Mrs. C. L. Baum
Studies in Divine Science
The Colorado College of Divine Science
Denver, Colo., 4th ed., 1924.

The subject of this lesson will suggest, perhaps, the curing of ills which man in his ignorance has permitted to hold him in bondage. It has, however, a far wider significance, and while we shall consider it in its relation to curing disease, we will lay greater stress on its deeper and truer meaning. There is a wide difference between healing and curing, between healing the mentality of all conception of evil and curing some external appearance of disease.

In order to fully understand this subject it is necessary, first, to realize just what it is that needs healing. We declare God to be Perfect Mind, universal in its presence and perfect in its attributes. This Perfect Source and Creator knows no imperfection and needs no healing. Man is the creation of this Perfect Creator - God's perfect and spiritual idea - having been created in God's image and after His likeness. Man is, therefore, a perfect spiritual creation and needs no healing. The body is the manifested Word of God and needs no healing. We see, therefore, that Universal Mind and its manifestation need no healing or changing, for,

God is the Perfect and Spiritual Creator;
Man is the perfect and Spiritual Creation, and
Body is the Perfect and Spiritual Manifestation.

Apparently, then, all that is left which requires enlightenment is man's ever unfolding consciousness. "The only place in the universe where God may be shut out is in man's consciousness." This degree of consciousness believes partly in truth and partly in error. To remove the latter so that there is a consciousness that truth alone is reality, and that appearances are but shadows of ignorance, constitutes true healing.

For ages the world has dealt with appearances, working with shadows of evil as though they were realities to be resisted, and, perhaps, ultimately overcome. The body has been regarded as material substance subject to disease, which men have combated in order to acquire health. The net result can scarcely be said to flatter the wisdom which men have assumed they were exercising. Temporary cures have been effected but not healing, for all healing consists simply in one thing, the producing of a change in consciousness. But opinions and thoughts concerning life have gradually changed and we have come into a fuller knowledge of the Truth, which never changes and which truly heals.

We have discovered the fact that disease (lack of ease) has no life, intelligence or substance of itself, and exists wholly through man's belief in it and the power which he has given it. We have found out that it is not necessary to have a full knowledge of disease in order to heal it, any more than a study of discord would be an aid to a perfect knowledge of harmony, or than a careful study of mathematical errors would be of assistance in solving difficult problems. On the other hand, the more we know of health, the more fully shall we comprehend the fact that it is the truth of the body - its real and eternal state. The surest way to perpetuate disease is to believe in its reality, while the surest means to overcome it is to diagnose health. How apparent, then, is the folly of studying evil in order to overcome it when our only true means of overcoming evil is good. And yet the whole world for generations has believed that to acquire perfection we must have a full understanding of all imperfection.

Health is a natural possession, but has not been fully realized because man has not centered his thought upon it, or established his faith in it. All disease implies a lack of consciousness of health, and as long as we believe in the reality of disease we are subject to our own belief: we have results according to our faith. As we begin to put faith in the Omnipresence as perfect health, life and substance, unreal conditions pass away and we are free.

Teaching and healing are truly one and should always be one. To be healed is to attain to such a degree of understanding and realization of the truth that no beliefs contrary thereto can enter into the mentality. The acquisition of truth will be marked by the growth of the soul out of personal ignorance into Divine Knowledge. As the teaching is received, accepted and put into daily practice, healing is accomplished. It comes from the consciousness of the Spirit within and not from without. The acceptance of these teachings will reveal the one thing of which we are otherwise ignorant, viz., the Truth of ourselves. Man is the Word of God, the Divine Idea expressed in a pure and changeless form. When we know ourselves as we are in Truth, we shall know the utter unreality of anything that is unlike God.

Progress toward true healing will be marked by the perception of certain truths. To know these will make us free from the law of sin and death. We shall be like God in the external even as we are the image of God in the invisible. These truths which we must learn in order to be healed may be stated as follows:

The Truth of our Being.
The Supremacy of Mind.
The non-entity of evil.
The Omnipresence of Good.
The unreality of disease.
The Unity of all Substance.

To live in sickness, pain, poverty or inharmony, no matter how cheerfully, is not a mark of spirituality. It is a lack of understanding of the real spiritual nature of the universe and of the all-sustaining and infinite abundance of the Omnipresence. Knowledge of the Truth brings deliverance from these conditions which really keeps us out of the kingdom of God. When in our thought we are dwelling on health, abundance and harmony, we are in accord with the teachings of Jesus expressed in the parable of the vine: "If ye abide in me and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you." But when in our inmost center we are dwelling on sickness and pain, and are filled with fear and anxiety, we are perpetuating the very conditions of unreality which we desire to overcome.

The laws of health are spiritual, ordained of God; they are not of man's making. It is true that man has devised his own rules and has become subject to them. There is, however, nothing that we should be so careful about as the acceptance of man-made conditions. If we believe in the divine law of health and continually think that everything in our world is contributing to that health, we shall be exempt from man-made law. Man continually declares that he is subject to his laws which he has devised, and this declaration of his faith makes it so. We are subject to that which we fear, and the only way to come into an abiding consciousness of health is to know our unity with God. We are Spirit, governed and controlled by divine Law, and no material concept can touch or harm us. Disease has no power whatever over the eternal health of God and will have no power in our life when we realize this truth. If we or our ancestors or friends have laid down laws regarding food, drink, exercise, clothing, weather, climate, altitude, and inherited diseases, we may release ourselves from the bondage of all beliefs regarding these things by acquiring a knowledge of truth as laid down in this lesson. Understanding the unity of all things overcomes the fear of anything and brings us into that peace which nothing has the power to disturb.

God is the Source and cause of my health.
My health does not depend upon external things.
My health does not depend upon climate, altitude or weather.
My health does not depend upon what I eat or drink.
It is from God, substantial and enduring.
My health is eternal and changeless.
Health and harmony are the reality of my world.
The word of health is now made manifest in my body.
God is the health of His people.
God is my health now and forever.

Peace beginning to be
Deep as the sleep of the sea
When the stars their faces glass
In its blue tranquility;
Hearts of men upon earth,
Never once still from their birth,
To rest as the wild waters rest
With the colors of heaven on their breast.
Love, which is sunlight of peace,
Age by age to increase,
Till angers and hatreds are dead,
And sorrow and death shall cease:
"Peace on earth and good-will"!
Souls that are gentle and still
Hear the first music of this
Far-off, infinite bliss!

Edwin Arnold.