Article September 26, 1908 Issue

When Christian Science states that sin, disease, and matter...

J. V. Dittemore

Buffalo (N.Y.) News

When Christian Science states that sin, disease, and matter are unreal, it is equivalent to affirming that they are temporal and destructible, the phenomena of our present material sense of that "heaven and earth" which Jesus said should "pass away." In Ecclesiastes we read: "Whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it." Christian Science affirms that the creations of this infinite God, who is Spirit,—perfect and wholly good,—are like Himself, spiritual and perfect; that "the things which are seen"—matter and the phenomena of material existence—"are temporal," but the "things which are not seen"—the verities of spiritual existence, the manifestations of the infinite, perfect creator—"are eternal" and indestructible.

If the efforts of the clergy and the medical profession were suddenly realized, and sin and sickness were eliminated from the world, it would be readily admitted that they had no reality, and that their existence had been in the nature of a dream. Jesus referred to the sick as having been bound by Satan. He defined this Satan as "a deceiver," and when the deception was destroyed by knowing the truth of man's birthright of health and dominion and the unreality of all that would oppose this normal condition, the sick were healed. So to-day in Christian Science practice the spiritual understanding and realization of the real man's likeness to God, his divine Principle, and the knowledge that sin, disease, and discord of every nature are not of God, but are abnormal, illegitimate, and destructible,—this understanding is the basis on which the sick are healed and the sinful reclaimed. Jesus said: "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Free from what? He must have meant free from the bondage of false theories about God and man,—the theories and conditions he destroyed, and told his true followers of all ages that they should destroy, if they "believed on" him or understood the Principle of his "works."

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