Editorial September 28, 1912 Issue

TRUTH'S SUPREMACY

Archibald McLellan

One of the most common and yet in a way most unexplainable misunderstandings of Christian Science, in view of its continued and multiplying demonstrations of the truth it teaches, is that it is but a system of mind-cure, in which the healing is supposedly effected by "concentrating" the thought of the practitioner, and correspondingly "distracting" the thought of the patient. This mistaken view is based upon a belief in suggestion, or the action of one mortal mind upon another, and utterly ignores God, the divine Mind and the Principle of man. To those, however, who have been awakened to the baneful effects attendant upon the practise of this so-called "art," the claim that Christian Science is allied with or akin to suggestion, has been sufficient to condemn it, and it has been evidenced that it is because of this erroneous belief about Christian Science that it has met with much of the opposition which has been leveled at it.

The necessity for making it clear to the inquirer that Christian Science, the new-old gospel whose message of healing and salvation is the greatest boon of this age, is not in any manner connected with the practise of hypnotism or suggestion, thus becomes the more imperative. In her Message for 1901 (p. 20), Mrs. Eddy defines the status of Christian Scientists with unmistakable clearness when she says: "Christian Scientists are not hypnotists, they are not mortal mind-curists, nor faith-curists; they have faith, but they have Science, understanding, and works as well. They are not the addenda, the et cetera, or new editions of old errors; but they are what they are, namely, students of a demonstrable Science leading the ages."

So little is this distinction understood, however, that it is not at all uncommon to hear persons say that they have always believed in the supremacy of "mind over matter," and they are under the impression that in making this admission they are paying tribute to Christian Science. In this wholly superficial judgment they have in no wise differentiated, as does Christian Science, between infinite Mind, God, and the false belief of a mind or intelligence apart from God and believed to be governed only by the human will, either its own or that of a stronger mentality than itself. Christian Science teaches, in contradistinction, that among the inalienable rights bestowed on man is that of self-government; that man is properly self-governed, not when he is asserting his own will, but "only when he is guided rightly and governed by his Maker, divine Truth and Love" (Science and Health, p. 106), a declaration of independence which clearly precludes interference with or infringement upon this self-government by another human mentality.

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