Classification and Limitation

In that wonderful chapter on Genesis, which is a very important part of the Christian Science textbook, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” Mrs. Eddy in her analysis of the allegory of material creation says (p. 528), “Beholding the creations of his own dream and calling them real and God-given, Adam—alias error—gives them names.” This has been a failing of mortal man in every age, and thus it has come about that, once subscribing to the reality and necessity of disease, the next step has been to classify it as acute or chronic, organic or functional, of mild or of serious import. Christian Scientists have largely mastered this false concept, and yet it requires constant watchfulness on their part to avoid being ensnared by its insidious suggestion.

Even the apostles seem to have been mesmerized by the belief that some special difficulty confronted them in their efforts to heal the demoniac boy. Jesus, however, proved that this form of error was no more difficult to destroy than any other type of evil, and he rebuked his followers for their failure, in the words, “This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.” Clearly Jesus did not mean that this particular form of disease presented any obstacle to healing, for the sequel shows otherwise; rather did he seek to impress the lesson that by true spiritual prayer, with its consequent fasting from the false evidence of the material senses and from their Adam habit of classification, a case such as this would be dissolved into its native nothingness as readily and as completely as any so-called minor type of error.

Just as no student of mathematics was ever healed of the belief that two and two are five by one who also trusted in that fundamental error as if it were the truth, so one cannot be truly healed of diseases or sins by another who believes in their reality. The nothingness of any error is proved when the error is overcome through purely spiritual means; for to the thinker it must be plain that realities, or in other words, God-created things, cannot be destroyed. In Christian Science, therefore, disease is regarded as unreal because it is subject to destruction, and nothing can never be more than nothing, whether it calls itself an infinitesimal microbe or claims to be a veritable mountain of error. The size of a cipher does not determine its value, for whether large or small it is still a cipher.

If God, good, is omnipotent, as the Scriptures clearly indicate, then right must be all-powerful. It must, then, follow that whatever is right is possible of attainment and is in fact natural and normal. Omnipotent good is not all-powerful in some cases and powerless in others, for the thinker will readily perceive that degenerate omnipotence involves a contradiction. Error’s only claim to power arises from mortal consent to believe in its genuineness, and when the entire overcoming of disease reveals its falsity it is thus proved that its assertions were never more substantial than the false mathematical concept which is obliterated by education. In the one case the thing to be rectified is a mistake manifested physically and in the other a mistake expressed numerically. In the light of Truth a mistake may be seen as a mistake, and regardless of the nature it attempts to assume it is at once corrected by knowing the truth about it. Superficial knowledge is not sufficient to destroy error, but some degree of spiritual understanding is requisite.

If it be once admitted that some mistakes or claims of error are stronger than others, the corresponding admission must be made that such claims are more difficult to destroy. Jesus never stopped to argue this question from any angle. He overcame sin and sickness simply through the understanding of the allness of Spirit and the consequent nothingness of matter in all its forms and with all its accompaniments; and this understanding enabled him to heal the withered hand, to restore lost sight, to open deaf ears, to walk on the water, to get the tax money from the fish’s mouth, and to raise the dead as readily as to heal Peter’s wife’s mother of a fever or to make a good woman of Mary Magdalene. In each case the work was accomplished through the same metaphysical process, and this method is defined by Mrs. Eddy on page 476 of Science and Health as follows: “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.”

There can be no possible necessity for any action outside of God, and this admission at once places all action on a spiritual basis. This fundamental premise once conceded, there remains neither excuse nor apology for error of any name or nature. “Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you,” asked Paul, “that God should raise the dead?” Why should it be thought that God is capable of creating man and yet is incapable of taking care of him? It is readily acknowledged that the carpenter who builds a house can repair it, that the mechanic who constructs an engine can replace the worn or missing parts; and yet so perverse is mortal reasoning that it denies to God the sustaining power which it arrogates to itself. From this false reasoning arises the belief that inanimate drugs or the surgeon’s knife can accomplish things which God either can not or will not do. To say that God will not heal those in need of healing is to make Him a sinner, while to say that He cannot heal is to leave the creator out of His own creation.

Chemists tell us that the human body itself is composed of the very simplest chemical elements, are that these elements are in turn sustained or destroyed by chemical action. In fact, the ramifications of this belief in chemical necessity are surprising when subjected to analysis. However, that is another story. Can an assumed law of chemistry annul or even temporarily set aside the immutable law of omnipotent Mind? Can matter supersede Spirit at any point of action? The knowledge that matter can neither create substance nor destroy substance must be preceded by the understanding that so-called matter is not substance, and this fact spiritually understood will heal the most malignant type of disease as surely as it will destroy so-called milder forms. To light there are no degrees of darkness, and the same candle which would light a moderately dark room will serve to light the same room at blackest midnight. This is not to say that in considering that form of error which the world denominates as sin, no distinction should be made between murder, for instance, and some venial phase of wrongdoing; but it must be evident that every form of sin is the same in essence and subject to healing by one and the same method.

Jesus never used or recommended any other than spiritual methods, and that Christian Science is but the rediscovery of his Christly plan is proved by the untold thousands of cases of healing of all manner of diseases through the understanding of Mrs. Eddy’s explanation of his simple, never failing process. His diagnosis and classification were always from a spiritual standpoint; therefore his healing power knew no limitations. The consistent Christian Scientist will not be intimidated by error of any kind, but trusting in the never failing strength and goodness of God, “who healeth all thy diseases,” he will go forth to meet the boasting Goliaths of evil and confront the roaring lions in his path, as confidently and as unafraid as he chases away “the little foxes, that spoil the vines.” “Remember,” says Mrs. Eddy on page 149 of Miscellany, “thou canst be brought into no condition, be it ever so severe, where Love has not been before thee and where its tender lesson is not awaiting thee.”