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Story of Progress The ruling thought of the
past has been separation: man apart from God; earth apart from heaven; body
apart from Spirit, believing the Spirit to be immortal and body mortal. Mans has
been taught to believe himself subject to ills, to fear ills, and to try to
rid himself of them by external means. He has been taught that Spirit may
survive sickness and death but that the body is subject to them. Man has believed that his
earthly life was a period of preparation, a necessary disciplinary time of
training for a life to come; that he was virtuous when accepting with
patience the experiences "sent" to him, as he thought, for his
good. Based upon these confused concepts it is little wonder that the race
has been having just that type of experience and has built into its
consciousness an expectation of illness and hardships. So long as man thinks
thus, so will he suffer. "I will bring evil upon this people, even the
fruit of their thoughts." Jer. 6:19 Gradually through the
years, as individuals have risen above the race consciousness, there has come
an awakening to God’s plan for His creation. There has come an understanding
that God is necessarily in His universe, since He is omnipresent and
omniactive in everything everywhere; a divine Power which is acting
continuously to bring forth His own wholeness, His own perfection, His own
perfect functioning with ease, harmony, and all good. Divine Science, in the
light of this understanding, teaches that man may live consciously in and
from the basis of Spirit. This true consciousness is the guarantee of the
perfection of the body. This pure realization is the foreshadowing of harmony
or health. Results are unfailing for by the law of expression, which operates
with the same certainty as does the law of mathematics, life ever produces
life. Chapter Seven Healing The prayer of faith shall
save the sick. James 5:15 I am the Lord that
healeth thee. Exodus 15:26 Watch for the Answers As You Study 1.
What
is the Divine Science basis for healing? 2.
Is
Divine Science primarily a teaching or a healing profession? 3.
When
is it desirable to request the help of a practitioner? 4.
What
characterizes a well-trained practitioner? 5.
In
what way does the student work best with the practitioner? Wholeness is the
universal standard of being. Health is the outer evidence appearing in the
body indicating that the law of wholeness is being complied with. Health is
the normal state of the human body and it should require no effort for health
to manifest, for the truth is that we live, move, and have our being in God,
and God is absolute spiritual harmony and wholeness. Spirit is the source and
substance of everything, hence Spirit is source and substance of the body.
All is Spirit. The body is Spirit, perfect. Made of the changeless living
substance, the body needs no healing when we as individuals constantly
maintain our oneness with our Source. Health is liberated God-activity
expressing through man. Healing goes much deeper than
the getting rid of a particular illness or complaint. It is a process of
whole-making, a process which is always at work within us if we will but
recognize it and cooperate with it. The total personality is involved true
spiritual healing. It requires living in and from the basis of the Spirit of
wholeness, in which the universe operates, if we are to maintain an abiding
consciousness of health and strength. Through the study of
Divine Science we learn that the divine order, called the law of expression,
proves that the One All is Creator, creative activity, and creation. The law
of expression reveals body to be Spirit expressing, for spirit is the
Creator, living soul and body its creation, hence there is one and the same
Source for living soul and body; also one and the same Life, one and the same
Substance, one and the same Nature. We have received perfect Life; it is our
life. Perfect Substance is our substance, pure and changeless. Our life can
never be endangered; our substance can never be injured. The REALITY of us
never changes. We are to perceive, feel, and appreciate this. Infinite Intelligence has
brought forth every soul filled with the fullness of its nature. As we think
of this truth, we open our thought to receive not more – we have already
received all – but to understand more and more of the truth of what we are.
All Truth is. Seeing and knowing it are necessary to our joy and
satisfaction. The more we think of it the better we see and know it. Divine
Science teaches us that our natural state is health, and to be conscious of
Truth is to be conscious of health. False thinking with its
consequent emotional disturbances manifests discord in the body. Sickness
arises from thinking based upon sense testimony; it appears when thought
becomes separated or alienated from the truth of Life’s wholeness and it is
then that perplexity, duality, and anxiety work their havoc in soul and body.
When some outer condition dominates our thinking, we lose sight of our
spiritual nature and invite unpleasant experiences. Since a belief concerning
the possibility of illness still generally predominates the thought of
mankind, it is understandable that suggestions from the race mind subtly get
into our own consciousness and we easily become susceptible to race experiences.
Personal factors such as
emotional upsets, fears, anxieties, and worries come crowding in when we fail
to hold steadfastly to the belief in the grand unity of life, and we become
self-centered rather than Life-centered. All sickness is the result of some
personal infraction of the law of Life. The Spirit of Life is universal
health. Its action is involuntary in all creation. The personal factor is
important because it must voluntarily choose to cooperate with the action of
Spirit in order to partake of universal health. Healing consists of
getting back into the right relation to Life, the original creative order.
The purpose of Divine Science is to teach the individual so to think and live
that he is ever conscious of the Presence which is unfailingly surrounding
him, permeating his very being, and is the truth of his substance. When this
consciousness is attained, health will be evident. The clearer the light of
understanding, the greater the certainty of health. Better far is it to see
steadily and be healthy because we are health, than to believe that we can be
healed. To be health is more desirable than a healing. When there is a clear
understanding that every soul is brought forth filled with the perfection of
the divine nature, doubts, fears, and uncertainties can no longer be admitted
in thought. The certainly of knowledge of truth develops faith; and faith
sees that perfect life everywhere is health; that the one pure substance is
all and is forever whole. It is to be clearly understood that in Divine
Science there is no attempt to deny body, but that a change from a belief in
sickness to the established consciousness that health is our inheritance will
manifest a perfect body. When the omnipresence of God is understood in all
its significance and accepted with full confidence there is healing, and
health is established. Healing is the God-nature
of man becoming visible by means of the great divine law of expression, like
producing like, or God’s perfect health manifesting in the visible as man’s
health. Divine Science proposes to teach that only that healing is permanent
which dispels ignorance by giving understanding of the truth of man’s being.
Certainly its teaching shows that we are to declare that which God is, and
then to realize that we are in our essential nature like Him. As often as we
think of being health, we are laying hold of the understanding that will be
realized as health of body. I am health before I begin to manifest it. From
the understanding that I am health, bodily health can be realized. Being
whole must be our realization. We unfold health eternal. The individual, as
an expression of the universal Life, can be only what that Life is. The
Infinite created us out of its own health; healing is the awareness of that
health as our nature. As the principle of
mathematics is not responsible for a student’s mistake in working out his
problem, so is Truth not answerable for man’s mistaken concept of life and
the results of that mistake. His beliefs which produce inharmonious conditions
are the results of his ignorance. He must erase them from memory, as a child
would clear the blackboard and begin again. Understanding principle better,
man will gain a truer answer to his problem, an answer which has always been
known to Principle as true no matter what mistakes have been made by man. The One Mind that is the
only mind is forever the state of perfection. When we come into the knowledge
and understanding of the perfect Mind we know that health is our reality. The
order of the one perfect Mind teaches us to begin with the Mind of health,
think the thoughts of health, not spasmodically, but constantly; then there
can be no failure in the realization of health. When the law is understood
and obeyed, failure is no more possible than is a mistake in mathematical
work possible when one understands and follows its law. Think and speak
health only, if you wish to realize it. Let the full meaning of omnipresence
be realized and let man be known as the very substance of the Creator, the
expression and manifestation of Spirit, perfect Health. Realize also that the
substance of each individual is the substance of the Infinite and that its
nataure is not changed when it comes forth into individual expression. What greater proof of
wisdom could one possibly imagine than the law and order now manifesting n
God’s world and system of worlds? You believe in God, now believe in yourself
and do so in the selfsame way that you believe in Him. How can God be
infinite, omnipresent, and all, and man differ from Him in his true nature?
Man must be what God is, for he could not exist separate from the infinitude
of Omnipresence! Now Man must gird up his loins with the Spirit of Truth and
acknowledge the nature of his Being before he can prove that having eyes he sees
and having ears he hears. Divine Science believes
that each student should get an understanding of the truth of himself; that
he should do his own praying and bring himself into an expression of his own
natural health. But until, through our study and clear comprehension, we come
into an understanding of our oneness with the All, and come to know the
reality of our health as something which is forever established for us by
Life itself, we shall still experience only part time good health. We then
must know that we are still hold on to an unreality in our beliefs and
sensations rather than accepting the reality and limitless nature of our
Being. Our feelings of sickness give evidence that our habitual prayer (fixed
belief) has not been of faith or the prayer of understanding and
thanksgiving. Our habit has not been to acknowledge Truth completely in all
our ways. There is undoubtedly a wrong habitual subconscious condition to be
corrected that we do not realize or which we seem unable to remove. Then it
is that we may need to call upon someone who is firmly established in Truth
to help us rise above our own false premises and false conclusions. A trained
Divine Science practitioner devotes time and loving attention to this type of
assistance. A practitioner is one who
is skilled I ignoring appearance and in seeing only the perfection of real
Being. Consequently he is able to assist a student in knowing the truth more
clearly. He knows that only health can be expressed by perfect Health. A
practitioner understands that unfoldment into knowledge precedes the desired
unfoldment into a health consciousness, therefore he is one who teaches the
soul its true abiding place and leads it into recognition of perfect
consciousness; he trains us to come to a realization of our unity with the
Infinite, and when this is accepted we recognize our consequent wholeness,
and permanent healing results. The practitioner
endeavors to follow the method used by Jesus in his healing works. Jesus
called forth an expression of faith, or recognized it manifest by those he
healed, before speaking the words of power. "They faith hath made thee
whole." Mark 5:34 "According to they faith be it unto you."
Matt 9:29 "Receive they sight: they faith hath saved thee." Luke
18:42 Their faith substantiated by Jesus united their thought and
consciousness. This was the means by which the power of the Spirit was
realized and wholeness was manifested. When we, for any reason,
are unable to get a clear realization, then the practitioner realizes the
truth of our health for us; he begins and ends with seeing our perfect Being.
Not that thinking and speaking make health, but they declare health or
perfection as the true nature of all, therefore of the student – his health
is. There is no uncertainty about it. In this healing there cannot be thought
transference, hypnotism, or mesmerism. The practitioner does not give his
thought to another, but recognizes that the patient is one with the eternal
wholeness. He sees "the fullness which filleth all." He awakens the
patient’s thought to this truth. A practitioner teaches
another to have a continuous recognition and praise of the omnipresence of
the Spirit of Good on the conscious level, which causes the subconscious
realm to be gradually purified and in this way trained to accept the life
pattern of the Christ. Healing then is inevitable. He helps another by
knowing him to be one with God even as all are. The power of healing is
unlimited since it is the changeless divine Presence that is health. The
power of the Lord, Law in action, is present to heal. When the real Being and
Nature of man is given full acknowledgment, healing is accomplished. To know
man’s Spirit, living soul, and body as living Substance, is to know his unity
with the Eternal and to know the Infinite as all. Healing is that period when
the erroneous concepts are being dismissed and the God-Nature comes into its
own at the conscious and subconscious levels of the soul. Healing is a change
from belief in sickness to a consciousness of health. Faith in and cooperation
with practitioner and the Truth of Life is the secret of success. As a child
you had no fear when a loving, wise hand led you, when your mother said,
"We must go now. We have stayed long enough." The loving interest
she had for you and you confidence in her, present a relationship that is
eternal and universal. Put your confidence in your practitioner and trust
your God in the same confident way. Do not try to control either, but instead
move with them. Let God’s nature be your nature – it is, you know – and let
it express in your thoughts, words, and deeds. We cannot compel Life
principle to come our way unless our way is its way. They who understand
Divine Science know and have faith in omnipresent Spirit as intelligence and
power. They know that Spirit speaks and creates within and unto itself. The
invisible law works from within, out. The worker is invisible Spirit and the
work is visible forms. We have faith that this Life with all its beauty, it
health, its good of every sort is now in God, the never-failing Good, and
that we have no existence that is not good. Let us realize momently that
there is no power working in us but the power of Truth and it cannot work but
for good. When the true scientific teaching is applied in faith it always
heals. The Divine Science
practitioner’s method of procedure is to receive his patient as a student,
and to perceive him or her to be pure Spirit-Substance, including both the
invisible identity and visible form, perfect as Expresser and expression and
in a state of ease and reset, for Life makes no effort to become life. The
practitioner perceives that the holding of beliefs that are false to the
nature of Being, is the dis-ease that is felt. The student needs to be taught
that there is a permanent principle of health and all good which he is to
recognize and express. Thus the practitioner’s remedy is Truth. He gives this
Truth in the form of a lesson, correcting the student’s false belief in
himself. Then by speaking the word of Spirit, he calls the attention of the
student to true consciousness of Being, and Beings responds to its own words
of Truth and the healing is done. There is but one healer, God the Good,
operating through all for permanent relief. If students do their
part, let go of false beliefs and opinions, and embrace Truth, as taught by
Divine Science, they will be healed. The sooner we accept the truth of our
oneness with God, and ourselves as the expression of His perfect Being, the
sooner will health be experienced. The complete acknowledgment and acceptance
of Truth brings permanent healing. "No man can serve two master."
Matt. 6:24 The process of healing in
Divine Science is the Christ method of healing. It is the divine expression
of the Creator in the creature, Being expressing itself. Healing is
accomplished by the word of Truth, all being the word of God. Healing means
the expressing of all good – good health, good substance, intelligence,
knowledge, and power. In the Christ method the healer speaks the Truth until
he is conscious of universal Principle, the revelation of the perfect body.
Healing, therefore, in Divine Science is truly revelation and illumination.
Healing by the word of Truth is the one omnipresent, infinite Mind, or Holy
Spirit, voicing its own nature, the truth of itself. It is essential that the
body or form of this ever-present All be recognized as being a body of Life,
Intelligence, Substance, and Power. There is nothing more potent for good
results than right thinking; by it people are healed and their lives are
thereby turned into paths of peace and plenty. Let your relaxation be
complete, take no anxious care concerning yourself, use the truth you know
and rely upon it, know that your consciousness of Truth is your freedom.
Affirm it regardless of circumstances and events. It is not sufficient to
know that the nature of man is the nature of God, self-existing and eternal,
but it must be applied. We must conform to it in our words and our deeds.
Truth is the remedy for all seeming dis-ease. Divine Science illumines
mankind with the truth of the unity of God and the oneness of man as Spirit,
soul, and body. It thus proves that Jesus’ declaration, "I and the
Father are one," can be lawfully, scientifically and truthfully affirmed
by everyone, and practically demonstrated and applied in all walks of life.
This gives Divine Scientists opportunity to speak the word prayerfully and
faithfully, that health, happiness, and prosperity may spring forth speedily
and naturally. The work of Divine
Science is to teach and to demonstrate the truth of at-one-ment, God manifest
in the flesh, and in all creation; and to demonstrate even immortality and
eternal life. STATEMENTS OF TRUTH
QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW AND DISCUSSION Write out your logical conclusion to support the statement, "God is the health of His people."
Divine Science Its Principle and Practice
Copyright ã1957 by Divine Science Church and College Denver, Colorado Made
available here by the ministry of Rev.
Lawrence C. Terry, M.Msc., D.Min. P. O. Box
68324 Indianapolis,
IN 46268-0324 |
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