Watching Point 225

225 — WATCH lest you be troubled by the possibility of patients coming to Christian Science because they are sick and so looking away from earth, being healed and going away satisfied because their problem is solved, and appearing to have no further interest in the truth. Our Master had this experience with the ten lepers, when only one returned to give thanks and to investigate the power that had healed him. The indication was that only one was touched by the truth to the point of desiring to look beyond the mere physical restoration.

Mortal mind is like a stale cake freshly frosted. Sickness is a condition where one breaks through the frosting and discovers that the cake is no good. No disease exposes the offensive possibilities of the flesh more than does leprosy. Jesus’ demonstration restored the frosting for all ten, and at once nine of them were so joyful over the physical restoration, that they forgot the revolting nature of the belief of the flesh that they had been brought out of, and so at the time seemed to learn nothing from the experience.

Practitioners need not be troubled when they have similar experiences. A coat of fresh paint on an old house may fool many people; but there are some with the insight to detect the rotten wood, and who, therefore, seek a better home. There will always be a percentage of patients who will recognize the fundamentally erroneous and undesirable nature of the belief of the flesh, no matter how desirable and beautiful it may appear to be, under the spell of mortal belief. They will turn away from it, to seek the higher understanding and regeneration that Christian Science offers those who realize, that their yearnings are for something that lies beyond the frail and lying testimony of the material senses.

The tenth leper must have seen that he was the same mortal after he had been healed, and so continued to be dissatisfied with a material sense of man, even though it had been cleansed and purified. He must have perceived that human harmony was merely sickness in another dress, and just as deleterious in its effect.

Patients who make good students are those who seek beyond the frosting of materiality, and watch lest animal magnetism convince them that the worthless cake is desirable. One who regards only the frosting, or glamour of mesmerism, and so believes that the cake is good, is a fool. Mrs. Eddy admonishes us to repudiate and look away from the false testimony of material sense, toward the imperishable things of Spirit. Who will do this as long as he accepts the suggestion that the cake of materiality is worth eating? It is the wise student who seeks to remember the condition of the cake underneath, no matter how desirable the surface glamour of human harmony may seem to be, and prays that he will not be deceived by such falsity.