Editorial March 5, 1904 Issue

Scientific Abstinence

At this season, when the question of abstinence has a prominent place in popular thought, it may be well to ponder its relation, in the light of Christian Science, to the moral and physical welfare of mankind. It is surely clear that we can never be benefited by abstaining from that which we believe to be good, and in this enlightened age all should see that self-discipline which does not appeal to the intellectual and moral nature, can be of on real value. It can also be seen that sensuous pleasures lead to a dependence upon the material, which is unworthy of man's higher nature, and that in the degree of our spiritual supremacy we shall not suffer from their deprivation.

We learn from the Bible that when Moses went up into the mount to receive the law, he was without material food for forty days and nights, but so far from showing any ill effects from this long vigil, his face manifested such radiance that the people could not look upon it. In the 103d Psalm we read that God heals all our diseases and sins, and so crowns our life with His tender mercy, that our "youth is renewed like the eagle's." It also says, "He made known his ways unto Moses." Was it not this glorious revelation of divine Love which so sustained Moses that no other nourishment was needed? Again, we are told that when the prophet Elijah was in peril from the enemies of Truth, he was divinely sustained in the wilderness, as was Moses, and for the same period.

Our text-book says that "the New Testament narratives are clearer, and come nearer the heart" (Science and Health, p. 501), and through them, we learn from the story of Jesus' temptation the truer meaning of abstinence. He was then at the beginning of his career, and he had to prove for himself as well as for all who should follow in his steps, that "man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." It is evident that in this struggle the Master gained such an understanding of the application of truth to all human need as was never before attained. He proved for himself that man really lives by Spirit, not by matter, and the immediate results of his decisive struggle were the healing of "all manner of sickness and all manner of disease," and the preaching and teaching of the truth which makes free.

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