Editorial March 27, 1915 Issue

Putting Off and Putting On

JOHN B. WILLIS

St. Paul describes life-redemptive work as the putting off of the old man and the putting on of the new, and faithful effort in this line would naturally result in sovereignty over fear, sin, and sickness. That this achievement is so relatively rare gives proof, therefore, that despite all these centuries of prayer and preaching, Christians are still in the dark both as to the nature of the old man and of the way to get rid of him. The largest hope of the many seems to be that death will somehow effect that which they know to be essential, but which they do not know how to attain.

To the student of Christian Science the most serious handicap just here is the prevailing false sense regarding man. So long as he is thought of as constituted of both flesh and spirit, and the material order as divine, so long will material sense be classed as an expression of divine law, and only the abuse of material impulse be regarded as out of keeping with the righteousness which God demands. This is the point of view of those who, while trying hard to put off the deeds of the old man, are doing practically nothing in the way of fulfilling the apostle's injunction that we put off the old man himself "with his deeds."

Christian Science recognizes this "old man" as that false material sense defined by Mrs. Eddy as "the common human belief, that life, substance, and intelligence are a unison of matter with Spirit" (Science and Health, p. 294). Hence, in the effort to get rid of him, its teaching fixes attention upon that which brings about the evil habit, rather than upon the habit itself. It declares that spiritual freedom is gained by being rather than by doing, and all this in keeping with Jesus' words, "If . . . thine eye be single [if truth is clearly discerned], thy whole body shall be full of light [understanding]." It teaches that the "old man" is no man at all, but simply a projection of untruth which is dismissed from consciousness, and thus becomes unknown in so far as the truth of being is known.

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