Editorial March 11, 1911 Issue

AN ARTICLE OF FAITH

Annie M. Knott

In that wonderful story of the healing of a blind man, given in the ninth chapter of John, Jesus asked the man, soon after his healing, "Dost thou believe on the Son of God?" To this the man responded, "Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him?" The man had not then learned the great truth which is given by John in his first epistle, "He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself." The apostle who says this brings the very serious charge against mortals, that in refusing to believe what God has said about His Son, they make God a liar. He adds that "God hath given to us eternal life," and he goes on to explain that he who is born of God "cannot sin;" in other words, he is untouched by mortal infirmity, sin, disease, or death.

It is interesting to note how, in the eighth chapter of John, Christ Jesus deals with the problem of sin. He does not advocate punishment, but demands reformation, saying to the offender against moral purity, "Go, and sin no more;" but, knowing so well that the unenlightened human mind could never obey this mandate, he said, "He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." The one who sins is blind to the truth, even more so than the one who suffers from some physical disability, but the coming of the light of Truth heals both. The ninth chapter follows with its account of the healing of the blind man, and in the eleventh chapter we have the raising of Lazarus, these three cases offering convincing proof of the scientific value of the Master's teaching respecting man's relation of God, and supporting at every point Mrs. Eddy's declarations, given in all her writings, that the spiritual man as the likeness of God is the only real man.

We are not told that Jesus asked the Pharisees whether they believed on the Son of God; or, assuming that they did, what they believed about him. They had a strongly entrenched belief about sin and sinners. They wished to have sentence of death passed upon the woman who had sinned; they called the blind man a sinner; and they even said of Jesus, "We know that this man is a sinner." The man who was gaining the spiritual sense of sight could see farther than they, and he insisted that God does not hear sinners, but only those who do His will; in other words, that God knows and hears His own!

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