Article July 20, 1907 Issue

Christian Science teaches that pain and suffering, as well...

John A. Webster—Youngstown, O.

The Telegram,

Christian Science teaches that pain and suffering, as well as the so-called pleasures of the flesh, are conditions or beliefs of mortal mind, designated by Paul as "carnal mind," which he said was "enmity against God." Christian Science teaches that God is Spirit, and that He is Life, as recorded in the Gospels, and that man was made in the image and likeness of God, as recorded in the first chapter of Genesis; therefore, man reflects or expresses Spirit and Life. Pain, being of the flesh, or carnality, cannot be a part of God or Life, and if no part of God or Life, it (pain) is no part of God's creation. The natural deduction from this view-point of reasoning is that pain is no tangible part of Life; therefore, life is free from pain.

The question arises, "What is it that suffers pain?" If it is the body, then why do not all bodies suffer the same degree of pain when under similar conditions; and why does not a dead body suffer pain? Christian Science teaches that neither the conscious, spiritual, or if you please, God's man, nor the physical body suffer pain, but that pain is a condition or a belief of mortal or carnal mind. Beliefs are of all degrees and all symptoms. Some have a belief of great pain from a small or even an imaginary injury, and vice versa. The belief that life leaves the body at dissolution renders the body (then called dead) painless. Christian Science does not teach that the belief in physical pain will be entirely obliterated as long as we are in the flesh. By right living, right reasoning, and right thinking, however, hundreds and thousands of suffering humanity have been greatly relieved of suffering and of sorrow. All who strive to live the life of a Christian Scientist are daily lessening the experiences of pain, poverty, sorrow, sickness, and sin in their own consciousness and in that of others who are seeking relief from the prevalent belief of the carnal mind.

Christian Scientists do not claim that Jesus did not suffer or was not often sorrowful, neither do they claim to be entirely free from the belief of suffering or sorrow at all times, but they take the inspired Word of God as a sufficient remedy for all of life's burdens. Their lives attest that they suffer less, get well more quickly, enjoy better health, are happier and more prosperous than they were when they relied upon mortal laws and medicines instead of relying upon God and His unchangeable law as understood and demonstrated in Christian Science.

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit

Christian Science teaches that pain and suffering, as well...

We'd love to hear from you!

Sign up for unlimited access