Editorial March 23, 1929 Issue

Genuine Sympathy

Duncan Sinclair

Sometimes one hears it remarked that Christian Scientists are lacking in sympathy; that they are callous to the suffering and sorrow of their fellow-men. But it is only those who are unacquainted with the teachings of Christian Science who can hold such an opinion; for these teachings inculcate upon all Christian Scientists the necessity of loving their fellow-men even as they love themselves. Not a single command of Christ Jesus does Christian Science say its followers should not obey. And does not John record these words of the Master: "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another"?

There is usually, however, a great difference between the sympathy one exercises towards suffering humanity before he has learned the fundamentals of Christian Science and the sympathy he afterwards bestows. Before Christian Science enlightened him he believed that disease was real, that sorrow and suffering were real—that evil in its every seeming form was real. And holding this belief in the reality of evil, his sympathies with the sick and the suffering were to a great extent influenced by it. But after he gained an understanding of the truth that God is infinite good and that evil is unreal, his sympathy was on an entirely different basis, a perfectly scientific basis; and because of this he was enabled to help sick and suffering humanity as never before.

Not infrequently, beginners in Christian Science when they learn that since God is infinite good evil is unreal and therefore unknown to Him, wonder how it is possible for God to pity them. How can He pity, they ask, if He is not aware of suffering? How can He heal, even if He is divine Love, if He be not cognizant of disease? These questions Christian Science readily answers. On page 30 of "No and Yes" Mrs. Eddy writes,—and her words are deserving of the closest attention,—"God pities our woes with the love of a Father for His child,—not by becoming human, and knowing sin, or naught, but by removing our knowledge of what is not," adding, a line or two farther on, "It is Truth's knowledge of its own infinitude which forbids the genuine existence of even a claim to error."

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