Editorial June 4, 1927 Issue

Scientific Practice

Albert F. Gilmore

The student of any of the so-called sciences knows that in order to reach the results at which the subject aims, its rules must be followed, its directions implicitly obeyed. Otherwise, not only will the student not reach the desired goal, but he can scarcely expect to reach it. Obedience is a price which must be paid for success. Students of Christian Science should not expect to win the rewards which are promised to faithful disciples of the Christ, Truth, if they fail to follow its teachings either in the letter or the spirit. Any expectation to the contrary can be explained only by taking into consideration the perversity of so-called mortal mind. Since it is without intelligence, the mortal or carnal mind is devoid of the power to reason from right premises, and therefore cannot arrive at right conclusions. We need not look for logic in its methods or soundness in its aims or activities.

Of the high demands upon those who would heal by spiritual means Mrs. Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 483): "In order to heal by Science, you must not be ignorant of the moral and spiritual demands of Science nor disobey them. Moral ignorance or sin affects your demonstration, and hinders its approach to the standard in Christian Science." What are "the moral and spiritual demands of Science"? They are exactly what Christ Jesus set forth. The query of the lawyer, What is "the great commandment in the law?" he answered by pointing to the first commandment, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." "And the second," he added, "is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." There is no more direct statement of the demand of Truth than is contained in these momentous words.

Mrs. Eddy's revelation of God as Life, Truth, and Love does not lessen the demands upon Christians to obey these commandments. Christian Science renders such obedience practicable, and it emphasizes the necessity of making love of God and one's neighbor the foundation stone in Christian healing. Does our Leader not tell us that if we reach our patient through divine Love the work will be done in one treatment? (See Science and Health, p. 365.) Unless we first cleanse our own thought of all that is unlike good, unless we cast aside personal aims and desires and make the service of good paramount in our lives, what expectation may be entertained that we shall gain the rewards of the righteous?

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