Editorial May 16, 1908 Issue

THE LESSON OF SUFFERING

Annie M. Knott

Much is being said at the present time, pro and con, on the subject of pain and suffering. It has long been believed that pain is either a warning or a punishment, but few have been logical enough to see that there was no reason for its continuance when the warning had been taken or when the offense which had brought the punishment had ceased. The belief in physical law and its control of the human body is so general that few venture to disobey it for any length of time; indeed, the most slavish obedience to asserted health laws usually follows their brief neglect, but this seldom brings any freedom from suffering or restores health, even where disagreeable and expensive remedies are taken as well. On account of the wide prevalence of suffering among mankind, many have tried to philosophize about it and have insisted that it is a necessary element of human experience, while with strange inconsistency they have also tried to make it a misdemeanor for any one to neglect the use of the means supposed to be effective in getting rid of suffering.

In Christian Science the disciplinary nature of suffering in human experience is not denied, as some mistakenly suppose, but it is regarded from a mental rather than a material standpoint. We read in our text-book that "the divine Mind cannot suffer," but we also read that "they who sin must suffer" (Science and Health, pp. 108, 37). The whole teaching of Christian Science is that the discipline of Truth begins when a right effort is made to overcome the error or sin which is causing the suffering. It is the overcoming of both sin and suffering in Christ's way that really counts in the development of character, not the suffering itself, which too often checks all advance so long as one is unable to rise above it. Owen Meredith was right when he said,—

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