Editorial July 14, 1906 Issue

Scientific Discernment

John B. Willis

The practical aspect of the Christ-teaching is nowhere more marked than in the parable of the wheat and the tares. In it Jesus recognizes human sense conditions, and shows how they are to be corrected; namely, by spiritual growth, and not by revolutionary impulse. He makes it clear that while the association of the ideal and the unideal is neither normal nor approvable, they remain together, to human sense, until right thought is so matured and established as to become sovereign.

Material sense is the door of error's entry to human consciousness. So long, therefore, as this sense remains, so long the seed of the tares may be sown in human consciousness; and when this is understood, the supreme importance of making and maintaining a clear distinction between the mortal concept and the demonstrable scientific truth begins to dawn. If we find it difficult to discern between the tares and the wheat, our spiritual advance can but be impeded, and hence the imperative need of that scientific discrimination which is so constantly brought to the attention of every student of our text-book. Speaking of the attainment of this discerning power. Mrs. Eddy says, "The spiritual sense of Truth must be gained before Truth is understood. This sense is assimilated only as we are honest, unselfish, loving, and meek" (Science and Health, p. 272).

Time was when propositions were verified by reference to authorities; to-day the cultivated world recognizes but one test of truth; namely, that of demonstration, and to secure its individual command and application is the distinctive feature of all modern technical schools. Christian Science not only demands exact and continuous discrimination between the wheat and tares, but it supplies an adequate and unvarying means of making this discrimination; and in this it is honoring Christ Jesus, the authority of whose words and the practicability of whose works it re-affirms.

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