Health: its spiritual basis

At some time any of us may have gone through a period of not feeling well. Whether the problem was mild, acute, or chronic, we may have assumed that this was the result of some disorder within the body. It seems logical. Certainly it's largely from this basis that doctors and researchers have toiled to relieve the ills of mankind.

But what if, like the assumption of the early astronomers that the earth was the center of the universe, this basis is wrong? I'm sure that to some this may seem a wrongheaded or even an illogical question. After all, isn't it self-evident that ill health is a physical disorder within the body?

Is it self-evident? Is it any more self-evident than the evidence that the planets revolve around the earth?

Working from a physical basis, mankind believes that some disorders can be corrected, some can be controlled, and that some are unfortunately incurable. Working from an entirely different basis - a spiritual one - the master Christian, Christ Jesus, healed all kinds of disease. He gave sight to one who had been born blind. He healed leprosy, dropsy, insanity. A man's withered hand was fully restored. A man with palsy was instantly cured. The record is extensive. His method of healing found nothing that was incurable.

Was this work miraculous, supernatural - or scientific? Apparently scientific , for it was teachable to others. And those he instructed were able to teach others also. There must, therefore, have been a divine law underlying this healing.

When we examine Jesus' teachings and his explanations of his work, we find no references to hygiene, physiology, or anatomy - or their first century equivalents. He spoke about God, his Father, our Father. He said: ''The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do''; n1 ''The Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works''; n2 ''I do always those things that please him.'' n3

n1 John 5:19.

n2 John 14:10.

n3 John 8:29.

If healing sickness and disease is the fulfillment of God's will, sickness and disease must be contrary to God's will. Jesus' work gives no evidence of doctoring the body; but it does give evidence of restoring health through an understanding of God's love and absolute supremacy.

Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, ''It is our ignorance of God, the divine Principle, which produces apparent discord, and the right understanding of Him restores harmony.'' n4 Health care, seen from this basis, relates to an understanding of God and His abiding love for His creation; to a recognition and understanding of divine law, which is operative and effective today as then.

n4 Science and Health, p. 390.

Jesus' healing was scientific. It illustrated a deep, abiding sense of God as good, ever with us. It demonstrated the omnipotence of God. It gave proof of the truth that God and man are inseparable; that God is Spirit and that man is, in truth, spiritual, indestructible, the likeness of his Maker.

The life of Christ Jesus and the practice of Christian Science furnish clear evidence that health is a spiritual fact and that it is brought to light in its truest sense by spiritual means.

The work of the early astronomers took time to gain public credence and acceptance, but the evidence of the actual movements of the solar system made eventual acceptance inevitable. The spiritual nature and basis of health has not met with rapid acceptance either. But the continuing evidence of healing and regeneration established on that basis can't help receiving more and more intelligent thought and consideration.

Mrs. Eddy writes of Jesus, ''The highest earthly representative of God, speaking of human ability to reflect divine power, prophetically said to his disciples, speaking not for their day only but for all time: 'He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also;' and 'These signs shall follow them that believe.' '' n5 These promises are being fulfilled today. And so health is being found to rest, not on a physical basis, but on a spiritual one.

n5 I bid., p. 52.

DAILY BIBLE VERSE The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; . . . neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. I Corinthians 2:14