Article September 24, 1921 Issue

No Responsibility

EDITH NELLIE SCOTT

The writer was greatly relieved from a false sense of responsibility by reading in a Christian Science article "that the practitioner is not responsible for the truth she is declaring, any more than the teacher is responsible for the law of mathematics that removes the mistake in a sum." Jesus said: "Make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt. . . . By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned." But the Pharisees said, "We would see a sign." This tendency of mortal mind to seek a sign is to be watched guarded against. It hinders our work by trying to keep our thought returning to the mortal, even wondering if he has felt the benefit of the treatment or proposing that he ought to let the practitioner know if he is better. In our textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," on page 28, Mrs. Eddy says, "The determination to hold Spirit in the grasp of matter is the persecutor of Truth and Love."

Now the mathematician does not wonder if the correct answer has destroyed the mistake, he knows without a shadow of doubt that the work is done. The Christian Scientist also knows the truth about God and man without a shadow of doubt; then let him be relieved from the suggestion of mortal mind that he should seek a sign. We know that the infinite, ever present, perfect Christ is the truth of man. This enables us to demonstrate Christian Science with true certainty. This is the rock against which the gates of false belief cannot prevail. Make your tree good, in other words, your thinking exact, perfect, and the fruit will be good. What does God say about the true man? "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased," "Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine," and "The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand." All through the textbook Mrs. Eddy has given us the revealed truth about man. This truth has been unfolded to countless seekers all over our globe, and the writer rejoices when she considers that the perfect man is the truth about all and we all share the benefits of every thought of the Christ "till," in the words of Paul, "we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ."

If a sick man really existed, he would remain a sick man through all time because no mortal thought can "make one hair black or white" and God is "of purer eyes than to behold evil," but right where the sick man seems to be, to mortal sense, God is rejoicing over His perfect creation, and since God is rejoicing, the image and likeness of God is rejoicing, and that is what is required of a practitioner.

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