The obligation of Christianity to heal disease, sickness, sin, and suffering had been largely overlooked for centuries when Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, proclaimed to the world that apostolic spiritual healing as practiced by Jesus and his disciples is a constituent part of Christianity itself. She writes in the textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: "The ancient Christians were healers. Why has this element of Christianity been lost? Because our systems of religion are governed more or less by our systems of medicine." 1

In sending out first the twelve and then the seventy disciples, Christ Jesus in structed them how to heal all kinds of evil and disease, thereby showing that spiritual healing is a necessary element of Christianity. To Jesus, practical proof was essential to a correct understanding of his teaching. And so it is today. The healing works, not only the words, of Christianity have been made clearly comprehensible and available to all mankind through the teachings of Christian Science.

From the moment that the Christian Science interpretation of Christianity is un

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derstood, not only the obligation but the opportunity and increasing ability to heal disease and suffering is presented to the Christian. The consequent proof, instead of mere profession, satisfies the individual that he has now a full, practical, and healing religion.

The writer has been asked, "Should every Christian be a healer of disease and suffering?" The answer is Yes! Of course, this does not mean that every Christian should give up his or her occupation or profession for spiritual healing. But it does mean that he should recognize that true Christianity endows him with this talent of healing, which he can use daily not only for himself but for all mankind. In embracing Christian Science the student does much more than profess to be a Christian Scientist. Mrs. Eddy writes, "The Christian Scientist has enlisted to lessen evil, disease, and death,' and she shows throughout her writings that the followers of Jesus' teaching need not and should not believe that they are unable to heal the sick. Nor should they accept the evil suggestion that they do not know enough to heal, since Jesus said, "He that believeth or

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me, the works that I do shall he do also." 8 That church succeeds and grows in every way whose membership devotes most thought and prayer to the healing of disease and sin. Activity in human organization work, however conscientious, cannot of itself cause the church services and activities to exhale the spiritual animus and power that heal and comfort. These activities succeed in the measure that the spirit of Christian healing underlies and impels them.

Jesus explained his healing power in these words: "The Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works." The works of healing will follow naturally those who acknowledge and reflect the nature of that divine Love which is God. It is the love of Christian healing, the compassion for the sufferer, and the acknowledgment of the infinite presence and power of God that arms the Christian with the ability and gives him the opportunity to heal as Jesus taught his disciples. Many devote their lives to this Christian work, but those who cannot do so can still possess and use both the God-given talent and the grain of spiritual understanding that enables them to follow the instruction of Jesus and to heal and save when called upon for help. There is no limit to the healing work that can follow the daily thought and prayer of the Christian whose God is not only a living, loving, and good God but Life itself, Love itself, good itself.

The Christian Scientist has a purpose always before him. It is that he may impart to all mankind that pearl of great price which Jesus revealed in his encouraging words to his disciples as he came to

them walking over the stormy waves: "Be not afraid."5 Christian Science teaches that disease is the outcome of fear. And every Christian Scientist has the opportunity and ability to help mankind daily through reason and revelation to destroy its fear of sin, sickness, and death and correct the wrong education that would give power to these beliefs of the carnal mind. Mrs. Eddy makes it quite clear that the services and activities of the Church of Christ, Scientist, should give out that spiritual influence which heals sickness and all evil.

The prophet Isaiah states the obligation to heal the sick that follows the knowledge. and practice of the divine nature. He writes: "Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not. . . . Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing. And sorrow and sighing shall flee away. ."6 This is an exact description of the healing effect of the eternal Christ, which is God's gift to mankind, and which Jesus brought to the world. It is the practical evidence of the healing power that follows the knowledge and the acknowledgment of the power of God, infinite good. And Mrs. Eddy confirms this in these simple words: "God will heal the sick through man, whenever man is governed by God."" There is no other condition requisite for Christian healing.

DORINDA B. LE CLAIR

The master Christian, Christ Jesus, explained the nature of his mission in this way: "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." This abundant life promised us by Jesus is hardly consonant with the frustration and hypocrisy often associated today with religious experience. There are many who believe that it is unnatural, even unhealthy, to be moral or spiritually-minded.

Arguments supporting this belief are as follows: that man is an appetitive organism; that he cannot be entirely happy unless he is permitted gratification, particularly of his sexual appetite; that control or restraint is unnatural, and therefore that efforts to live a moral and spiritual life lead to frustration and hypocrisy.

The obvious contradiction between this theory and Jesus' words and example suggests that something is being misunderstood or misinterpreted. We all want life more abundantly, and we need not be deprived of it through misunderstanding or misconception.

First, let us be sure that we understand that Jesus offered his followers a more abundant sense of life in the here and now, not only in the hereafter. He did not, however, assume that the material senses are a dependable source for happiness or an abundant sense of anything. In fact, it seems clear that if happiness is dependent upon the physical senses, then it cannot be expected to grow or endure. At best it will always be a chancy proposition, for if we accept this basis all of us at some time or another will be excluded from the good life through deficiencies of inheritance, through disease, age, or death. At least one modern psychologist, A. H. Maslow, supports this conclusion when he says, "Man is a wanting animal and rarely reaches

a state of complete satisfaction except for a short time.” 2

Jesus' teachings and those of Christian Science hold that the only foundation for enduring happiness is a demonstrable understanding of man's spiritual nature. Man must be seen, not as a "wanting animal," but as a compound spiritual idea including inspiration, energy, and zest for life. Far from being a collection of unsatisfied appetites or wants, man is a have, not a havenot. He is blessed with the opportunity and the capacity to experience all the goodness God provides. This view of man, Christian Science insists, is essential to the attainment of happiness and a more abundant life.

Why? Because faith in an impartial, all good inheritance develops the occasion and the ability to enjoy that inheritance. A belief in want breeds want. Jesus was explaining this cause and effect relationship when he said, "For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath." Nothing describes better than does this last phrase the diminishing returns of a physically oriented effort to achieve a happy and satisfying life.

Genuine morality and spirituality foster fulfillment and not, as many people think today, repression or condemnation. Christian Science approaches morality in the spirit Jesus expressed when he said, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." Why did the religious leaders of his time suspect that Jesus intended to destroy the law? Wasn't it because Jesus used the moral law of the Ten Commandments as an instrument for promoting healing, whereas those leaders felt it should be used as an instrument for instilling fear?

The Pharisees and Sadducees frequently used the law as a club with which they could frighten humanity, which they saw as unredeemably carnal.

Jesus neither stoned nor condoned. He did recognize the value of moral demands. He had a gift to give the world: spiritual, healing truth. What is required to prepare the individual to receive spiritual truth? Isn't it the control resulting from obedience to moral demand? Uncontrolled carnality is tormented by its own incessant state of want. Healing truth, as Jesus presented it, fulfilled the promise of the law by lifting the sick and sinning out of weakness and licentiousness into that freedom which is characteristic of a more abundant life.

What is this healing truth that can so transform the human condition? It is the truth that the spiritual man of God's creation can be discovered right where sinning, suffering mortal man seems to be. This healing vision dissolves the bonds of the flesh, redeeming whatever in thought makes us sin or suffer.

The redemptive vision Jesus exemplified, and which Christian Science again offers to the world, is described by Mrs. Eddy in Science and Health, in this way: "Jesus aided in reconciling man to God by giving man a truer sense of Love, the divine Principle of Jesus' teachings, and this truer sense of Love redeems man from the law of matter, sin, and death by the law of Spirit, -the law of divine Love.” 5

Redemption is the yielding of restrictive, mistaken human thinking. It is proof that the limited, defective, or unsatisfactory in our human consciousness can be replaced by the more satisfying and eventually by the perfect and incorruptible.

The law of Spirit, Love, finds us where we are and begins its redemptive work at the very point in our experience where redemption is most sorely needed. Such a point might very well be our need to find release from a human craving.

Belief that we live in a human body includes belief in carnal appetite. Christian Science encourages overcoming the

carnal condition, not its mere frustration. Physical deprivation has long been considered an exercise in spirituality, but physical deprivation alone releases nothing, replaces nothing.

Spirituality comes not through mere abstinence but through growth, as Mrs. Eddy makes clear when she gives her own most practical instruction: "Emerge gently from matter into Spirit. Think not to thwart the spiritual ultimate of all things, but come naturally into Spirit through better health and morals and as the result of spiritual growth." 6

In spiritual growth we come to ourselves as the prodigal son was said to have come to himself. To "come to" means to awaken to something that is already here. We awaken to our natural capacity to respond to the very real, permanently satisfying attractions of Spirit. We begin to appreciate the hereness and the immense value of our spiritual inheritance. The result is, of course, blessing. Jesus assured us, "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled." Our spiritual inheritance can always be realized, and realized in full.

As we constantly nurture in ourselves a hunger for and a trust in things spiritual, the tensions connected with carnal appetite will be eased. Divine Love, which we are daily relying upon and therefore reflecting more fully, will pervade and redeem every phase of our living, our belief in appetites. included. The steps involved may be as various as our individual natures and circumstances require them to be.

Are we ready to recognize an acquired appetite as a needless form of bondage we can dispense with immediately? An understanding of abundant Life will awaken us. Do we need to learn more control? It is through this understanding that we win dominion over the body. Are we suffering from beliefs of inhibition or deviation from the norm? Spiritual sense promotes normal action in our human experience, and certain appetites lessen in their demands. God is wise and timely in all His directions.