Editorial February 9, 1907 Issue

THE FORCE OF DENIAL

JOHN B. WILLIS

AMONG those who frankly recognize the dignity and value of the Christian Science movement, and the sanity and integrity of its representatives, one often meets with a reserve criticism of its teachings, to the effect that while strong and convincing in its affirmations it is weak in its denials,—that the assertion of the unreality of material phenomena, sin, sickness and death, and of the unreliability of the testimony of the physical senses, is the one vulnerable feaure of its teaching. Criticism of this kind indicates not only a surprising failure to understand the teaching of Christian Science, but a yet more surprising failure rightly to estimate the significance of the metaphysical distinction between reality and unreality, and to perceive that every positive declaration includes the denial of all its negatives. The merest tyro in mathematics, who understands the statements that the sum of equals is equal, and that the shortest distance between any two points is a straight line, knows that they deny all statements that are contradictory thereto. This is their necessary content and meaning. The realization of this fundamental point is essential to all clear thinking, and Mrs. Eddy has directed attention to it in her epigrammatic statement that "Life, God, omnipotent good, deny death, evil, sin, disease.—Disease, sin, evil, death, deny good, omnipotent, God, Life" (Science and Health, p. 113). Whether thought be appealed to by the positive averment of truth, or be startled by the denial of its opposite, in either case the entire content of the statement must be understood and accepted. Christian believers as a whole have always admitted that God is infinite Spirit; that He is absolute in wisdom, holiness, and power, and that He is the creator and supporter of all being; hence, in denying those beliefs which are at war with these fundamental Christian teachings, Christian Science is evidencing its loyalty to them, and is logically consistent therewith.

An unnamed assumption enters into this reasoning, namely, that all which goes forth from the divine nature partakes of and is in harmony with that nature.—that like produces like; but it would seem that among Christian believers this could hardly be a debatable proposition, for if infinite Life can produce death, then light can produce darkness; if infinite good can beget evil, then Truth can beget error, and we are left without a solitary support for the reasonableness or consistency of God and the law of His manifestation. It is apparent, however, that the denial of a falsity amounts to nothing if the positive truth which renders the denial logically necessary is not understood and adhered to; and the danger of falling into the habit of such mere verbal denial needs to be guarded against by never separating the denial of error from the affirmation of the truth which dispels it. "There is but one way to heaven, harmony, and Christ in divine Science shows us this way. It is to know no other reality—to have no other consciousness of life—than good, God and His reflection." "Material beliefs must be denied and cast out to make place for truth" (Science and Health, pp. 242, 130). These statements express not only the need of discrimination between the real and the unreal, but also the nature of the denial which Christian Scientists are taught to make.

The scientific denial of the reality of sin, sickness, and death does not signify that they are not to be reckoned with as very real to human sense. The thought that evil is to be overcome by ignoring it is diametrically opposed to the teaching of Christian Science. The denial of the reality of evil has immediately and continually to do with the recognition of infinite being, and it can be effectively made only as we enter into the understanding of the eternal verities of Spirit. Jesus proved that sin, sickness, and death are not divinely sustained by annulling their asserted laws and overcoming their asserted power. He thus classified these human experiences as not of God, and therefore unreal, and this is the simple teaching of Christian Science.

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