Editorial October 22, 1927 Issue

The Value of Affirmation

Duncan Sinclair

THE student of Christian Science soon learns the value of affirmation. Christian Science has shown him the difference between the real and the unreal, the immortal and the mortal, matter and Spirit, and the way to reject the one and hold to the other through affirmation of the truth; and he strives to cultivate this method, to practice it, in the overcoming of every kind of error, both for himself and for others. He remembers Mrs. Eddy's words (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 418): "Truth is affirmative, and confers harmony. All metaphysical logic is inspired by this simple rule of Truth, which governs all reality."

Now while the student of Christian Science knows the value of affirming the truths of being, he does not allow himself to be blinded to the false beliefs of the human mind. Well he knows how these errors of material sense delude mankind; well he knows how they seem to result in the various ills that afflict the human race; well he knows that they ultimate, if not destroyed by affirmative truth, in what mortals call death. And he knows also that mankind continues to endure all manner of suffering because it continues to believe that to be real which is unreal, namely, matter, and is unable, because of lack of spiritual understanding, to bring to bear upon this erroneous belief the truths of immortal being.

Consider the belief of sickness, a belief common to mortals. Christian Science declares that since God is infinite good, sickness is no part of His creation; that it is unreal. It also declares that because man is the image of God, man—the real man—is perfect. It follows that nothing which is not good can ever be part of man. So that sickness, which is not good, can never be part of man. Let anyone admit the perfection of man and the unreality of sickness, and he at once becomes equipped to affirm the truth that the real man—and the real man is the only man there is—is never in need of healing; that he is always harmonious and healthy. Thus, in Christian Science treatment the effort is not made to treat man, but rather to demonstrate the great spiritual fact that man, God's reflection, is never in need of healing.

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No End to Good
October 22, 1927
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