Article March 10, 1917 Issue

Nothingness of Pain

WILLIAM ROY RONALD

Mrs. Eddy says, "The fact that pain cannot exist where there is no mortal mind to feel it is a proof that this so-called mind makes its own pain—that is, its own belief in pain" (Science and Health, p. 153). This statement not only expresses that metaphysical perception which pierces "even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow," but is also abundantly fruitful of blessings to poor suffering humanity, so long in the bondage of belief in the reality of pain. By following the way of Christ Jesus, who made no compromises with error of any kind, and by accomplishing the overthrow of pain through the bold exposure of its nothingness, Mrs. Eddy has pointed the way to freedom from its relentless enslavement, recalling the comforting declaration from heaven heard by St. John, "Neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away."

The profundity of the statement quoted above from the Christian Science text-book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," must be pondered, and be understood at least in part in order to be appreciated. It is self-evident that matter, if dissociated from all mind, can experience no pain. Every one must immediately recognize that matter itself is without sensation, and therefore unable to know that there is such a thing as pain. Then, if matter plus some form of mind has a sense of pain, and matter without such form feels no pain, it must be true that the pain appertains to the mind altogether, and not to matter at all.

This being clear, the question follows, What kind of mind is it that "feels" pain? If it were the divine Mind, creator of the universe, that harbors pain, then divine Mind, a synonym of the eternal God, would be found to contain an element of discord, imperfection, self-destruction. To attribute any inharmony to divine Mind is to deny that infinite Mind is perfect and eternal, and to assert that it eventually must collapse because of such an inherent defect. If, therefore, we are to believe that pain exists in divine Mind, we must believe in a self-destroying creator—an obvious absurdity. In Christian Science, however, we learn that neither pain nor any other error can have any lodgment or part in divine Mind, which by its very nature is unerring, imperishable, and everlastingly harmonious.

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