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.

With divine wisdom, spiritual clarity, and inexhaustible patience, Mrs. Eddy found and traced the mental way of emergence into light and stated it in unmistakable terms throughout her writings. Thus on page 319 of "Miscellaneous Writings" she writes regarding Christian Scientists, "They must either be overcoming sin in themselves, or they must not lose sight of sin; else they are self-deceived sinners of the worst sort." It is the will of God that good should prevail, and that in every case health should triumph over disease, joy over sorrow, purity over sin, and Life over death. And the will of God runs parallel with the law of God. Hence a joyous prescience of the triumph of Truth should always accompany one's denouncement of error. When arguments of doubt attempt to becloud one's faith in Truth's healing power, this misplaced faith in evil, called doubt, should be denounced and cast behind one. This was the Master's way. Effective denial of error is effective in demonstration.

The Christian Scientist is always mindful of the might of good, and he denounces any suggestion of doubt as to his God-derived power to heal the sick and the sinful. To him corporeal sense is unreal, and he knows that spiritual sense is serenely free from temptation or dismay. As the Christian Scientist's affirmations of Truth and Love grow purer and stronger, more convinced and more convincing, more comforting and liberating to trembling human hearts, more joyous and authoritative, so they are found to be more promptly and permanently effective in demonstration. This spiritual conviction of the presence and power of good unhesitatingly denounces as unreal every argument and evidence of discord which claims to hold mortals in bondage. And as this spiritual conviction is prayerfully and regularly protected from the mortal arguments of unbelief and personal sense, so one is enabled to prove more and more perfectly that "the Lord God omnipotent reigneth."

Violet ker seymer

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