Article July 10, 1909 Issue

ONE PHASE OF SCIENTIFIC CHRISTIANITY

GENEVA MARY CLIPPINGER.

The doctrine of eternal damnation, though fast disappearing from theological creeds, still remains in human thought as an element of cruelty which needs the correcting influence of scientific Christianity. Among the various expressions of mercilessness cultivated by this theory, are found the belief in incurable disease, the sense of hopeless poverty, the manifestation of limited intelligence; and that which deals with the denial of man's spiritual perfection most frequently claims the attention of the Christian Scientist.

For instance, suppose that an individual habitually, or even occasionally, expresses wickedness; mortals attach this wickedness to the man, and, governed consciously or unconsciously by the teaching of eternal damnation, call him a bad man. They not only think of this man as being evil, but they speak of him as sinful, act toward him as if he were inherently bad, and by their beliefs about him continually damn (condemn) the man. On the other hand, the individual who is governed by the teachings of Christian Science recognizes that the real nature of man is good, because God is the only creator, and God could not make an imperfect or sinful man. This Truth-governed individual knows that wickedness is not a permanent part of any person, and that some time the belief in wickedness is to be put off, hence it is inevitable that the real, sinless nature shall finally be seen as the only fact about man.

This scientific point of view is one of the great blessings which Christian Science brings, not only to the Christian Scientist, but also to society at large; to the Scientist because it protects him from taking into his consciousness the picture of a wicked man, and to society because it protects it from the mental malpractice which believes that any man is or may become permanently evil. Such a point of view by no means implies that the Scientist calls evil good, or that he calls sin anything but sin, or excuses it in any degree until it is destroyed; but it does mean that he knows sin to be no part of God's creation, that it has not even His permission; therefore, it cannot be eternal, or real, because only the qualities, conditions, and characteristics which express God are enduring.

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