The beloved physician and potions for the sick

I digress a little… Today, in my consecutive daily reading of Science &Health, I came to page 369, line 14: “We never read that Luke or Paul made a reality of disease in order to discover some means of healing it.”  How interesting that Mrs. Eddy names Luke in this context.  How many times have I read this without questioning, “why Luke”?

This is Mrs. Eddy’s only reference to Luke, except for where she mentions his Gospel in opening the chapter Christian Science Practice.  Does she reckon that Luke must have been a spiritual healer?  Does the phrase “the beloved physician” apply to him as a spiritual healer? 

We find this in Colossians 4:14: “Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas, greet you.”  Luke was Paul’s almost constant companion, and so are we to understand that he may also have been his practitioner?  Surely, in all Paul’s trials (which we heard about at our church’s Wednesday meeting this week – see II Cor.11:23-33) he needed the support of a spiritual physician.

Joyce Voysey

Ed. In searching the Bible and Mrs. Eddy’s writings regarding use of the word “physician”, the following passage from Miscellaneous Writings p. 268:14 (though not actually using the word “physician”) caught my attention -

“The Christian Scientist keeps straight to the course.  His whole inquiry and demonstration lie in the line of Truth; hence he suffers no shipwreck in a starless night on the shoals of vainglory.  His medicine is Mind – the omnipotent and ever-present good.  His “help is from the Lord,” who heals body and mind, head and heart; changing the affections, enlightening the misguided senses, and curing alike the sin and the mortal sinner.  God’s preparations for the sick are potions of His own qualities.  His therapeutics are antidotes for the ailments of mortal mind and body.  Then let us not adulterate His preparations for the sick with material means.”

I am also reminded of a beloved church solo I sang years ago: “Pour in truth through flood-tides of Love” – see S&H p. 201 “The way to extract error from mortal mind is to pour in truth through flood-tides of Love.”

The Great Physician is at hand!