MAN is prone to think that anything for which he cannot account in some way is super-natural. If there is an element of human help present, or if some material explanation can be found, it ceases to be a miracle. Man then promptly assumes that he has a full exposition of the matter and that he understands it all. We might show the falsity of this reasoning by citing a great many cases, but one will be sufficient at this time.
Most people look on a healing that occurs under the guidance of the physician as being natural, and as being fully explained by the action of the medicines, diet, or surgical means used. But if the cure comes without human intervention it becomes a miracle. If this is true, there are more miraculous healings than there are healings by human aid. Does this sound like a wild claim? Then just think of the thousands of cases of colds, indigestion, cuts, punctures, and the like that happen every day, in which recovery takes place without any attention whatever, unless it be cleansing in the case of wounds. We are so accustomed to having these things heal by themselves, as we say, that we pay no attention to their healing, and we do not consider it remarkable.
We simply know that these small disorders will get well, and we take it as a matter of course when they do. But just let somebody claim that he recovered from something more serious, bronchitis, for instance, through faith, and we take a different attitude. We cry “Miracle” or “Coincidence,” according to the state of our mind.
But it is no more of a miracle that one recovers from a serious illness than it is when one’s cold disappears without attention, or one’s cut heals spontaneously. In all cases it is due to the action of a natural power, which the Father put in each of us when we were created. We have watched this process of healing for years, and still many people do not understand it at all. It still seems miraculous to them when it is really very simple. To others it is so common that they have never sought an explanation of the process, or a reason for it. A few men, armed with microscopes and other instruments, and endowed with a great inquisitiveness, have shown us the process, but the conclusion reached by some of them, that it is purely mechanical, does not explain it at all. We must look for something deeper.
When you cut your finger you know that it will heal, but did you ever wonder what really takes place, and how it is done? This seems like a small matter, but a study of this little miracle will throw light on all healing.
When the flesh is cut it bleeds at once. This is the first step. It is the natural way of washing out the wound. Next the bleeding stops slowly. Perhaps you have learned to hasten this by making pressure over or near the injury. As the bleeding ceases you notice that the blood in and around the cut is changing to a soft solid. This is the second step. The clot thus formed glues the edges of the wound together, and extends back into the small blood vessels, plugging them tightly. This is the natural way of pre-venting any further hemorrhage, and of holding the cut edges in position for healing. You know that if you now keep the wound clean, and if you do not disturb the lips, it will be well in a few days. During this time the cells will reunite, or, if there is some gaping, new ones will grow from the sides and fill in the space. Bandaging the injury has no curative power. It is simply a means for keeping dirt out and for preventing you from accidentally opening the wound. When all bleeding is at an end and the cut is sealed, healing will take place just as quickly and surely without any dressing. Experience proves this.
This process seems simple and far from miraculous, but if any healing is supernormal even this one is, for we cannot make any change in the process by any action of our will. It is really very simple, but it involves a principle that is the true basis of all healing. Why do the constituents of the blood, fluid in the vessels, change to a solid clot on emerging from the wound? Why do the white corpuscles and the serum seal the wound? What makes the injured cells grow together? These are all parts of the miracle that is taking place daily, and which we overlook in our hurry to accomplish something great.
We can only explain these processes as being due to the influences of omnipresent intelligence. They are not the accidents of nature. They do not just happen. They are the results of purpose. They show the presence of intelligence in the tiniest atom involved in the healing. It is intelligence that has arranged for the cleaning of the wound, the plugging of the vessels, and the reuniting of the cells. It is intelligence that causes the chemical change in the blood, resulting in the clot. It is intelligence in the white corpuscles that enables them to seal the wound. It is intelligence in the tissue cells that causes them to grow together. Nothing so remarkable as these processes could happen by chance.
Now let us go a step further in considering this common miracle. Infection is always possible. In fact, it is probable that no accidental cut is ever free from germs. No instrument that could cause an injury is ever absolutely sterile unless especially pre-pared, and the skin is always covered with bacteria. Infinite wisdom has prepared against this so well that only in a small percentage of ordinary injuries is there any trouble from this cause.
The first bleeding washes the cut, and the clot seals it. But there is something else at work, some-thing that seems really marvelous, but which is perfectly natural. If bacteria start to develop in the wound we have protectors always on duty, the white blood cells or leucocytes. These are living, single-celled organisms, always present in the blood. They have the power of independent motion, and they can penetrate tissue. They hasten to the place of attack, leave the blood stream, and build a wall to prevent the further entrance of the enemy. Then other leucocytes attack the foe, devouring the germs bodily. If these little protectors are as numerous and as active as they should be, the infection is soon ended.
This is not a fanciful picture, but a statement of absolute fact. It is one of the common but usually overlooked miracles of healing. This is the force on which we rely in fighting infections of all kinds. These white cells show so much intelligence in their work that it is difficult to understand how anybody can say that it is accidental that they are with us. It is another manifestation of omnipresent Intelligence providing for our safety.
We may be entirely unaware of these things, but they go on just the same. That there is an intelligence in control that is higher than the cells is easily seen. When the leucocytes are called to action their number in the blood increases, returning to normal when the need is over. It is like the mobilizing of an army to rout an enemy, followed by demobilization when the war is finished. This factor cannot be accidental, for the increase is so automatic, so to speak, that we can judge the intensity of any trouble by the number of leucocytes present in the blood. It must be under the direction of the same intelligence that governs all the other activities of the body and that is a manifestation of the one Intelligence that governs all things.
Since we see the power of innate intelligence to control and heal a simple injury, it certainly cannot be too much to expect it to control every form of trauma or of disease. We should expect this, and we should have faith that it will be so. Instead, we check its activity by our fears and doubts, which have a negative effect on every cell in the body, for every cell has intelligence. Our fears and doubts may even affect these little warriors of ours, the leucocytes, and render them impotent to carry on the work that they know so well how to do.
It is the activity of these little soldiers that cures or prevents our colds and other infections. How common it is to see people who are afraid of catching cold. They take every material precaution, but they suffer continually. The slightest draft or change in the weather sets them sneezing and starts the nose running. Their fears have lowered their resistance, and have paralyzed these defenders until the expected happens. Now, suppose that you firmly decide that you are not susceptible to colds, that the power of the Father has made you immune. Your resistance will rise until you, who perhaps never dared sit near an open window, will find that you can stand any amount of exposure. I know that this is true, and it shows the influence of one’s state of mind over the cells of the body. These little defenders respond to our faith with increased activity.
If we have sufficient faith in this power to protect us, we need never be ill. Susceptibility to sickness depends on a lowered vitality, and resistance, we know, depends on the activity of the leucocytes, as well as on a good state of nutrition of every cell in the body. When we show lack of faith by thinking sickness and by talking sickness, we are lowering the resistance of the body. We are impressing every cell with a feeling of inability to cope with danger. If we show our faith by thinking health and by talking health, we impress every cell with an idea of strength, and we thus raise our power of resistance to disease. The cultivation of the idea of health will do more for us than any other treatment.
When we consider how simple this miracle of healing really is, that it is the manifestation of a power natural to all of us, why should we consider any abnormal condition as incurable? We have been told for so many years that certain diseases are incurable that our belief in this fallacy has become fixed. We never think of questioning it. Even the suspicion that one is afflicted with a condition of this kind depresses one’s whole system until the cells make no effort to work out recovery. This is not right. To place the stigma of incurability upon any condition affecting man is to deny the power of the Father. We should know that the same force that heals a cut or cures a cold can certainly cure any disease if it is given full play, and if it is not hindered in its work. We obstruct it by doubt and fear. We help it by faith. Faith in this miraculous power in each of us will stimulate it, and the greater the faith the more powerfully will it act. If we realize this we shall for-get the word “incurable,” and we shall give thanks to the Father for having thus provided for our welfare. We shall no longer look upon healing by faith as a miracle, but as something strictly in accordance with law.
The reparative and defensive powers latent in every cell and tissue respond to our thoughts and words. When we learn to maintain the proper consciousness we shall remain well at all times. This will be no more marvelous than the miracle of healing is shown to be. It will be a return of the natural perfection of man.