Editorial November 2, 1907 Issue

"JUDGE RIGHTEOUS JUDGMENT."

Annie M. Knott

It would seem that the teaching of Christian Science relative to the unreal nature of evil in all its forms is so clearly explained in our text-book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," as to render any mistaken sense of the author's meaning well-nigh impossible, but there are unfortunately those who do not take the trouble to acquaint themselves with this meaning, and who instead offer to the uninformed their personal opinion along with their bitter condemnation of what they suppose Christian Science to teach. The surprising thing in many of these cases is the disregard by religious teachers of the Master's oft-repeated admonition, "Judge righteous judgment." A clergyman is reported as having said quite recently that Christian Science "is a cheap and easy method of soothing one's conscience, and that is why it has gained such a hold," etc. This statement was evidently based upon the belief that when people find sin to be unreal they hasten to acquire all they can of nothingness; which is the very opposite to what really happens when people begin to understand Christian Science. If a quantity of counterfeit coin were offered in exchange for the genuine, or even offered for nothing, is it likely that there would be a rush to gain possession of it? Far from it!

A preacher once made the mistake of denouncing Christian Science on the ground that it taught the unreality of sin and was therefore dangerous. He was called upon by the local Christian Science Publication Committee, to whom he admitted that he had read Mrs. Eddy's book very hastily and with an extremely prejudiced thought. When his attention was called to passage after passage in Science and Health, and the statements of Christ Jesus cited in corroboration and support of its fundamental postulates, he clearly saw and frankly admitted his mistake. He also published a manly and Christian retraction of his previous statements, saying that if one came to see there was nothing in sin he would cease to pursue it and would bend all his energies to the pursuit of goodness.

That the teaching of Christian Science relative to the overcoming of sin and sickness is no mere theory is being constantly proved. One such instance may be cited, that of a man who sought physical healing, and who testified that with the first treatment came a new and higher sense of moral purity than he had ever thought of. He said that for the first time he was able to think of women as the children of God, and thus he began to look upon them with other eyes than he had ever done before. Not only so, but his new-found sense brought happiness and peace before unknown, a higher and holier outlook upon life, which led up and away from the delusive sense of pleasure in wrongdoing or wrong thinking. As this spiritual purity is realized, men and women alike tell of their gratitude to the noble woman who has taught them the nothingness of sin and the blessedness of which Christ Jesus spoke when he said that "the pure in heart" see God, which surely means that they see good everywhere, and only good, since God is good and God is All. In Christian Science we find that the pursuit of goodness and purity is no vain quest, but that it ever brings its own reward. Annie M. Knott.

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