Wonderful things take place in the realm of healing when we know and understand the truth about body - when we have the right concept of body. During the past year, I have witnessed two healings of what, probably, would be called cancer because, in each case, the patient and I were stubborn in standing steadfast in the fact that not only did the patient have a perfect, spiritual body, but also, the right concept of body. Probably, some of you remember a rather whimsical statement my husband made, in one of his lectures about body when he said, “All of our troubles come from worrying, fretting, and stewing about the physical nobody which we are really not, instead of appreciating the spiritual somebody which we really are.” Let us refuse - absolutely refuse - to be mortal, material, physical nobodies.

We do not deny that we have a body, but we disclaim a mortal, material body that can have aches and pains, that can be too fat or too thin, that can be imperfect in form or outline, that is subject to disease, that could function imperfectly or grow old. We must rejoice that we are really spiritual somebodies, in the kingdom of heaven. We have a body. The body we have is real and eternal. It is spiritual, perfect. It is beautiful in form and outline. It functions harmoniously and is divinely active.

What is your body? Is it not your identity? Is it not the embodiment of all the right ideas which constitute your being and identify you as an individual child of God? Mrs. Eddy uses the terms “identity” and “body” synonymously. You are all familiar with the question in Science and Health. “What are body and soul?” In giving the answer to “What is body?” Mrs. Eddy uses the word identity instead of body. She writes, “Identity is the reflection of Spirit, the reflection in multifarious forms of the living Principle, Love.” It is interesting to note how Mrs. Eddy sought to make it very clear that there is but one body, and that body is our spiritual identity.

In the very first edition of Science and Health, the answer to the question, “What is body?” reads: “The spiritual body is idea and God the Principle, substance, Life, and intelligence of the idea.” But Mrs. Eddy was not satisfied with this answer because the words, “The spiritual body” might suggest that there could be another body. In a later edition, she wrote, “A material body is a mortal belief, dust to dust.” Even though she made nothing of a material body - other than a mortal belief - she was still not satisfied with there even being a suggestion of a belief of a material body. Thus in the last edition, we find the simple, clear unfoldment that body is identity - wholly and completely spiritual. There isn’t even the suggestion that there might be a material, physical body, or even a dream or an illusion or a belief of a material, physical body. Isn’t it thrilling to realize that the only body we have, the only sense of identity we have, the only substance we have, is this manifestation of Spirit? In the textbook, we read, “When you say, ‘Man’s body is material,’ I say with Paul: ‘Be willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.’ Give up your material belief of mind in matter, and have but one Mind, even God; for this Mind forms its own likeness.” What is being “absent from the body”? Is it not, as Mrs. Eddy said, giving up your material belief of mind in matter? Is it not denying, wholly and completely, a mortal, material body? And what is being “present with the Lord”? Is it not claiming the one Mind, God, as our mind? And rejoicing that the only body we have is the body that divine Mind forms - His perfect, spiritual likeness?

You know, it is absolutely impossible for there to be such a thing as a material body. How could there be a material body when there is no matter? Everyday you rejoice in the Scientific Statement of Being. You claim, wholeheartedly, that “All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation.” What do you mean by “All”? When you say All, do you really mean that All is God and there is none else? Then, there can be no matter, no material body. Later on, in the Scientific Statement of Being, you rejoice that man is not material. He is spiritual. It would be ridiculous to assume that that which is wholly and completely spiritual could have a material body. Hence, no material body. It is utterly impossible. Now, this Scientific Statement of Being is not just a formula which we use, hoping to bring about some changes in our living and in our being. It is the divine law of existence. It is the divine Principle of all living and being. This law completely eliminates any possibility of there being materiality, corporeality, physicality, anywhere - ever.

You need to rejoice, constantly, that right where you are - right there - Spirit, God, is present, making itself manifest. You are that true spiritual manifestation of God’s being. Therefore, the only body you have is the one pure, perfect, holy, beautiful, spiritual body. You can’t even appear to have a mortal material body. In the textbook, our Leader writes, “I cannot fail to discern the coincidence of the spiritual idea of man with the divine Mind.” You, likewise, cannot fail to discern the oneness, or coincidence, of your true, spiritual selfhood with all that is divinely mental.

I’m going to give you all an illustration as to how Mrs. Eddy thought and taught about body. The experience was related to me by a beloved and respected worker in Boston. Mrs. Eddy was conversing with one of her students who lived in her household. She touched his arm and asked, “What is this, John?” He replied, “Undestroyed human belief.” She shook her head and asked him the second time, “What is this?” He replied again, “Just a wrong concept of manhood.” She again shook her head. When she asked him the third time he said, “Well, I don’t think I know, Mother. You tell me.” She replied, “Just pure Spirit. Just pure Spirit.” Now Mrs. Eddy was not saying that a physical, material body is Spirit. She was indicating that the only body there is, is the one, perfect, spiritual body. She was indicating that right where this student was, all that was really there was pure, unadulterated Spirit, making itself manifest - not through matter, or in spite of matter, but instead of the concept of matter, and because of the allness of Spirit. If you will admit the truth that the only body you have - the only sense of identity you have - is the manifestation of pure, unadulterated Spirit, then, it will be easy for you to see the non-existence of blemishes, weakness, overweight, decay, disease, decrepitude, and death.

Christ Jesus certainly had the concept of just one body - and that one spiritual and perfect. He knew that divine and deathless being was expressing itself through every fiber of the true, spiritual body - the only body, even the same body which was nailed to the cross and buried in the tomb. If Jesus had thought for a moment that he lived or died in a physical body, there would have been no resurrection. He walked forth from the tomb because he knew that he lived, moved, and had his being in God, and expressed his true identity through a spiritual body which was incapable of injury, disease, or death. When Jesus ascended, he neither left a physical body behind nor took one with him. Neither did he lose his body, his sense of identity. He had the same body after the crucifixion and resurrection that he had had before. And he had the same body after what we call the ascension that he had before. For he had the one and only true spiritual body, which is the reflection of divine Spirit. What happened at the time of the ascension was this: Jesus had such a clear realization of the coincidence of the human and divine - he saw so clearly that man is the spiritual idea of God - that the view was beyond the understanding of the people who had always identified him with a material sense of body. Therefore, they could see him no more. But he did not go anywhere for, in his own words, he said, “Lo, I am with you alway even unto the end of the world.” This true Christ, or spiritual idea of God, is the force and power that is with us and enables us to heal others today.

When you give a Christian Science treatment, you are rejoicing that God, the divine Spirit, is manifesting itself through the substance and through every function of your patient’s body. The only thing that is in your thought is true identity - the true body - which is the reflection of Spirit, “the reflection in multifarious forms of the living Principle, Love.” There is no other body, no other substance, no other identity. Divine Spirit is certainly ever-present, manifesting itself through the body. God is omniscient. Therefore, both you and the patient know only the truth which reveals the existence of a healthy, strong body.

I have long been inspired by what Mr. Edward A. Kimball had to say about body. He, too, emphasized that there is but one perfect spiritual body. I quote him specifically. “I do not hesitate to urge you to declare constantly the truth about body in order that the spiritual idea of body may silence and displace the material concept.” Mr. Kimball gives what I call a short, beautiful, powerful treatment for body in just a few words. May I share it with you? “Mind and ideas constitute the whole of matter. Ideas constitute the body or embodiment of Mind. Hence there is one infinite Mind and that Mind is our Mind. There is one infinity of body and that body is our body. Body is the infinite manifestation of Mind. All the things of body are eternal, complete, perfect, and perpetually active as ideas. The law of Mind to body is the law of harmonious perpetual action. Body will always be body. It cannot fail or be sick or change. It is the manifestation of vigor, vitality, strength, power, force, and perfect impulsion, and the divine law unto it is the law of strength and normal action.”

It has helped me a great deal in my understanding that there is just one body and that one, a perfect, spiritual body, to lay my hand upon myself and ask, “What is this?” Then I rejoice that right here, right now, right where this present body is - is pure unadulterated Spirit. In fact, this present body is one with Spirit as a drop of water is one with the ocean; and as a ray of light is one with the sun. There are a lot of Christian Scientists who say that there is just one body and that it is perfect and spiritual. But, at the same time, they are not willing to lay their hand upon themselves and say, “This present body is that one spiritual body.” And why should we be so loath to call our present body the perfect, spiritual body? Actually, the only material body anybody could ever have would simply be his wrong concept of body. Then why have a wrong concept of body? Why not have a right concept of body? Why not have God’s concept of body? The truth is that because God is our Mind, His concept must be our concept.

In Miscellaneous Writings, Mrs. Eddy writes, “But say you, is a stone spiritual? To erring material sense, No! but to unerring spiritual sense, it is a small manifestation of Mind, a type of spiritual substance . . . ” Oh let us be rejoicing that we are incapable of “erring material sense.” Because God is our mind and Soul is our sense of things, we are capable only of “unerring spiritual sense.” Then, of course, the universe is spiritual, and a stone is spiritual. And, of course, the body of man is spiritual.

Now, since the only material body that anybody could ever have would be a wrong concept of body, isn’t it important that we be rejoicing that the only concept of body is the spiritual concept - God’s concept? We do not have an erring, material sense of body. We have an unerring, spiritual sense of body. Thus, it can never even seem to appear that any of us has a physical, material body. Hence, we cannot have the claims associated with such - no aches, no pain, no discords, no errors of any form or by any names.

Isn’t that wonderful?

Rejoice daily, that there is but one body and that body is spiritual, perfect, and immortal. Rejoice that not only is that one perfect, spiritual body your body, but that you do not even have a wrong concept of body. Daily affirm, “I have only one body and that body is spiritual and perfect. I do not have a wrong concept of body. I have the right concept of body - God’s concept of body - spiritual, perfect, whole, beautiful, and divinely active.”

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