Editorial February 16, 1918 Issue

A Confession of Faith

Annie M. Knott

We sometimes hear it said that the healing work of Christ Jesus was accomplished without a moment's delay, as when light is brought into a dark room and the darkness vanishes. This is undoubtedly true of all healing which results from the understanding of spiritual law, but with the illumination comes a demand for a new sort of activity on the part of the one healed. Nothing of value can be accomplished in darkness, either on the mental or on the physical plane, and so, before the divine creation can be made manifest, the "Let there be light," must be uttered and responded to.

When Jesus healed the man who had been blind from his birth the man's illumination began at once and lighted for him the pathway of revelation. His astuteness was more than a match for the learned Pharisees who thought to frighten him by saying that he had been healed by a sinner, but the erstwhile blind man stoutly affirmed that God did not hear sinners, and he added, "If this man were not of God, he could do nothing." His crowning argument was, however, "Whereas I was blind, now I see."

To the student of Christian Science the deepest interest awakened by this touching story is the demand of the Master for a confession of faith from the man, after he had so bravely parried the attacks of the Pharisees. The record reads: "Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when he had found him, he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God?" The man was not asked if he believed on God,—that was assumed; but Jesus' question elicited the pathetic response, "Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him?" Well was it for this man that he was then able to see, not with physical sense but with spiritual vision, the representative of divine Sonship, as one who could give full proof of man's birthright of dominion, not in creed or dogma, but, to use Mrs. Eddy's words (Science and Health, p. 135), "in demonstration of Truth, as must be the case in the cycles of divine light." The next step was this man's full and free acknowledgment of the Son of God,—his credo which to-day thrills with its simple appeal those who have themselves been healed by the ever present Christ as revealed in Christian Science. Like the blind man they too must advance step by step into the full understanding of the Son of God. John, who was no doubt present at the time of the blind man's healing, has this to say in his first epistle: "He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself... He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life."

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