Editorial November 2, 1929 Issue

Effective Denunciation

Violet Ker Seymer

On page 63 of "Retrospection and Introspection" Mrs. Eddy states that "when we deny the authority of sin, we begin to sap it; for this denunciation must precede its destruction." From this statement it is evident that sinful beliefs which are undenounced are still unrenounced, owing either to an individual's involuntary fears, to his ignorance of Truth, or else to his voluntary disobedience to its mandates of which he has become conscious. Christian Science teaches that God, good, is All-in-all, and that Spirit is the only substance of creation. If mortals grasped this everlasting fact, they would cease to be mortal, and there would be no need to denounce the claims of evil. Indeed, one could not do so, for sinful delusions have no place in spiritual consciousness. Material ignorance has no place in spiritual understanding; and God's likeness is always fully conscious of his true identity.

In human experience, however, the emergence from the darkness of materiality to the full recognition of spirituality is a gradual one, and it is retarded if one is reluctant to handle the serpent of evil suggestion. So-called evil, or the carnal mind, cannot denounce itself, because it is only from the basis of divine Truth that error can be scientifically denounced and destroyed. For this reason the so-called carnal mind knows no better than persistently to affirm its own pleasurable or painful beliefs, its own assumed claim to be expressed through persons and things. Its false affirmations are merely denials of Truth and are utterly devoid of authority; but Truth's denial of error carries with it all the motive power of divine Principle and spiritual law. Did Christ Jesus, humanity's Way-shower, denounce and renounce the suggestions of the so-called carnal mind every time they knocked at his door? He assuredly did, for himself and for one and all; and he did so with Truth's own fearlessness. Every aggressive mental suggestion presenting itself either silently, audibly, or visibly through corporeal sense, he termed Satan, and in loyalty to his God he resisted and routed it. Jesus knew that God, man's heavenly Father, is not compounded of good and evil. He knew that Godlikeness alone really exists, and is unalterably pure and perfect. So the Christian Scientist, humbly praying to be his follower, should strive to know no less and reflect no less of God, good, than did the Master.

The tendency of the so-called carnal mind is to take the line of least resistance and to acquiesce with the evidence of physical sense, whatever it may be. Knowing this tendency, the obedient Christian Scientist is on guard against becoming mentally flabby in his declarations of Truth, or ineffectual in his denunciation of error. He perpetually rouses himself to expect better and more prompt and definite results from his practice of Truth. In proportion to his love of God, good, his thought is closed to erroneous influences and is plastic only to the touch of Christ, Truth, through true ideas.

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