Article January 7, 1905 Issue

Sin and Sickness—Twins

FRANK BELL.

The close association of sin and suffering is a phenomenon of every-day observation. Mankind readily recognizes and acknowledges that a career of wickedness is usually attended by bodily ills in approximate proportion to the degree of the excesses indulged, and that frequently the most malignant maladies accompany the vilest vice. As to why this is so, most persons seem to be satisfied with the vague assertion that "outraged nature" imposes penalties for violated laws." The vital point of evil's awful lesson is lost to those who fail to see that the distressing and debilitating accompaniments of sin are the direct results, not only of the sinful acts, but of the mental conditions of which those acts are themselves merely expressions or manifestations. In the frequent concurrence of wicked deeds and physical suffering, Christian Science sees but twin children of one evil,—wrong thinking. Obviously, the antidote for wrong thinking is right thinking, and the Christian Scientist understands, therefore, that the real cure is to be found, not in a "soothing syrup" for the pain, nor in a "Thou shalt not" for the sinful act, nor in any attempt to reach either one through the other; but that each must be met and mastered in the mentality of which it is the expression.

Mortal mind, in its theorizing as to cause and effect, is as far wrong when it attributes the sickness of debility to the sin of drunkenness, for instance, as when it ascribes the sin of ill temper to the sickness of dyspepsia. Coincidence, not consequence, is the proper word in each case.

The true and permanent corrective is found by those who seek neither cause nor cure in matter, but who find unfailing remedy, for sin and sickness alike, in the understanding of the real man's rightful dominion over all the earth, including that portion of it commonly denominated the human body.

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