Editorial September 2, 1939 Issue

"Create in me a clean heart"

Duncan Sinclair

The Bible contains many beautiful passages picturing the penitent heart, the Psalms being especially rich in them. Thus we read: "Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin;" "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me;" "Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit" (Psalms 51:2, 10, 12). In the New Testament, also, similar passages are to be found telling of the assurance of the repentant one of God's faithfulness and power to save and bless. In the first epistle of John (1:9), for example, it is written, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

There has always been the longing by human beings for freedom from sin—from carnality, from the blighting influence of materiality. For sin in all its phases is the product of material sense, that false sense which would usurp the place of spiritual sense and destroy harmony and happiness. There has always been rebellion against evil, that which appears to dispute the reign of good in human consciousness. How often have mortals struggled against it, frequently appearing to go down before it in ignominious defeat! But again, how often have they struggled bravely against evil, and by the very struggle found themselves more firmly determined than ever to resist and master it!

Sin will be overcome scientifically only as the truth of real being is understood through Christian Science, and the unreality of matter and evil realized. The efforts of the sinner to free himself from the bonds of sin are grievously handicapped by the belief that he is fighting for liberty against an actual foe. When he knows that, because God is infinite good, evil has no creator, no source or origin, and is therefore unreal, how different the problem becomes! He sees that he is not struggling against something which has actual presence and power, but with false belief, an illusory state of thought. Many gain this true vision, through it apprehend the altogether fictitious nature of the sin which is binding them, and thus find themselves free. Mary Baker Eddy writes on page 447 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." "To put down the claim of sin, you must detect it, remove the mask, point out the illusion, and thus get the victory over sin and so prove its unreality."

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