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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 nature 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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