Article May 5, 1923 Issue

Why, and How

IDA S. KOHL

"Because of your unbelief" was the answer Jesus gave to his disciples' question, "Why could not we cast him out?" The boy whose father had appealed to them for healing, they had seen restored at Jesus' command. However, with his usual liberality toward mortals in their ignorance of God and the operation of His laws, Jesus added, "Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting." His loving rebuke included also the rule by which divine Principle operates in the healing work. In considering this rule, Mrs. Eddy, on page 222 of "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany," gives its explanation as "refraining from admitting the claims of the senses."

In the language of Christian Science, the word "unbelief" has a broader significance than is usually attached to it, meaning not only lack of faith in the accomplishment of good, but a greater lack of the actual understanding of God, the source of all good. So, to-day, the frequent cry, Why am I not healed? or, Why is my healing delayed? can but receive the same answer: "Because of your unbelief." Though human problems may seem to be numberless, they all proceed from the same source, — the belief that there is more than one God, more than one power, more than one presence; and they all have their solution in the understanding of the two connate facts of Christian Science, — the allness of God and His ideas, and the nothingness of the belief in evil. In the progressive unfoldment of these facts, it is learned why discord is unreal, and how the continuous proof of harmony, as the reality, may be realized in a sufficient measure along every avenue of human thought and action.

Mortals attach suffering to themselves and hold it in thought for others, through the belief in and fear of wrong thoughts and deeds. To detach all suffering from human experience, one's consciousness of the truth of being must approximate that of the Master. A closer communion with God, through the realization of the truth about Him and His spiritual universe, alone can develop the ability to disbelieve error, reduce it to its native nothingness, and reject it utterly. In the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mrs. Eddy has given rules for the practice of Christian metaphysics. These rules are the fruit of her many years of spiritual discernment, and consecrated application of the Christ-method of healing and teaching. Ability to grasp the author's message, and to use it successfully in working out the daily problems, involves a willingness to set aside preconceived theories and beliefs. The thoughts that go to make up the mental activity of the large majority of mortals bear no resemblance to divine Mind; and these must be emptied out that men may come to know that which is eternally true about God, man, and the universe. The author of the epistle to the Hebrews writes, "Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God." Belief is always about something changeable and destructible; but God is to be understood; and His changeless goodness and infinite power, manifested in eternal perfection, must be demonstrated.

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