Editorial March 10, 1928 Issue

Value of Spiritual Understanding

Duncan Sinclair

What a difference there is between merely believing in God and having some understanding of Him! Belief, if it be accompanied by faith, is certainly not to be despised, but it cannot stand comparison with spiritual understanding. And if belief be based on erroneous concepts of God, it can be positively dangerous. What, for instance, is to be expected of the one who believes God to be responsible for what men call evil, who believes that God not only tolerates evil but uses it to serve the ends of an inscrutable purpose? Such a one could hardly fail to use evil to serve some evil purpose of his own.

All through her writings Mrs. Eddy, directly and indirectly, challenges mere belief about God. She places before her readers the value of spiritual understanding, that is, understanding of Spirit, of God, and shows this understanding to be of the most definite nature. Indeed, it is characteristic of Christian Science that it states in the most positive manner the absolute truth about God, making that truth so plain that a little child may comprehend it, and at the same time teaching how it may be applied to all the problems which beset human existence. To know the truth about God is not sufficient; it is necessary that one should be acquainted with the law governing that truth; for then one knows how to avail himself of it, how to practice it.

Perhaps the value of spiritual understanding is more readily recognized in the healing of sickness than in anything else, because whenever the fact is grasped that God is infinite good, perfect Being, and that His creation, man, is the expression of this perfect harmonious Being, the belief that sickness can be real is destroyed, and health results. Mrs. Eddy writes on page 203 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," "If God were understood instead of being merely believed, this understanding would establish health," adding, a few lines farther on, "Spiritual perception brings out the possibilities of being, destroys reliance on aught but God, and so makes man the image of his Maker in deed and in truth."

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Editorial
Faith versus Fear
March 10, 1928
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