Article February 28, 1920 Issue

Sickness a Temptation

GWEN KEYS

It is hardly possible to find a man or woman who has not always looked upon sin as a temptation to be resisted or to which the person might yield; but without a knowledge of Christian Science how few admit that disease is a temptation. We are rather prone to look upon it as something which comes without our own volition; that is, without thought taking. In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 495) Mrs. Eddy says: "When the illusion of sickness or sin tempts you, cling steadfastly to God and His idea. Allow nothing but His likeness to abide in your thought;" and on page 450, speaking of the Christian Scientist she says, "Sickness to him is no less a temptation than is sin, and he heals them both by understanding God's power over them." Jesus in his teaching and work made no distinction whatever between sickness and sin. He looked upon them as the offspring of evil and healed both by knowing their unreality. In healing the man with the palsy he said, "Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee," not naming the disease, but rebuking the sin. We have no record of Jesus ever giving a name to disease.

Christian Science teaches unmistakably that disease as well as sin is the result of yielding to the temptation of wrong thinking about God and man made in His image and likeness. We indulge in sickly thoughts about ourselves or others until the body manifests sickness, just as we entertain thoughts of sin which precede the outward act. Let us suppose it possible to blot from memory all names of diseases, their various symptoms, and all we have ever heard or believed regarding them, and to bar the door of thought against them all. In such a case, can one of us honestly believe that we would not manifest more harmonious mental and bodily conditions? A Christian Scientist rejoices in the positive knowing that his thinking is governed by divine Mind; and by realizing the omnipotence, the omnipresence, and the omniscience of God, good, he can eliminate both sin and sickness from his experience; for if God, good, is all-power, there is no power to cause sickness; if He is all presence there is no place for sickness; and if He is all Science there is no intelligence in sickness.

Paul says, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." Every word of truth is omnipotent and will do the work whereunto it is sent in healing sickness and sin. How can the truth affect the body except through thought? When the word of truth is realized, it is indeed God working in us and it enables us to overcome the temptation either to sin or to be sick. This word is always given us at the right time if we ask for it and earnestly seek it, for "every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." Christian Science teaches that the working out of our individual salvation is nothing more or less than a change of thinking from a material to a spiritual basis. "The supremacy of Spirit was the foundation on which Jesus built," says our revered Leader (Science and Health, p. 138). We must build our mental structure on the same foundation if we wish it to endure, and the promise is that "the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."

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