, and especially by the spirit of Truth and Love which you entertain, you will heal the sick” (Science and Health, p. 418). The “spirit of Truth and Love” is primary, and it comes through listening to God, divine Mind, as we pray. Humbly listening to what God is telling us brings freshness and spontaneity to our prayers.

For instance, some time ago I had been experiencing a long session of severe pain. I had been attempting to bring my thought more into line with the reality of God and His perfection—His goodness, His allness, His onliness, and man’s real being as His expression. I was attempting to “[bring] into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (II Cor. 10:5), to use St. Paul’s words. But I’ll admit this process was more in the line of intellectual wrestling than of spiritual inspiration.

One day I was looking out at some magnificent mountains that reminded me of the Bible passage, “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help” (Ps. 121:1). I thought: “My help doesn’t come from hills or mountains. It comes from God.” Then I recalled something I had read from Science and Health: “Spiritually interpreted, rocks and mountains stand for solid and grand ideas” (Science and Health, p. 511). This gave me new insight into the Bible passage and replaced my intellectual wrestling with a flood of spiritual realization. I sensed that my help came from the solid and grand ideas of Spirit, God, that the mountains represented: changeless good, enduring beauty, unmovable strength.

A loving Mother-Father God would never inflict pain on Her/His own creation.

It became clearer to me that a loving Mother-Father God would never inflict pain on Her/His own creation. This would be impossible, because God, divine Mind, who is absolutely All and fills all space, could never know anything outside His own allness. And since God is totally good, He could know and express only His own goodness and perfection. The image that He holds of Himself would have to be beautiful, free, and good. That image is man, made in His own likeness.

With these fresh ideas came another line from Science and Health: “According to divine Science, man is in a degree as perfect as the Mind that forms him” (Science and Health, p. 337). The word degree took on a new meaning. I saw that degree in this context didn’t mean a partial amount but an exact measure. The image must be just like the original in every way. At that moment fear of continuing disability began to fade. I felt more confidence in God’s unchanging love. Human reasoning was giving place to a conscious feel of the rightness and inevitability of God’s care.

The quiet study I had been doing from the Bible and Mrs. Eddy’s writings, the spiritual reasoning, the attempts to conform more fully to Jesus’ instructions in his Sermon on the Mount—all of these played a part in moving my thought from an intellectual to an inspirational standpoint. Christian Science treatment, the operation of the law of God, was working in my experience.

I caught some glimpse of the fact that God was really the only source of my being.

Then, without reasoning and without arguments of truth, I caught some glimpse of the fact that God was really the only source of my being; that His goodness and allness and perfection were reflected by man—and that this was true of me. Even that brief and small glimpse of reality was enough. In that very moment the long-standing pain disappeared. It didn’t get less. It didn’t go anywhere. It just wasn’t. That was Christian Science healing. It was the result of the Christ active in my consciousness.

Christ is the divine influence of God, the message of divine Love to humanity, purifying and uplifting human consciousness. Christ can never be locked out. God’s saving influence is universal, and speaks in every language, to every culture, and through all time. Christ was the essence of Jesus’ life. The Master demonstrated the divine nature and action through his works. In the healing process, the Christ brings to light specific facts we need to know, and uncovers pointed faults we need to put off. Nothing can hide from the brilliant light of Christ. We find this light in the knowledge of God and in humbly turning to Him. Christ lifts our daily lives to new heights.

One time I had to sift through a large shipment of floor tiles of varying shades of white. I needed to set aside a sufficient number of consistently white ones. Time and again my pile would start with pure white tiles, and then I’d find I had been accepting a number of inferior ones. My standard was always falling. So I took a pure white tile and set it in front of me. Then I used it as a standard by which to measure each tile. My work was quickly accomplished without a hitch!

What heals is the clear perception of spiritual truth and the irrefutable integrity of that truth.

The Christ often leads us to argue down things that don’t come up to the divine standard. One might reason, for instance, from the basis of the allness of God and then conclude that sickness, grief, or lack is no part of that allness and therefore has no validity. Or one might reason from the basis of the perfection of divine Principle, God, the supreme lawmaker, and then conclude that suffering and abnormality have no part in Principle and no law to sustain them. Therefore they must yield to the corrective power of God. It’s not such reasoning itself, or arguing, that actually heals. What heals is the clear perception of spiritual truth and the irrefutable integrity of the changeless facts that are brought to light by the argument. No formulaic approach to prayer can bring such light. It comes only by yielding to the divine Mind and its always-unfolding truth.

The listening thought guided by Christ can show us what needs correcting in our lives. The Bible tells of Jesus’ healing a man who had been lame for thirty-eight years. The account indicates that the Master discerned some underlying wrongdoing in the man’s life and freed him from it. That wrong couldn’t possibly be part of his true being, because God, who is Love, impels goodness; divine Spirit impels purity. Jesus bore witness to the man’s true, sinless nature as God’s likeness. The result was complete freedom. The man got up and walked. Jesus said, “Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee” (John 5:14).

Life-renewing ideas from our divine source are always available.

Healing in Christian Science is always vital and refreshing because it springs from the boundless inspiration of Spirit and never leaves us at the same point. Whether we’re praying for ourselves or are the recipient of prayer, the life-renewing ideas from our divine source are always available. They restore us mentally and morally and heal us physically. Science and Health puts it this way: “The genuine Christian Scientist is adding to his patient’s mental and moral power, and is increasing his patient’s spirituality while restoring him physically through divine Love” (Science and Health, p. 375).

It’s the fresh realization of this Love, and the joy that comes from that realization, that enable us to know more of our wonderful God and His creation—and to find healing.