Editorial January 20, 1912 Issue

"WHICH GIVETH US THE VICTORY"

Archibald McLellan

Christian Science teaches unequivocally that sin, disease, and death are but different phases of the one evil against which its followers have enlisted, and that, therefore, these would-be destroyers of the peace and happiness of mankind are not to be submitted to, but that a vigorous warfare is to be waged against them to their ultimate overcoming; that this victory is not to be won by the weapons of material warfare, but through spiritual means, through consistent and persistent adherence to the truth of God's omnipotence and allness and an equally forceful denial of any and all claims of evil to place or power.

In view of the beliefs of mankind about life and death, good and evil, which have grown up during the centuries of mortal existence, it is not at all surprising, perhaps, that the world has combated the teachings of Christian Science in these matters. These mortal beliefs, however, are simply the results of education and tradition, and nothing is seemingly more difficult to supplant with truth than the erroneous beliefs which find entrance to mortal thought in these ways. For centuries before the time of Jesus, the popular belief was that death is real, inevitable, and of God's appointing, and notwithstanding the proof to the contrary which our Master gave, this belief has seemed to dominate the affairs of mortals until the present day.

Warning against this widely accepted but no less mistaken view, Mrs. Eddy thus writes in Science and Health (p. 39): "The educated belief that Soul is in the body causes mortals to regard death as a friend, as a stepping-stone out of mortality into immortality and bliss. The Bible calls death an enemy, and Jesus overcame death and the grave instead of yielding to them. He was 'the way.' To him, therefore, death was not the threshold over which he must pass into living glory." Again she writes (p. 45): "Our Master fully and finally demonstrated divine Science in his victory over death and the grave. Jesus' deed was for the enlightenment of men, and for the salvation of the whole world from sin, sickness, and death."

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