The great Physician

''If you are experiencing these symptoms, call your physician immediately.'' These words were contained in a magazine advertisement I had read. About a week later while making breakfast, I was seized with severe pain - so severe I had to lie down. As I lay there I remembered the advertisement and realized I was experiencing the symptoms it had described. As I thought of the words ''call your physician immediately,'' I gratefully recalled the many times since my days in a Christian Science Sunday School that I had called on my Physician, God, and my prayers had been answered.

A statement in Miscellaneous Writings by Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, came to thought: ''God is our Father and our Mother, our Minister and the great Physician.''n1 I saw this illness as an opportunity to prove the allness of God, who is good, and the fallaciousness of the notion that there is a force or presence apart from God.

n1 Mis., p. 151.

I called on my Physician immediately by realizing that God is the one infinite Mind, conscious only of the spiritual perfection of His creation. I saw that this perfection included me at that moment, and that feelings of pain, fear , discomfort, were therefore a lie. Christ Jesus spoke of the devil, or evil, as ''a liar, and the father of it.''n2 I realized, in light of Jesus' healing works , that this lie had no power to convince me that there is truth in disease - or to make disease true. The symptoms began to abate, and within a few minutes I was completely free of pain, able to continue making breakfast and to accompany my husband on a trip that day. I was walking on air, grateful for the quick answer to my call for help.

n2 John 8:44.

Christian Science, in harmony with the Bible, affirms that man is made in the image of God. In the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mrs. Eddy gives this definition of God: ''The great I am; the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-acting, all-wise, all-loving, and eternal; Principle; Mind; Soul; Spirit; Life; Truth; Love; all substance; intelligence.''n3

n3 Science and Health, p. 587.

It is from this premise that one may turn to God as the great Physician and in humble prayer realize the actual status of man as His perfect reflection - immortal, spiritual, completely good. From this premise, too, we see that man cannot, in reality, be attacked by any power claiming to oppose His all-power.

This was proved in a family when one of the children was only two years old. She was stricken with what the attending physicians diagnosed as paralysis of the bowels. The doctors had lovingly, to the best of their ability, done everything they could do for the young child, but to no avail. They finally told the mother the child could not live through the night.

At that time the family had contact with a Christian Scientist - one of two or three in a small western town - who suggested a Christian Science practitioner be called to pray for the child. The family knew nothing about this religion, but in desperation the mother accepted the idea. A practitioner was contacted and agreed to pray for the little girl. This prayer included allaying the fear of the parents.

In a very short time the child was completely and permanently healed by ''the great Physician'' through the realization of God's power and loving care for each of His offspring. She has now lived for over sixty years since this experience. In that time she has gratefully witnessed the blessings of Christian Science, including the healings of many others.

Today, through the Science of Christianity, God's power to heal is being proved - and it's available to all. DAILY BIBLE VERSE Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed. Jeremiah 17:14