When Truth Is Demonstrated . . .

IT takes courage and vision to break through conventional thinking and discover something new. But people's resistance to the new and progressive usually gives way when something is obviously practical and proved to work.For instance, an English engineer, George Cayley, was the first man to make a glider that actually flew. Today we take for granted the jets that transport millions of passengers each year. Around the same time that flight was being explored, another intrepid pioneer, Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of this newspaper, made a breakthrough in the field of religion and called her discovery Christian Science. Her breakthrough in the practice of Christian healing convinced her that the scientific Christianity Jesus had proved can still be demonstrated today. Mrs. Eddy proved the efficacy of divine law by healing others, and she taught her students to heal. They often met with the same incredulity and opposition that Christ Jesus and his disciples had encountered. But Mrs. Eddy was a realist, and she knew that there could be progress in spite of opposition. And there was, for tangible healing of sickness and disease proved the authenticity of the Science of Christianity, as it had done in Jesus' time. What was it that people saw in Christian Science? For one thing, many were sincere followers of Christ Jesus, and they saw in Christian Science a reasonable and effective explanation of his healing works. The Saviour had come to show humanity how to find the reality of Life in God, Spirit. John's Gospel records Jesus' promise to his followers: "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. There was plenty of resistance to be countered as Jesus worked among the people of his day, healing their sick and teaching God's goodness and love. The Master outflanked pharisaical skepticism and self-righteousness with the power of Christ, the divine idea of Truth, which he constantly witnessed to. His opponents might take issue with his teaching, but they could not refute the healing that was taking place before their very eyes. The Master looked beyond the frailty of mortality and saw man as God, Spirit, had created him--in the divine likeness, spiritual, whole, and free. Christ, the divine idea of God, active in human consciousness, nullifies evil and opens the door to spiritual progress. As we bring our thoughts and lives into greater accord with God's law, we begin to find enlarged capacities for good and a sharper awareness of our true identity in Spirit, God. By relinquishing old patterns of thought that hold us in the grip of materiality, we find the freedom that comes from following Christ in all things. This regeneration brings with it newness of life and joy a s we express more fully the unselfed love that heals. Mrs. Eddy predicted in her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, "Cold disdain, stubborn resistance, opposition from church, state laws, and the press, are still the harbingers of truth's full-orbed appearing. Yet, in spite of this opposition, genuine scientific Christian healing, empowered of God, divine Love, is going on unabated, and it will continue to do so as Christian Scientists faithfully witness to Christ, Truth, in their lives. Today, Jesus' faithful followers are enabled of Go d to prove, step by step, that the Science of Christ overcomes all that would hinder mankind's spiritual progress.

This is a condensed version of an editorial that appeared in the July 29 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel.