Article July 23, 1910 Issue

Christian Science healing is not based upon a belief in the...

H. Coulson Fairchild

Passaic (N.J.) Herald

Christian Science healing is not based upon a belief in the influence of the human mind over matter, but upon the spiritual truth that man is the mental manifestation of infinite Mind and that Mind can control its mental creation Man is really mental, although he appears to the senses to be material. We believe it to be upon this scientific basis that Christ Jesus effected the cure of all manner of diseases. Through his knowledge he turned the water into wine, healed the sick, raised the dead, walked on the water, and resurrected his own body from the grave. The "natural environment" of Jesus was a mental or spiritual environment; all his knowledge was obtained from Spirit, while the knowledge of the materialist is based upon his false material concepts.

To say that "mind and matter" act and react upon each other, evidently with equal force, and thus "maintain the equilibrium of the universe," leaves us to conclude that the equilibrium of the universe is maintained by two forces constantly warring with each other. Mrs. Eddy says regarding this: "To seize the first horn of this dilemma and consider matter as a power in and of itself, is to leave the creator out of His own universe; while to grasp the other horn of the dilemma and regard God as the creator of matter, is not only to make Him responsible for all disasters, physical and mental, but to announce Him as their source, thereby making Him guilty of maintaining perpetual misrule in the form and under the name of natural law" (Science and Health, p. 119). We cannot, of course, assume that God is the author of discord; we must therefore conclude that all discord is chargeable to human error.

In Christian Science what is termed a physical shock is really a mental shock, for without mortal mind to be conscious of it there could be no sense of shock. In a universe where God's government is recognized by all, there can be no accidents. Regarding food and indigestion, we must remember that Christ Jesus said: "There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: ... that which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: all these evil things come from within, and defile the man." Quoting from our editor, "This is the first lesson that should be drilled into our schoolteachers and all others." We thus conclude that it is not what a man eats that causes indigestion. Mental conditions enter into every case of indigestion. "Gluttony" is a false belief based upon a wrong thought, and such a thought would constitute causation; hence it would not be the food itself which caused the indigestion.

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