Your Questions and Answers

from The Christian Science Journal

The two most natural conclusions regarding the nature of evil are flawed or incomplete. The premise that evil does exist flies in the face of the goodness and allness of God; the premise that evil does not exist flies in the face of current experience.

Additionally, the hypothesis that we can be aware of error at one point, but, as we continue to grow, that awareness will fade like a dream, does not stand up to the logic of Truth. If God is all good and All-in-all, there cannot be anything apart from Him (past, present, future) called evil. If we, God’s image and likeness, could be aware of error at any point, remembered or not remembered, then God would not be all good and All-in-all.

Logically, then, we are left with a third possible alternative: We will eventually come to see our current experience, including our thoughts and conclusions about evil, in a different light than we see it right now.

Glimpses of this third alternative view appear throughout the teachings of Christian Science, as exemplified in the following: “We know that all things work together for good to them that love God” (Rom. 8:28); “… what the human mind terms matter and spirit indicates states and stages of consciousness” (Science and Health, p. 573); “The very circumstance, which your suffering sense deems wrathful and afflictive, Love can make an angel entertained unawares” (Science and Health, p. 574).

At present, we patiently explore embryonic truths in answering this question, knowing that the final answer will come to each of us as Truth continues to convey itself in its own way and at the correct moment, as it unfolds the allness of existence.

Timothy MacDonald | Washington, DC, US

First, we need to be clear about what an illusion is. Webster’s Dictionary defines illusion, in part, as “being intellectually deceived or misled.” Christian Science awakens thought to the realization that the real nature of God, Mind, is divine and perfect. Therefore, the mistaken and narrow belief in a limited human intellect is all that’s prone to being deceived.

To be liberated from evil or limitation of any kind, it is scientific to know that just as there is only one Mind, there is only one illusion—the claim that there are human minds that can be conscious of evil in all its different guises. There really is nothing, in the absolute sense, that needs to be precluded by the omnipotence of Mind, because an inadequate human intellect that sees the darkness of evil or argues with the omnipresence of good is a mistaken outlook, with no substance or spiritual truth in it. For example, long ago the human mind emerged from its ignorance that the earth is the center of the universe. Now the time has come for us to let go of the notion that Mind is ever restricted and inadequate.

So to analyze where illusion comes from is not helpful, because such an analysis suggests reality in something that does not exist. What is needed is the God-given understanding that illusion—the tendency toward sickly, unhappy, weak thinking—never was part of reality and therefore never had any substance. Our natural God-derived consciousness is pure, undivided thought, reflecting the divine and perfect, which nothing can confuse or steal away.

I like to ask myself, “Am I going to battle with a personal mind, which is incapable of comprehending the nothingness of illusions? Or am I going to discover, accept, and prove the power of the one divine Mind and let it shine through me?” I’ve found that doing the latter is to demonstrate that by its very nature, omnipresent and omnipotent God does in fact preclude the illusion of the false belief we call evil.

Josephine Pickup | Winchester, Hampshire, England

The unreality of evil is, understandably, not the easiest theological concept to grasp, and is understood as our sense of good increases to such proportions that it becomes obvious that evil and good cannot dwell together. The omnipresence of good excludes the possibility of evil in any way, shape, or form.

Before his crucifixion Jesus assured his followers that he would be raised from the grave. Most did not believe him or even fathom what he was talking about, for their faith in death blinded them to accepting death as unreal. But he eventually proved their belief untrue with his resurrection. Likewise, evil appears real to the mind that believes in it, and the belief is not shattered until good takes over and dominates.

In response to your question of how an illusion can appear real to begin with, the answer lies in understanding that the human mind that believes in the illusion is as unreal as the illusion it is entertaining. “The believer and belief,” wrote Mary Baker Eddy, “are one and are mortal” (Science and Health, p. 487).

I believe the omnipresence of God does preclude the illusion or false belief of evil. In the allness of God, there is no evil, no belief in evil, no experience of evil, and no illusion entertaining a sense of evil. The human mind and its belief in evil are as a dreamer dreaming at night whose fantasy flees at daybreak. Upon awaking, there is no trace of a dreamer or a dream.

If you were sunbathing on Waikiki beach in July, would you worry about frostbite? Doubtful! It’s predictably warm in Honolulu at that time of year, and the possibility of freezing doesn’t present itself. Likewise, in God’s omnipresence there is absolutely no consciousness of evil or even a pretense of evil. God is pure good. That’s it. Nothing to the contrary exists or pretends to exist.

Our salvation from the illusion of evil is to put on the Mind of Christ, where there’s no awareness of anything bad. In this Mind we know only omnipresent good, and evil is simply nothing.

Evan Mehlenbacher | Kennewick, Washington, US

Your Questions and Answers

from The Christian Science Journal

I’ve come to appreciate both the originality of Mary Baker Eddy’s thought and the depth of her spiritual understanding in relation to her discovery of Christian Science. She often found that mistaken assumptions about reality and the nature of Deity underlay a number of the questions that have troubled people through the ages, including the nature of creation.

Questions about both creationism and evolution assume that matter is the substance of existence and being, and that either God created matter or that animal and human development evolved through a process of natural selection. However, Christian Science takes the unique viewpoint that creation is completely spiritual, forever intact and at the point of perfection. The Christian Science position is that God, or Spirit, created the universe, including all men and women, and that because God is Spirit, His/Her creation must also be spiritual, not material.

As Mrs. Eddy put it, “There is nothing in Spirit out of which matter could be made …” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 335). So as we consider the first chapter of Genesis, which relates the creation of the universe, we read that God’s command “Let there be light” was the first moment of creation (Gen. 1:3). Yet the commonly viewed sources of light—the sun and stars—had not yet occurred. Mrs. Eddy tackles this seeming inconsistency head-on, and comments, “Was not this a revelation instead of a creation?” (Science and Health, p. 504).

If we shift our thinking to the spiritual basis of creation—as revelation rather than a point-in-time event—the conflict between the traditional views of creationism and evolution disappears. And with this new viewpoint, we have the basis and foundation to follow in the footsteps of Jesus and reason the way he did. Through his ability to reason from a purely spiritual standpoint, he maintained his view of a perfect, timeless, spiritual creation in the face of some pretty daunting evidence to the contrary: leprosy, blindness, palsy, and even death. Yet his understanding of the truth of the spiritual nature of creation enabled him to heal these cases considered incurable, by demonstrating that spiritual perfection is always intact because it has been established by our Creator.

Sarah Hyatt | Charleston, South Carolina, US

The Bible says, “I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me” (Isa. 45:5). Christian Science supports this statement by discerning creation not as developing matter, but as the revelation of infinite, divine Spirit, with the universe and all creation as wholly spiritual and good. There are not two parallel creations, one spiritual and one material. Dualism is unknown in Spirit’s universe.

Referring to the first verse in Genesis, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth,” Mary Baker Eddy explained: “The infinite has no beginning. This word beginning is employed to signify the only,—that is, the eternal verity and unity of God and man, including the universe” (Science and Health, p. 502). Knowing that the universe has no starting point eradicates the fear that creation will eventually end and also transforms the view that creation took place literally in seven days.

Peter gave the proper perspective when he wrote, “Beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (II Pet. 3:8). If we agree with the Bible’s explanation that God’s creation is infinite, then it follows that creation is a continuing revelation, and our only work for eternity is to discover its beauty and sublimity.

As humanity deals with these questions about evolution/creation, people who view the origin of the universe from a material basis will no doubt continue to find Darwin’s theory of evolution a reasonable explanation of human creation and development. But from the standpoint of the teachings of the divine Science of being, in which “God created man in his own image” (Gen. 1:27), God’s spiritual, perfect, and complete creation is already in existence, and always was. We do not have to graduate through material conditions—or even a material death—in order to become spiritual and immortal. Through our increasing understanding of our true, spiritual nature, we will progressively drop material concepts about creation to see the full revelation of God’s spiritual, divine creation—which has always been intact and present.

Malcolm Jackson | Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

The debate between creationism and evolution that has garnered so much attention recently has an underlying assumption—that matter is the basic building block of creation. The debate seeks to determine who or what created matter and how it developed. To the evolutionist, creation as matter developed as the result of perfectly logical physical processes. To the creationist, God created matter and then left it to develop essentially on its own (but He intervenes now and then when things get out of hand).

Christian Science challenges the basic assumption in that debate and suggests that the key to understanding creation lies along spiritual lines: that divine Spirit is the Creator and that Spirit creates consistently with its own nature. Therefore Spirit cannot create its opposite, matter. Instead, Spirit creates and evidences itself as spiritual ideas and not as material objects.

Christian Science holds that what we term matter is not really a physical phenomenon, but a mental one—that its “substance” comprises material assumptions and beliefs and that matter changes as those assumptions change. In this regard, evolution may be more consistent with the “truth” about matter. Mrs. Eddy spoke to this issue in Science and Health: “Evolution describes the gradations of human belief, but it does not acknowledge the method of divine Mind, nor see that material methods are impossible in divine Science and that all Science is of God, not of man” (p. 551).

So, Christian Science departs from the theory of creationism that proposes that God created matter and also from the theory of evolution that proposes that Mind, God, must be left out of its own creation. Christian Science clears up the debate by showing that creation is in fact a spiritual process with God at its center, creating spiritual ideas, which human theory or material belief (i.e., matter) tries to copy or misinterpret. The only substance to matter is illusion—the erroneous thought we hold about it. True creation comprises the spiritual ideas that God evolves.

Ron Ballard | San Francisco, California, and Ashland, Oregon, US

Your Questions and Answers

from The Christian Science Journal

As a former Hindu, one of the first things I noticed when I became a Christian is the similarity of certain key points in many religious philosophies. One is the idea that when you commit to and carry out a good intention, the result will also be good. This defines, in part, the concept of karma.

However, the notion of karma diverges from Christianity when it states that people are stuck living with past mistakes and are only released from the effects of those mistakes after a certain period of time or after going through a process of redemption and correction. Crimes, natural calamities, and disease, therefore, often lead people in this part of the world to believe that suffering is due to sins committed in the past or in a previous life.

I had similar beliefs about suffering until I came across Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. Science and Health has helped me to view with greater spiritual understanding the nature of Christ Jesus’ healings. Jesus touches my heart with his response to his disciples’ question “Who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?” He tells them, “Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him” (John 9:2, 3). He then healed the blind man. While others were busy questioning why the man was blind, Jesus saw the inherent perfection of this man, as he did with everyone, and the result was instantaneous healing.

Jesus showed us a way to gain freedom from sickness, sin, and death—all unreal masters, as he himself showed—contradicting the belief of bondage due to karma.

Sushil Likhi | Chandigarh, India

In the popular television program My Name is Earl, the main character, a lottery winner, spends each humorous episode trying to correct his past mistakes to improve his karma. My understanding of one important aspect of karma is that for every event that occurs, there will follow another event whose existence was caused by the first, and this second event will be pleasant or unpleasant according to the thoughts involved in the first.

If we think of life as a series of material events and human endeavors, this explanation would be very reasonable. However, through the study of Christian Science, I have been able to glimpse that Life is really God, Spirit. I have found that the increase of good in my life has come not necessarily from my actions or good deeds, but through an improved understanding of the unlimited nature of God, Love, as the only event.

As I’ve grown in my understanding that Love is the only event that has ever happened to me or to anyone, fear, doubt, depression, and misfortune have melted away. I’ve been able to find myself as spiritual, eternally pure, consistent, and the perfect effect of God’s great love. This awareness impels principled action, generosity, and kindness, and reveals God’s healing activity.

For me, the gospel teaching “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” is not a directive to go out and do more good deeds, per se. Striving to fix up the material world, even if in the form of doing good deeds, only brings more materialism. It doesn’t necessarily lift us out of the material dream. But rather, striving for a greater understanding of the divine Principle of Jesus’ teachings, and then sharing that understanding with others, illuminates the kingdom of heaven and brings tangible evidence of its existence into our lives.

Shelly Richardson | Eugene, Oregon, US

Christian Science explains that the law of the universe does not operate as a cycle of mortal mistakes or even human virtues, but as “the cycles of divine light” (see Science and Health, p. 135). This light is the reality that cause and effect are exclusively of God, who alone determines our lives. A cycle determined by human actions, on the other hand, would deny God’s supremacy. A cycle of cause and effect that knows evil would deny that God is all good.

Jesus’ life showed that the real law of cause and effect is Love—healing the sick and the sinner and restoring the dead to life. These healings showed that the universal law of Love is immediate, not requiring cycles of time or mortal experiences to bring out perfection.

Love’s law never leaves us in a revolving door of suffering or at the mercy of human circumstances. It operates to free us now. Through this universal law, every individual is unified with good.

“With the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again” can be viewed in relation to the destruction of sin. It does not mean our present or past faults forever shape our destiny. We suffer for our sins only so long as we believe in them. Once they are corrected, we are no longer affected by them. Correction is not dependent on living out many cycles of mortal existence. Correction comes through the power of Christ, which reveals instantaneously our true nature as spiritual, the actual expression of God.

The concept of sowing and reaping can actually be seen as a way to understand healing. When we acknowledge that our real selfhood as God’s child is good, we reap the rewards of goodness right here and now. Jesus helped us understand that, sowing in thought the Christ model, we reap what is always present and universally true—the perfection of God and of man.

Kari Mashos | Cape Neddick, Maine, US

Your Questions and Answers

from The Christian Science Journal

It is true that the practitioner prays from the basis that God, or Spirit, is all. However, at our present stage of understanding, humanity has only a limited concept of Spirit’s allness, so we still need to physically care for the body, and to do so in a gentle and humane way.

The kind of care a Christian Science nurse offers is intended to help the individual carry out normal daily activities without conflicting with the individual’s desire to rely on prayer for healing. A Christian Science nurse does not administer drugs or have any specialized medical knowledge, but has the practical skills to care for basic needs, such as dressing a wound, assisting someone in bathing, or showing one how to use a walking aid.

A Christian Science nurse prays for spiritual discernment and wisdom in order to respond to each situation in the most helpful way—always taking into account the patient’s concerns and desires, and encouraging independence without pushing the patient to do what they are not ready for.

Because Christian Science explains all experience as essentially mental in nature, it is important that the mental environment surrounding the patient be supportive of healing. It is the role of the practitioner to give Christian Science treatment, and the Christian Science nurse does not interfere with that. The Christian Science nurse does, however, have an important contribution to make to the mental environment by keeping his or her own thought spiritually uplifted (see Science and Health, p. 424), and expressing such qualities as good cheer, orderliness, punctuality, and patience (Science and Health, p. 395).

Jesus’ example of spiritually inspired care included not only many healings of physical illness and disability. He also helped meet other human needs, such as when he fed the multitudes (see Mark 8:1–9) and when, at the cross, he gave his mother into the care of one of his disciples (see John 19:25–27). Mary Baker Eddy wrote, “The divinity of the Christ was made manifest in the humanity of Jesus” (Science and Health, p. 25). One of the most humbling lessons I grew to appreciate during the years I worked as a Christian Science nurse, and continue to learn now as a Christian Science practitioner, is that the meeting of every human need is integral to spiritual growth.

Jenny Lobl | Surbiton, Greater London, England

I have had many quick healings as a Christian Scientist. But I have also had situations that required diligent prayer for a period of time before healing came. Sometimes, even though I worked closely with a Christian Science practitioner who prayed with me and for me, I was grateful for help meeting basic needs I was not able to meet on my own—such as having a meal prepared or having some assistance with personal care. Even more, I appreciated having someone with me to sing hymns, to read the Christian Science Bible Lesson, to encourage and support me when I was disheartened.

While many Christian Scientists have been blessed with the support of family and close friends, not everyone has such support. Sometimes the situation can require skills and experience that family members, however caring, do not have. And this is where a Christian Science nurse can be especially helpful. It is ideal to be cared for by someone who shares a love and understanding of Christian Science—not just from the basis of being able to meet a physical need with skill and confidence, but from the perspective of spiritual refreshment, with the expectation of complete healing.

This aspect of caring for others is completely consistent with the teachings of Christian Science. In her Church Manual, Mary Baker Eddy provided a means for members to embrace this practical aspect of caring for others. She stated these expectations in the Manual’s By-Law for Christian Science nurses (see p. 49). She also expected all of her students to be healers, to be practical in their application of Christian Science, and stated this expectation in the same By-Law, noting that the Christian Science nurse should have a “demonstrable knowledge of Christian Science practice ….”

When an individual engages the services of both a Christian Science practitioner and a Christian Science nurse, the practitioner specifically addresses the patient’s thought through prayer, while the Christian Science nurse works to maintain an environment free of fear and concern so the patient can focus attention on prayer and study, rather than on dealing with physical needs.

Andrew Love | Princeton, New Jersey, US

While prayer in Christian Science does teach looking away from the material condition to the facts of spiritual existence, it is also a deeply compassionate healing system and doesn’t ignore the need to take care of the body. As a Christian Science practitioner, I’ve found that Christian Science nurses can be a great help on a case by enabling patients to stop focusing on how to take care of their physical condition and to stick to their desire to hold their thoughts to God’s perfect creation.

For example, in one case a woman’s eyes suddenly became infected so that she couldn’t see. A Christian Science nurse came to her home and helped the woman remove her contact lenses, and then gently cleansed and bandaged her eyes. While the Christian Science nurse did these things, she also quietly declared the truth about the woman’s pure spiritual identity, and this calmed the woman’s fear. The next day, when another Christian Science nurse removed the bandages, the woman’s eyes were clear.

The presence of a Christian Science nurse also reassures family and friends that the person is getting practical care while he or she is receiving spiritual treatment. If the patient is having trouble eating, for instance, the Christian Science nurse can prepare foods that would be more appealing and easier to eat. None of this distracts from the prayers that are helping to change the basis of thought from matter to Spirit. Rather, unobtrusive nursing care helps because it gets rid of fear.

I worked as a Christian Science nurse before I was a practitioner, and I found that a Christian Science nurse’s work is not only physically active, but spiritually demanding. It requires discipline to defend oneself from the constant suggestion that material conditions are real and must be “fixed.” As much as the practitioner or patient, Christian Science nurses commit to holding thought to the fact that God’s creation has never fallen out of perfection, and that the lie of “brokenness” must yield to the truth of health and harmony.

Margaret Rogers | Greenbrae, California, US

Your Questions and Answers

from The Christian Science Journal

Belief and faith, as used in 21st-century English, have overlapping meanings. In fact, in the several dictionaries I consulted, each term is used in part to define the other. But I think we can say that to recognize that God exists, that God is “there,” is to believe in God. To recognize that God is “a very present help in trouble” (Ps. 46:1)—is here—means having faith in God.

In Science and Health, Mary Baker Eddy gave us a helpful guide to the usage of these terms (for example, see pp. 23–24, and 297). From this guide, we might envisage a natural progression from a belief that goodness exists and has an impersonal cause, to a faith that this cause will continue to create good. Then comes the fun part. We start finding out more about how and why that cause provides goodness for us and others—how it works. Next we test it. The more we experience the goodness provided, the deeper becomes our faith in its cause.

From that point on, there is a kind of mutually reinforcing cycle: the more we learn about the true cause, God, the deeper becomes our confidence, trust—our faith—in the constancy of God’s presence and care. This learning is what Mary Baker Eddy called deepening spiritual understanding. For example, the more profoundly we understand the nature of God’s love as providing for us a constant spiritual compass, the more naturally will we listen, in prayer, for this guidance. As we experience the blessings this listening (and consequent action) brings, our faith is deepened, and our original belief justified.

To me, to talk about belief and faith is to talk about prayer. Millions of people turn to God every day in prayer. True prayer, however, is not to make God hear us, but rather to enable us to hear God. God is communicating to each of us 24/7. Lovingly and unambiguously. To pray, then, is to focus on both the clarity of our understanding of God’s nature (what we are really believing) and on the depth of His love for us (how great our faith is in Him).

John Tyler | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US

In the day-to-day world, faith seems superior to belief. For example, you probably wouldn’t give your money to a stranger, even if you believed him when he told you he’d deposit the money into your account. But once you had learned of his honesty and integrity, then your confidence and trust—your faith in his character—might lead you to let him handle your money.

Likewise, there is a difference between believing in God and having faith in Him. And that difference depends on the degree of certainty of one’s relationship with God. Faith is an advanced form of prayer. I have learned that an “absolute faith that all things are possible to God” (Science and Health, p. 1) is a demonstrable rule, has two distinct parts, and can be cultivated by each of us. This is my approach:

First, I must understand God as Spirit.

So, I regularly study the Bible together with Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. This continual study gives me a progressively expanding spiritual comprehension of God and His creation. I have learned that God is Father-Mother, Life, Truth, Love, Principle, Mind, Soul, Spirit—omniactive, omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, All—and that materiality has no place in God’s reality.

Second, I must “become as a little child” (see Science and Health, p. 323) in my relationship with God and my fellow man.

I turn to God daily to recognize myself as He made me—humble, meek, desirous to put Him first in my life, and eager to turn away from anything opposed to infinite Spirit—to claim and strive each day to acknowledge my spiritual identity and to drop a false, material sense of myself.

Humanity’s recognition of Deity starts from hope, then moves to belief. However, with experience, belief becomes faith, and finally, as each individual gains a higher and purer concept of the Almighty, we gain spiritual understanding. My own healing work, which has resulted from my growing faith in God’s power, has grown in proportion to my spiritual understanding of God’s laws of good.

Don Griffith | Elberton, Georgia, US

Certain translations of the Bible make a distinction between faith and belief. The King James Version says: “Without faith it is impossible to please him; for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him” (Heb. 11:6). In other words, it seems one must first believe, and then have faith—i.e., trust in that which is provable, reliable, and based on experience.

For example, Jesus had to first believe that God was his Father—that He was supreme and the only true cause of all that existed—and then he could build on that deep faith in God’s supremacy. Had Jesus not believed this, his faith might have faltered, and he wouldn’t have been able to demonstrate the effect of the one divine cause—healing. Jesus’ firm, devout faith in God enabled him to give sight to the blind, food to the hungry, a restored wholeness and dignity to the sinner, as well as life to the dead.

The young Israelite David believed that good must prevail over evil. This faith, based on his firm conviction of God’s unfailing help and presence, proved that his five little stones could save him from the giant Goliath (see I Sam. 17:4–51).

And Mary Baker Eddy, from the time she was a little girl, believed that one day she would write a book. As her life proceeded, her love and devotion to God and humanity grew continually. When, in 1866, she discovered Christian Science, her enlightened faith supported her trust that God would speak through her and help her fulfill His plan for her book. This type of faith is similar to the faith we build over time when a friend has been trustworthy. We naturally have faith that he or she can be trusted because of faith established in past experiences.

As the Bible tells us, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1). True faith, then, is built on experience with God’s goodness, such as Jesus and many of the people in the Bible experienced repeatedly.

Susan Collins | New York, New York, US

Your Questions and Answers

from The Christian Science Journal

Christian Scientists are always free to choose medical treatment, which many individuals feel is the most obvious solution to health difficulties. But the reason Christian Scientists tend to choose prayer instead—and to stick with prayer even if healing is not coming quickly—has nothing to do with dogma, tradition, or the advances of medical science, but everything to do with their understanding of and relationship to God. This relationship with God is primary, because it has everything to do with one’s happiness and has a direct impact on career, family, and quality of living.

Personally, I’ve found these to be good reasons to rely on prayer in my own life, even when a medical solution may have seemed like a simple way to correct a condition.

For some time I had a painful foot condition that many people would probably say could have been corrected medically in a simple way. I knew that the type of treatment was entirely my choice to make, but I decided to keep praying. Why? Because I knew I needed more than just a physical change. My prayers were not asking God to heal my feet, but praying to better understand Him, to do His will and “walk” in His direction. An awakening desire in my prayers was not just to love God, but to love His people—to have a greater love for humanity. A complete physical healing did result, and it also had a huge impact on my career and lifestyle. Instead of focusing on just building up my engineering career, my work focused more on those around me. My wife took on a house-parenting position, and suddenly I was surrounded by lots of small children. The more I prayed, the message became so clear to devote my life to helping others. And, for me, that meant helping them with prayer. So these became my first steps into the ministry of being a Christian Science practitioner. And this change would have never happened if I had just sought a physical cure for my problem.

Hopefully, my experience helps to illustrate why one would stick with this approach to prayer, even in dark hours, when spiritual treatment in Christian Science brings about such change, redirection, and healing to every aspect of life.

Phil Davis | Boston, Massachusetts, US

Christian Science teaches that all problems, no matter how material they may appear, have a mental basis. This means that the patient is actually not the body, but the thought of the person. Therefore, a quick solution through medicine would not address the real issue, since such a treatment doesn’t deal with the mental aspect of the condition. Mary Baker Eddy summed up this phenomenon in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “Disease is always induced by a false sense mentally entertained, not destroyed. Disease is an image of thought externalized. The mental state is called a material state. Whatever is cherished in mortal mind as the physical condition is imaged forth on the body” (Science and Health, p. 411).

There’s no doubt that Christian Science would be the choice for me in trying times, simply because, for more than 30 years as a full-time Christian Science practitioner, I’ve seen how effective spiritual healing is for whoever chooses to rely on it. I’ve faced some severe physical situations of my own, as well, but my instinctive reaction, based on previous experiences of spiritual healing, has been to always trust God for the resolution.

One time late at night, I was lying awake in excruciating pain. I turned my thought to God and didn’t waver from my position to rely on spiritual healing, because I trusted that God would heal me as He’d done in the past. The result was that I experienced a healing in less time than it would have taken to try to find a medical solution.

Throughout society there is currently massive accent on medical solutions—material ways of dealing with physical and mental anguish and pain. But the assumption that medical theory is exact and that reliance on spiritual healing means putting one’s life at risk rests on a comparison that’s unfair. For me there is no contest, because medical theory changes. Whilst many wonders occur in the field of medicine, I’ve found that permanent healing happens when spiritual truth, not material remedies, transforms the bodily condition. In this way Christian Science removes focus from the human body, not just attempting to fix matter. Spiritual healing renews thought and reforms character.

Heather Hayward | London, England

Christian Scientists and others have learned to appreciate several advantages of metaphysical healing, even if the healing does not come right away. One advantage is the immediacy of this spiritual method. Christian Science reveals that God, the divine source of all good, is an always-available resource. We use spiritual sense to draw inspiration from God, and thereby find that we are not creating health but finding it. A second advantage is the purity and positivity of Christian Science healing. A medical procedure that seems simple may not necessarily be, but there are no adverse side effects of spiritual medicine. We apply the remedy by mentally assimilating the qualities of spiritual good. Finally, there’s the advantage of its power and capability. The Christian Scientist has learned that the only power that one can really turn to is the divine all-power, so there is no limited power of human thinking or limited material agents in the way.

Experience teaches that Christianly scientific healing can be—and that, actually, its standard is—instantaneous healing. So the Christian Scientist always sees instantaneous healing as a practical possibility, even if the condition has gone on for some time. For instance, one woman whose poor physical condition had been given up by leading medical authorities attended a lecture I gave on Christian Science healing. By the end of the lecture, she had experienced a complete transformation of life and body. Results like this exceed material methods, and it is worthwhile to progress in this route.

Relying on Christian Science treatment is not about physical healing alone but about understanding the Truth of one’s being, experiencing the infinite powers of divine Life. So the Christian Scientist goes for that spiritual understanding and not for mere relief from physical symptoms.

Whenever a case seems to be a desperate struggle, Mary Baker Eddy advised us to seek divine inspiration for “the right use of temporary and eternal means” (Science and Health, p. 444). The way from matter to Spirit unfolds individually and never by doctrine or will-power, but by divine Mind’s tender, caring guidance.

Robert Ennemoser | Salzburg, Austria