Editorial November 10, 1923 Issue

Overcoming Moral Impediments to Healing

Duncan Sinclair

Christian Science is unique among the religious systems of the world in that it declares that evil, including sin and disease, is unreal. Reasoning from the fundamental spiritual facts that God is the cause of all reality, and that since He is perfect, reality is perfect, Christian Science logically maintains that evil is no part of true being, and that sickness is therefore an illusion, an error, a dream of material sense. There can be no shirking of the truth of the proposition; no denial of the deduction drawn therefrom. Moreover, both proposition and deduction have been proved to be correct, times without number, in Christian Science practice.

It is one thing, however, to perceive and even declare the truth about God, and to assert accordingly that disease is unreal; it is another to demonstrate the truth; for demonstration follows only upon realization. It may be—indeed it often happens—that the realization in some degree of the perfection of being takes place with great rapidity, even instantaneously; and this means the destruction of the erroneous belief, or the healing of the disease. But many times, the practitioner has to employ the argument of truth in treatment; has often silently to affirm the truth of being to convince himself and the one who has approached him for help that the errors of belief presenting themselves in the case are unreal; and, as before, with the realization comes the healing.

In some cases the error to be destroyed may seem to be very subtle and remain for a time unexposed. But in every case which apparently resists the truth, there must be hidden error of some sort, some material belief harbored consciously or unconsciously by the sick person. Mrs. Eddy states in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" that the lurking error may be one of morals. And here is raised what may be considered one of the biggest issues in Christian Science practice, namely, that of sin. Mrs. Eddy speaks quite plainly of it. On page 419 of Science and Health she writes: "A moral question may hinder the recovery of the sick. Lurking error, lust, envy, revenge, malice, or hate will perpetuate or even create the belief in disease. Errors of all sorts tend in this direction." There can be no shutting the eyes to the seeming power of sin; for it is tragically true that it is the chief source of disease.

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