Article September 16, 1905 Issue

The individual who would be a Christian Scientist must...

A. V. Stewart

Chicago (Ill.) Journal

The individual who would be a Christian Scientist must first exalted sense of Deity. God must be enthroned in the consciousness as supreme. A better understanding of the nature and character of God broadens and elevates the human mind, and it begins to discern the truth of Jesus' command, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect," and Paul's admonition, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus," and to think on those things which are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good report. Thus thought becomes more spiritual, the separation between good and evil is more easily accomplished. God's eternal laws are recognized at least in a measure, and the great biblical truth that God made all that was made and it is good, becomes an important factor in the consciousness of such an individual. With an exalted sense of God as supreme, omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient, embracing all life, all intelligence, all power, all true being, all law, the query naturally follows, "Whence comes the changing, transitory, sin-laden, and pain-racked condition of consciousness commonly called human existence?" Does such an abnormal condition of things emanate from an immutable God whose laws are changeless? Certainly not, and Christian Science helps the thinker to see why this abnormal phenomenon is not, cannot be, the offspring of Deity. That sin, misery, and false human theories abound, no one will deny, but that they exist as part of God's plan. Christian Science emphatically denies, because God's creation is perfect. Then to a consciousness which has been transformed by the renewing of the mind, the things which are changeable, fleeting, sinful, and discordant are entirely outside the realm of the real and must therefore be classed as unreal, and the condition of thought which is sufficiently exalted—spiritual—to know this, can and does displace the erring beliefs resident in the human mind, and the inevitable result of such action is the healing of sickness. But in such healing the Christian Science practitioner does not stoop to the level of suggestion which, according to our critic, has been and is being used by mesmerists, faith curists, mental healers, hypnotists, quacks, and reputable physicians. Suggestion is the operation of one human mind controlling another through statements which the operator himself does not always believe.

Adherence to the spiritual teachings of Christian Science renders of no effect all the theories about suggestion and all the laws and rules of psychology as taught in the schools, and it is to be deplored that Christian Science, which is a practical application of spiritual law, should be considered from the basis of psychology as taught to-day.

A. V. Stewart.

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