Divine Science Its
Principle and Practice
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Copyright 1957 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
www.DivineScience.net
Chapter 7 - 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
7
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
* The realization of
eternal, changeless health is the only
basis used by Divine Science for
healing.
* External things do
not affect the truth of Being. Jesus
said: "Judge not according to the
appearance, but judge righteous
judgment." John 7:24
* In Truth the body
always stands as a holy temple of God,
the Good; therefore, speak truth of it,
affirm that it is eternal substance,
living substance, God-Idea
expressed.
* God is the
wholeness of the universe, therefore,
God is my wholeness.
* My wholeness comes
froth into expression as my perfect
body, the glorious Word of Life made
flesh.
* I know that my God
is my good and is a healing presence
always with me and in me.
* The all-wise,
all-loving, all-adjusting power of the
Spirit is now working within and
through me, releasing in me its
enduring health and strength.
* God is the great
constant in life and He is the health
of His people.
* There is no power
working in me but the power of Truth
and it can work only for good.
* I, Being, include
body. I AM one perfect whole.
* Man is just what
God made him – good, whole, and
entire – like God in
nature.
* I turn to Spirit
within me and mentally accept its
creative order as including my true
body. Thus I release the healing power
that repairs and rebuilds the body
temple.
* All may heal who
think, speak, and act Truth, free from
personal opinions and beliefs.
* If God were the
author of sickness we could not
demonstrate over it.
* I am in my
Father’s kingdom, enjoying the
power and glory of it. I am free here
and now.
* He is ever with
me, heals me.
* Refusal to believe
in disease does not mean that it has no
existence in appearance, but that there
is not real or permanent cause for such
appearance.
* Health is not made
by thinking but is the eternal state of
Being. By thinking we recognize this
wholeness.
* Divine Science
recognizes the body as pure Spirit,
divine Idea.
* I accept the
perfect body and bless its functional
nature.
Questions For
Review and
Discussion
1. Write out your logical conclusion to
support the statement, "God is the
health of His people."
2. Why is it more desirable to be
health than to believe that a healing
is possible?
3. Discuss the statement: "The clearer
the light of understanding the greater
the certainty of health."
4. Is it a sign of weakness to ask for
the help of a practitioner?
5. Reason this out in terms of health,
"How can man be, yet no express what he
is?"
Chapter 8
* * * * *
Divine Science - Its
Principle and Practice from the writings
of Nona Brooks and Malinda
Cramer
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