Neil H. Bowles, C.S.B., of Atlanta, Georgia
Member of the Board of Lectureship of The
Mother Church,
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts
We live in a world of wondrous things, of marvelous inventions, that stagger the credulity of the average mentality. We fly faster than sound; we have facilities for instant communication with any spot on this globe; we walk on the moon and talk back to the earth and yet with all these manifestations of a high degree of intelligence, we live in a world in dread of disease. Unnumbered dedicated people make a valiant effort to eradicate disease, yet the hospitals of the world are full to overflowing.
From the moment of birth human beings seem to be enveloped in an atmosphere of ignorance and fear. Humans have always feared they may become ill and die. Disease has always been accepted as an accompaniment of human life. That's the kind of a world history records. The Bible tells us of many types of disease suffered in Bible times that are prevalent with men today. And archaeologists tell us that they have discovered from the bones of the most ancient inhabitants of the earth that prehistoric man suffered from the same crippling and killing diseases common today.
Think with me here! Haven't you often asked yourself, "Why are there such things as disease and illness, why have they always been a part of human life, and what is the cause of them?"
The answers to these questions were given nearly 2,000 years ago by Jesus of Nazareth. He understood the nature of illness. He knew it was caused by men's sense of fear, their insecure or uncertain sense of existence, their ignorance of the spiritual facts of life. So Jesus taught the spiritual facts of life. He healed disease and deformity, proving that illness is not a natural accompaniment of human life. And he did these things through his understanding of the spiritual forces that derived from God, the Divine Being.
It's noteworthy that for a period of time following Jesus' ministry those who understood what he taught were able to do some of the healing work he did. But a growing materialism in the world early brought that work to an end and spiritual healing was practically lost for centuries.
Then, a little over a hundred years ago, a highly intelligent and spiritually minded woman made a discovery that enabled her to prove to these times the certainty of eliminating human suffering. She healed sickness and disease by employing the same spiritual forces Jesus used in his healing work. That woman is known today in most parts of the world as Mary Baker Eddy, a great spiritual leader and scientific thinker.
From the inspired writings of the Bible and the revelation that came to her as a result of studying the Bible, Mrs. Eddy discerned a number of basic premises which we'll discuss further — the fact that the causative force of the universe is spiritual; that real life is spiritual; that things spiritual are substantial and tangible and that matter is, in fact, neither real nor substantive. Consequently man, the outcome of that causative spiritual force, is subject solely to spiritual law. The allness of Spirit and the unreality of matter are basic points in Mrs. Eddy's teachings, and as we shall see, they base the metaphysical system of healing we're discussing tonight.
Mrs. Eddy discovered that the allness of Spirit and the unreality of matter was the essence of Jesus' teachings. He said, "It is the Spirit that quickeneth: the flesh profiteth nothing" (John 6:63). This Christ, Truth presents the absolute, the spiritual facts of man and the universe. Indeed, Mrs. Eddy discovered that Jesus' teachings are pure Science. That's why she named her discovery Christian Science.
If one would study Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, he can't help but see how Jesus' teachings always point away from the material to the spiritual values of life, what he considered to be the only realities. He clearly indicated that it is spirituality not worldliness that attains harmonious living. As a means of achieving that spiritual state, he prescribed putting on spiritual qualities of thought such as meekness, mercy, and pureness of heart, all productive of harmonious effects.
Then he went about healing people, demonstrating the power of the forces of Spirit to destroy, in this present state of existence, the ills of the flesh. Mrs. Eddy discerned that his teachings and his healing works were inseparable. To her his theology and his medicine were the same, God being the healing power and governing law of man.
But Jesus' life and teachings were a rebuke to those who couldn't believe that a spiritual power was available for men's use because matter was all that was real to them. So their response to his teachings was to hate him. I mention this bit of history because it's the same ignorance of Spirit's substantiality that today rejects Jesus and the Christ, Truth, he taught as our Saviour from suffering. It also rejects the possibility of a spiritual force healing human illness.
Now the only need of mankind is to be awakened from materialism, the belief that man lives in matter. That belief blinds men to the fact that Life, substance and real power are wholly spiritual. It's materialism that binds men to physical suffering.
Well, through the centuries Spirit and things spiritual have seemed vague and indefinable. But Christian Science makes the word Spirit and spiritual meaningful. It employs the term Spirit as a name descriptive of God's nature and essence. It leads thought away from the age-old sense of the Divine Being as a physical personality with human characteristics. The teachings of Christian Science explain Deity to be a benevolent, all-pervading presence, a divine force or omniactive Principle, creating, sustaining, and governing man and the universe in perfect order and harmony. It also employs the word Spirit to signify real substance, the substance of man and the Universe.
In Christian Science, its Discoverer, Mrs. Eddy, is offering no speculative theory to the world. Through her understanding that Spirit, not matter, is the substance of man and the only real force in the universe, she healed sickness and disease with undoubted success, just as Jesus did. She saw and proved what she had come to believe, as a result of her search in the Bible, that all disease has a mental cause and a spiritual cure. And so can anyone prove this who understands her teachings. Through spiritual healing Christian Science is on the march, destroying the skepticism that says the Bible, God, Christ Jesus and things spiritual aren't meaningful, and don't relate to human ills.
Now let's see what Christian Science teaches are the mental conditions that cause ill health, keeping in mind the basic points in its teachings, namely that Spirit is real and substantive, and that matter is unreal and substanceless.
Mrs. Eddy says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," the textbook of Christian Science, "The procuring cause and foundation of all sickness is fear, ignorance, or sin" (p. 411:20-21).
So let's talk here about fear, ignorance, and sin and what they seem to do. Basically fear is the belief that man is material and mortal. Fear also manifests itself in an insecure state of mind. It's a dread of the unknown; a doubt of the power of good to prevail over evil; a sense of being defenseless against the destructive forces of matter. These are a few of the fears that cause illness.
Let's take a simple example to illustrate the mental nature of illness and see how fear and ignorance do cause it. Teach a little child that there is danger in a dark room and it can be made violently ill by forcing it to enter. This proves that fear has a disturbing action on the human system. It also shows conclusively that the suffering is mentally produced. Mrs. Eddy further states, "The cause of all so-called disease is mental, a mortal fear, a mistaken belief or conviction of the necessity and power of ill-health" (Science and Health, 377:26-28). Wasn't it the child's ignorance, or false education, that caused it to be afraid? It was also a mistaken belief, so the suffering was ignorantly and mentally produced. But it was very real to the child while it was experiencing it.
Now what about sin being the cause of sickness? Sin is a very large subject having many aspects. For the Jew and the Christian the general sense of sin is that it is an infraction of the moral law as laid down in the Ten Commandments. Mrs. Eddy states the full extent of sin in this short sentence. "The belief of life in matter sins at every step" (Science and Health, 542:1 only). So, if we believe we live in matter, that's sin.
Now there are many forms of sin. Some sins are ignorantly committed and some knowingly but whatever belief opposes the substance and supremacy of Spirit produces suffering. Sooner or later penalty always follows sin. For instance, the present day widespread permissiveness and moral abandonment has opened the way for easy promiscuity and drug addiction. Some indulging these may not see them as sin. But I hardly need to describe the suffering and horrible consequences of indulging these two aspects of sin.
As I have said, sin is a large subject, but for the purpose of this lecture, I want to ask you to consider with me the consequences of indulging such sins as malice, envy, anger, hatred.
Any of the sins mentioned can interfere with the chemical balance of the physical system, and this can and does produce chronic and acute disease. But we'll be seeing tonight that true health is not dependent on chemistry but on the understanding of how Spirit, not matter governs the body.
Then what about the mistaken belief or conviction of "the necessity and power of ill-health?" Well, here is just one example that should interest everyone. It's generally believed that advancing years necessarily bring with them ill health of many kinds. In a way ill health is actually looked for and expected, and people prepare for its eventuality.
According to the teachings of Christian Science, these joyless, depressing beliefs produce discordant conditions in the body. They rob the body of the vitality that is natural to health, and this results in the infirmities of advancing years. But there is nothing about the physical body that of itself wears out. The body is at all times mirroring forth the mental condition of the individual. So the body needs the stimulus of the joy that comes from the expectancy of eternal Life.
Now let's discuss some actual cases of illness and see how they were mentally produced and then spiritually cured. This is an example of the way a case of stomach ulcers was mentally caused and how it was healed by Christian Science treatment. The patient was not a Christian Scientist when he was healed, but he was searching for release from suffering and was willing to accept it however it came. Yet he later said that as much as he wanted to be freed from suffering, he really didn't understand how Christian Science could help him.
I like to tell about this healing because newcomers to Christian Science often ask, "Can I be healed if I don't believe in Christian Science or understand it?" The answer is yes, if one is receptive and honest.
For many years this man had suffered from what had been medically treated as stomach ulcers and was in almost constant pain. During this time he was unable to eat normally and went about feeling weak and starved. He lived under much stress and was worried and apprehensive about many things. Worry and stressful living have long been recognized as a cause of ulcers. For instance, financial worries are many times behind the difficulty. Then what did this man need? Treatment for ulcers? Not really, as you must recognize. What was causing the suffering needed to be eliminated. He needed to be freed from the fearful, apprehensive, joyless thinking that had kept his system off balance and produced the ulcers. When he sought help in Christian Science, he learned that in truth he wasn't a material mortal with limitations, but that he was really spiritual as the creation of God, expressing only the qualities of strength, intelligence and wisdom — God derived abilities with which to solve human problems.
Just one clear glimpse of the fact that his life was spiritual, not material, and that man is always under divine control, healed him instantaneously, although at that moment that was his first introduction to the teachings of Christian Science. Healing in Christian Science isn't really a process. It comes with the realization of man's spiritual perfection in God.
Now what actually occurred in this healing? What was the manner or mode of it? Well, what he saw made him receptive to the ceaselessly active healing influence of the divine energies.
What does this mean? We're accustomed to thinking in terms of forces or energies. We think of gravity as a force. We can't see it with the eye but we know it's there. Its power and action are continuous. This illustrates the ever-present and constant nature of the divine energies or forces that are spiritual. They are always available to be employed. They don't have to be put into action, they are the only action.
When men understand the nature of gravity they employ it to their advantage and benefit. When the individual yields his thought to the divine energies he is governed harmoniously by them. Then his system is normalized and this is healing. It is Christ healing.
Anyone, no matter how little he knows or understands of the method of Christian Science healing, can be helped to bring his thinking into rapport with the healing influence of the divine energies as was this man I've been talking about.
Of course, for the one who would practice spiritual healing for himself he must come to understand God in every aspect of His nature. This will enable him to attain a workable understanding of the real nature of Life and the spiritual power that heals.
Here let's see what Mrs. Eddy discovered God's complete nature to be. She says, "God is incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love" (Science and Health, 465:9-10).
She teaches that these terms are synonymous, expressing the nature, essence and wholeness of Deity. Through this enlightened understanding of God the fears of men can be intelligently and permanently conquered. What are some common fears? Fear of insufficiency, fear of not enough intelligence, not enough of things that sustain life, not enough ability, and not enough protection and health. These are some of the fears that are constantly with mortals and make them sick. Mrs. Eddy says, "Fear is the fountain of sickness, and you master fear and sin through divine Mind; hence it is through divine Mind that you overcome disease" (Science and Health, 391:32-2). So it is through the utilization of divine intelligence that one masters fear and disease.
The Bible implies that God is All-in all. Mrs. Eddy discerned what that means and explains that God as Mind is the source of all intelligence; that God as Spirit is substance and the source of all substance; that God as Principle is the only creative and governing law of His universe and man; that God as Life is the all of Life, and the source of all life; that God as Truth is the source of all that is real, and that God as impartial, divine Love is the All-in-all of good.
Whatever the need of men may be, it can be met through the understanding that man as the image and likeness of God expresses every aspect of God's nature. Comprehending this frees men from the limitations of the belief that their life and substance are material. In order to make Spirit more real to the human consciousness the student of Christian Science needs constantly to be about the business of identifying himself as God's likeness. The human mentality needs constant reminders of the spiritual facts of life in order to break the illusion of dualism, or the belief that man is both material and spiritual.
And here is where the office of the Christ comes into individual experience. Jesus exemplified to men the nature and character of spiritual man or the Christlike man, God's ideal. Jesus was unworldly, unselfish, meek, loving, and forgiving. For mortal man to be redeemed from his material, sickness-producing thoughts, he must come to conform to the model shown in the life example of Jesus. It's the Christ or divine influence ever present in human thought that enables men to follow Jesus and find salvation from mortality and its sufferings. The Christ, Truth, awakens thought to spiritual comprehension.
Let's continue with our discussion of the mental nature of disease and its spiritual cure. It's now widely recognized that the mental state of the individual retards, quickens, or normalizes the action of the physical system, and the extreme states produce excesses or deficiencies resulting in sickness and disease. The medical profession teaches this to be true, and advises patients to avoid frictions and pressures. This is all to the good. But Christian Science goes much further. It shows that the avoidance of frictions and pressures is not the way to permanently regulate the human system, for the mental condition or human proclivities that respond to pressures are still present to plague the individual. His mental state must be permanently changed.
St. Paul recognized the necessity for men to have a change of mental base for them to be saved from suffering. He charged, "That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness" (Eph. 4:22-24). Paul knew men's sufferings were mental, the result of their fearful, ignorant, and sinful thinking. He was telling them to change their thinking, to put off the material basis of thought and to put on or accept the spiritual facts of life which are the only facts.
So we see that fear must be exchanged for the intelligent recognition that God or infinite Spirit is the only governing power.
Let's talk now about the ignorant belief that sickness is a necessary accompaniment of human life. This ignorant belief, accepted, leaves thought wide open for disease to find lodgment there and produce its own peculiar conditions. In Science and Health it says, "Because a belief originates unseen, the mental state should be continually watched that it may not produce blindly its bad effects" (p. 377:16-18).
For example, the belief in hereditary disease has general acceptance, and now and then people encounter a fully developed physical complaint without being aware of it developing. Many people suffer from diseases said to be hereditary because of their ignorant acceptance of the belief that they are subject to them.
Christian Science rejects the belief that any disease is of itself hereditary. It teaches that disease has no intelligence; that it cannot produce itself and that it is not substance. It teaches, as has been said, that the cause of any diseased condition is the product of the mental state of the patient. What is to be observed is that the old belief of "like father like son" seems to have some validity. Children often express the same propensities or mental characteristics their parents do! If they develop the same diseases members of their families have had, it may be because they express the same mental attitudes that produced the diseases in relatives. Or these diseases may develop solely as a result of the ignorant belief or fear that they might develop.
I once knew a man who suffered with several chronic organic ills said to be hereditary. He was of the third generation in a family with members who had suffered the same physical complaints. Members of the family would shake their heads and say, "Well, he's like his father's family." All had accepted the belief that disease is hereditary.
Did this man need treatment for organic difficulties? He thought he did, but what he really needed was to be spiritually educated out of the mistaken belief or conviction of the necessity and power of ill health due primarily to hereditary causes. He learned of Christian Science and was told that as the son of God he had no heritage of illness, but only of good. He was told he needed to come to understand that God was his real source, or Father, and that he as the son of God reflected God's perfect nature.
He was having Christian Science treatment, but the practitioner wisely told him he had something to do too. He was told it was important for him to learn how to pray for himself as Christian Scientists do. Prayer as Christian Scientists understand it is really educational. Its method rids the human mentality of its false material views of life and establishes it in the spiritual facts.
Well, his method of prayer was to acknowledge God or Spirit as his only source and substance and affirm that his selfhood was wholly spiritual. You see, a Christian Scientist's prayer is the acknowledgment of God's all-power and of man's perfection as the son of God, and then a denial of any other power opposed to God.
This is the way a practitioner prays for a patient. Such prayer disabuses the human mentality of its belief that life is limited and material and makes Spirit more real to the one who prays. This prayer or communing with God puts him in touch with the ever-active spiritual force or power we've been talking about. This divine power or influence regenerated and healed him mentally and physically.
Now it's important to know that one doesn't grasp the spiritual facts of life through the intellect. This comprehension must come through a developed spiritual sense. But it's comforting to know that it's native to man to understand God. And the genuine desire to know God brings comprehension of spiritual things. Then praying or claiming one's spiritual selfhood will indeed be meaningful.
A comprehension of Spirit is the basis for spiritual healing as Christ Jesus performed it and as Mrs. Eddy describes it and practiced it. She says in Science and Health, "Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick" (p. 476:32-4).
What Jesus beheld of the spiritual man in those who came before him for healing brought something of a reforming, a purifying, and a spiritualizing influence to their consciousness as he healed them. He said to one man he healed, "Behold, thou are made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee" (John 5:14). Jesus clearly indicated that the mortal, material state of the man's thought was responsible for his illness. Spiritual healing must always be redemptive. But to be redeemed one must be willing to surrender the material modes of life to the spiritual facts of life and to be governed by them. Redemption does not overtake us. It's not automatic. We have to work at surrendering the material.
How? Well, we can work at being more mentally alert and refuse to be motivated by hatred, malice, envy, revenge, jealousy, anger, etc. Remember, indulging these sinful modes of thought is being materially minded. They bind us to the belief that life is made up of limited and perishable substance called matter. This is a simple method but the more it is employed the more spiritually perceptive one becomes — Spirit and things spiritual become increasingly real to us and we understand matter's unreality. This is a necessary accomplishment because illness is part of the belief that man lives and dies in matter. So long as one believes he lives in matter, he is bound to the belief of illness.
We've talked about how to make Spirit more real to us. Let's talk now about how to understand the unreality of matter. Now since the unreality of matter is a basic point in the teachings of Christian Science, naturally its unreality can be understood. But we have to think and reason from the standpoint of Spirit's allness in order to understand matter's unreality; we can never understand it on the basis of human reasoning or physical research. Now we've seen that in the language of Christian Science the word Spirit designates God. It also designates substance and Truth — substance that can't be destroyed. Well in the language of Christian Science the word matter designates error — that which is perishable and destructible.
Mrs. Eddy has called matter mortal error — mortal mind, animal magnetism, hypnotism, and mesmerism. Think with me now about these terms and see how logical they are. The term mortal mind, as opposed to omniscient divine Mind, implies a mind that errs — makes mistakes. Doesn't it? The term animal magnetism implies a state of consciousness that can be attracted to the animal or mortal and away from the spiritual. The terms hypnotism and mesmerism imply a state of consciousness that can become befogged — dispossessed of its true state. Well, all these states of consciousness are a denial of Spirit's or divine Mind's all-substance and presence. Have you ever seen people under the direct influence of hypnotism? I have, and they act pretty ridiculous too. But what they've been induced to believe is very real to them, while they're believing it.
You've seen that Christian Science reveals real Life to be wholly spiritual — not part spiritual and part material. Well, the counterpart of that revelation was that mortal or material so-called life isn't another life separate and apart from Spirit. It's just a false belief about real life, a belief without foundation, and it's hypnotically induced. Who or what did the hypnotizing? Why, ignorance — ignorance of spiritual reality.
Now when somebody comes out of a state of hypnosis, what becomes of the beliefs he entertained when he was hypnotized? Why those beliefs were only as real as the believer thought they were. But they certainly weren't substantive, were they? What awakens us from the hypnotic spell of life in matter? It's spiritual education based on the teachings and example of Christ Jesus. To put it another way, what awakens us is our conscious effort to bring our thinking into accord with the true idea that man and the universe are wholly spiritual — the way they're revealed in Christian Science. This gradually breaks the mortal mesmeric spell and reveals God or Spirit as the only power and substance of all creation.
It needs to be seen that Jesus did far more than heal people of their ills. His teachings, understood, show the way to complete freedom from the belief that we live in matter with all its discords and imperfections. But there are many footsteps leading up to that understanding and Jesus shows us what they are. By his Christly example he set the standard for every department of human living.
Jesus' most sublime example was shown in his love and compassion toward those who hated him and later crucified him. By his compassionate understanding of man's material, limited outlook and consequent fears and brutalities, he showed what man's true nature as the son of God is really like. Jesus didn't react to hatred, he didn't make something of it and call it real. He made "no thing" of it. He knew it was the outcome of fear and ignorance and that spiritual enlightenment would heal it. It's the Christlike love that Jesus showed by the way he lived and refused to react to hatred, that is needed to heal all strife. It's Christlike to see that hatred is never real or something to be attached to persons.
Mrs. Eddy was certainly called upon to prove that to be true throughout her life work. Christian Science was rejected and scorned when Mrs. Eddy introduced it. But that wasn't all. Like Jesus she encountered some bitter personal attacks from those who rejected her teachings.
There were even those who attempted to claim her writings were not original. While at times circumstances required her to protect herself at law, she never did so with resentment. Like Jesus she never reacted to hatred.
Through her understanding of divine Love and her Christ-like practice of it, she wisely met all her attackers and made every effort to do them good. Supported by the Christ-like love she taught, she was sustained and stood unbowed. She knew it was the ignorant, limited material concepts of life, that were generally entertained, that motivated her detractors, and her compassion and love for them carried her through. By her consistent adherence to the Christlike example of living she earned the title of Leader of those who follow her teachings.
Such Christlike love must be present at all healings for mortal error to be seen as nothing — nothing but ignorance of spiritual life. Only divine Love can heal the sin of hate. Hatred is corrosive to the human system and produces many forms of illness. Mrs. Eddy says, "Hate no one; for hatred is a plague-spot that spreads its virus and kills at last" (Miscellaneous Writings, 12:2-3).
I witnessed an undoubted healing of a case of cancer that resulted from a genuine reformation of character when hatred gave way to compassion and loving regard for others. There was much human will and selfishness expressed in the thought of this sufferer and those who encountered it were rudely and angrily treated. This individual seemed unaware of these sinful propensities and when asked to consider the need for exchanging them for Godlike characteristics, he became angry.
Did this individual need to be healed of cancer? The physical condition indicated that he did. But what was really needed was for him to understand his spiritual nature expressing all the qualities of God, divine Love. Some lifelong habits of thought had to be seen as sinful habits too. But, the nature of the human mentality often resists correction as it did in this case.
Mrs. Eddy has this to say about
that sort of resistance. "The nature of the individual, more stubborn than
the circumstance, will always be found arguing for itself, — its habits,
tastes, and indulgences. This material nature strives to tip the beam against
the spiritual nature . . ." (Miscellaneous Writings, 119:11-15 to ;).
So here again we find the necessity for a reforming and redemptive process. There needed to be an admission of guilt. Willfulness is a sin that must be acknowledged. The willingness to see sin as sin and a willingness to denounce it and correct it is a necessity in spiritual healing.
Christian Science teaches that one can't be healed in willful error. The one seeking healing must be receptive to the demand for a change of mental base from the material to the spiritual, from the hateful to the loving. He must be willing to be reformed.
Well, after some deep self-examination this sufferer came to see that all his life he had been impatient, angry, and hateful whenever he encountered opposition, and he had never been aware of these proclivities. Seeing this, he had a genuine desire to spiritualize or purify his thoughts. He wanted to be redeemed from the corrosive thinking that had evidently interfered with normal functioning of his bodily activity, and he was healed. His healing took place twenty-five years ago and today there is not even a trace of a scar. His bodily condition was restored whole by the ceaselessly operative power of divine Love or God, purifying his mental state. This healing was after the pattern set by Christ Jesus, an undoubted spiritual healing.
I told you at the outset of this lecture that Mrs. Eddy says, "The procuring cause and foundation of all disease is fear, ignorance, or sin" (Science and Health, 411:20-21). I have related three actual cases of illness, one produced by fear, another by ignorance, and the third by sin, all healed by a change of mental base from the material to some degree of the spiritual.
But here I want to make very clear that Christian Science doesn't teach that certain diseases or illnesses are produced by definitely defined types of thought. It's not always clear what is at work in the thought of a sufferer. However, the honest desire to be reformed through the spiritualization of thought will reveal what needs correcting and by correcting it, healing will follow.
The names of disease are legion and disease takes on many forms, but time doesn't permit me to discuss every aspect of disease in this lecture period. However, of this we may be sure, the basic cause of illness is fear, ignorance, or sin. It matters not what the name or nature of any disease may be, men would be immune to it if they understood their spiritual nature and their consequent exemption from disease.
Many times in my experience I have been exposed to infectious and so-called contagious diseases, and this over a period of years, without vaccination or inoculation and without ill effects. I had confidence in my immunity as a spiritual child of God. I did not accept the ignorant belief that I was subject to contagion so I didn't fear it. This mental state acted as a law of protection to me.
To succeed in the practice of Christian Science one needs to stay alert at the door of his mental home to resist the hypnotic suggestions of illness he hears all around him. He needs to resist the pull of materialistic living, and pray to attain a greater understanding of Spirit's allness, its tangibleness, and substantive nature. He needs to diligently endeavor to follow the Christly example in every aspect of his daily living in order to demonstrate the healing power of Christian Science.
Tonight you have learned why fear, ignorance, and sin are the cause of ill health and how it is mentally produced. You have also learned how ill health is cured through the metaphysical healing system, Christian Science, which is securely based on the reality of Spirit and the unreality of matter. So making Spirit more real to the human consciousness is our one all-important occupation.
©1972 Neil H.
Bowles
All rights reserved