Article December 2, 1916 Issue

Scientific Affirmation

CLARENCE W. CHADWICK

All scientific mental work is based upon spiritual understanding, which at once separates such work from anything that may seem to be accomplished upon the plane of human suggestion or will-power. An affirmation of spiritual truth must of necessity come through a mentality permeated with the spirit even more than with the letter of truth. The student of Christian Science learns from the very start that argument alone does not heal, and that he must possess the spirit and the love of good if he would accomplish anything in Christian Science; for, as our Leader says (Science and Health, p. 454), "the letter and mental argument are only human auxiliaries to aid in bringing thought into accord with the spirit of Truth and Love, which heals the sick and the sinner."

There is therefore a legitimate use which can be made of the letter of Christian Science, but to formulate a treatment or to make use of any argument calculated to bring about anything of a purely selfish nature would mean inevitable defeat. It would be the perversion of Christian Science practice or right mental treatment. It would be human suggestion rather than scientific affirmation. The user of literal statements of truth must have within himself some degree of understanding of the divine Principle which makes such statements true, else they fall short of being scientific affirmations. They cannot be powerful, positive, and exact unless supported mentally by some degree of comprehension of the true nature of God and man.

One who believes in two powers could not make any practical use of scientific statements. His use of such statements would be confined to the realm of human will-power. If he believes in the reality of evil, he would have no moral right to declare that God is All. Until he can acknowledge with Christlike humility that because God is infinite good there is and can be no evil, he is not divinely authorized or empowered to declare any scientific fact of being. Affirmations of the truth will transform men into saints only as they learn to subjugate the human will and to attest by thought and act that ever present good precludes the power and presence of evil. If they continue to affirm the supremacy of good but fail to live in conformity to their profession, their use of the letter of Christian Science will certainly make mental nuisances of them, to say the least.

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