Article March 2, 1912 Issue

My attention has been drawn to the account of a sermon...

E. M. Ramsay

Kelso (Scot.) Chronicle

My attention has been drawn to the account of a sermon on Christian Science reported in the Kelso Chronicle. I am sorry that I did not see this account in time to comment on it in the following issue of your paper, but as the subject is little understood, though often discussed, it may interest your readers to hear something about the Christian Science doctrine of the unreality of evil from one who has been greatly helped by this very doctrine. By way of preface, I should should like to state that I approached Christian Science from the standpoint of the Church of England, and did not accept its teachings till through prayerful study I became convinced that they were not only logical but also entirely Scriptural

Looking around us we see a world more or less pursuing the same objects—satisfaction, happiness, health of body, and peace of mind. We see that good men in all the churches and outside the churches, as well as good men in every political camp, desire these things not only for themselves, but for the whole human race. At this point, however, agreement ceases, for men differ widely as to the nature of good, and still more widely as to the methods to be adopted in its pursuit. Every thinker deplores the small amount of good accomplished by the toil of centuries, by a vast expenditure of energy, thought, wealth, and good will. Should we then complain when presented with a radically different method of overcoming evil, a method so old that it appears to be quite new, the very method, we are convinced, which the Saviour employed? If, as the Bible declares, God is infinite, all-powerful, ever-present good, Love, Spirit, Truth, Life, the only creator, then it follows that evil, disease, and sin are opposed to the divine nature, can form no part of God and cannot in reality form an integral, essential part of His creature, His effect, man; for like produces like.

In order to separate the reality of man's being from that which is no part of him, we must cease to look upon the outward appearance or to think of the human personality with all its infirmities and imperfections, and, turning with strong desire to God, dwell upon the thought of His sinless, spiritual nature, His infinite love and tenderness, sustaining, supporting, encircling with His everlasting arms His spiritual creation. As thoughts such as these begin to flood our consciousness, a new sense of humility, purity, gentleness comes with them, and we begin to perceive that the weak, sinful, unworthy thoughts and characteristics are losing some of their power, attraction, and inevitableness. Gradually the truth dawns upon us that evil is not power; that it is a delusion, a belief in a vacuum, a false sense which implies that Love is not infinite, that Life is not spiritual and eternal, that there is some place where God is not. We discover that the good thoughts we express constitute the man of God's creating, and that by constantly maintaining in thought that the God qualities alone possess power, reality, attraction, and satisfaction, we find ourselves getting freer from sin and enjoying better health than we did in the days when we regarded these evils as real, powerful, and natural.

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