Article December 18, 1920 Issue

Superstition

JOHN M. DEAN

Throughout the ages mortal thinking has continuously and with not infrequent success attempted to graft superstition on every form of religion and worship. A mere human process of thinking renders obscure and abstract the teachings of the Old Testament and clouds the deep spiritual import of the New. This false process of reasoning has largely made of the word Christianity a haphazard term to be loosely applied to any form of teaching which professes to regard Jesus as the Messiah, and this without reference as to whether a superficial estimate of his mission is embodied in a material formal creed or whether his pure spiritual teaching is exemplified in a lofty and practical religion which finds its manifestation in good deeds.

Now, viewed in the only light in which the Scriptures should be regarded,—that is, from the standpoint of spiritual interpretation,—there are no obscure passages of Holy Writ, and even seemingly conflicting statements are reconciled and coordinated into one harmonious whole. To the student of Christian Science even those passages which treat of material history are to be understood spiritually, for to be effective the Bible must necessarily lay bare the nature of error of every sort in order that, being uncovered, it may be recognized for what it is and thus destroyed. A consistent study of the Bible in the light of Christian Science presents a continuous unfoldment and must finally result in the uncovering of the purpose and meaning of all things. Nothing in the realm of Truth is unknowable. How careful, then, should we be to discriminate between the true and the false. Paul exhorted Timothy to be "a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth," and this demonstrable teaching is reflected in every line of Mrs. Eddy's book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures."

Superstition attempts to work in many devious and subtle ways. It should not be thought that a belief in such things as spirit communications, in lucky and unlucky times, seasons, or places, or in the power of man-made god of wood or stone constitutes the only form of superstition with which the human mind is obsessed; nor should it be thought that the ignorant in education or experience are its only victims. Broadly speaking, any belief in a presence or power opposed to God is a superstition, and regarded thus the word takes on a wide definition. Most professed Christians will readily concede that God is Spirit, and when this is acknowledged it should at once be seen that every erroneous thought is, in the degree of its unspirituality or wrongness, a superstition. Thus it becomes plain that to attribute power to drugs or to any other form of merely material practice or worship, is a phase of superstition, regardless of how respectable custom may have made it appear.

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