Editorial December 6, 1930 Issue

"Be strong"!

Duncan Sinclair

In his epistles Paul on several occasions appealed to those to whom he wrote to be strong. This was to be expected of Paul, because he himself was a stalwart in the faith; and, besides, he was deeply conscious of the fact that only those who were strong and courageous were capable of acting as pioneers of the Christianity of which he had become an exponent and demonstrator. How lovingly he addresses Timothy: "Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus"! And how appealing are his words to the Corinthians, "Quit you like men, be strong"!

The Christianity of Christ Jesus, preached and practiced by Paul, is the Christianity of the Christian Scientist. The words of encouragement of the apostle just quoted therefore make the same appeal to him as they did to the members of the early Christian church. Students of Christian Science may remember when first the marvelous truths which Christian Science reveals came to them. A great change began in their thinking then; and perhaps they were healed at once of a sickness that had baffled all their previous efforts. So conscious were they of the greatness of Mrs. Eddy's discovery that everything else seemed small in comparison. They now had but a single aim—to gain in the understanding of spiritual Truth. God had been revealed to them as never before; His law had been made plain to them as never before; they must therefore know more of God and His law, that they might become consistent demonstrators of that law in their daily lives. How eager, too, they were to speak with those more advanced in spiritual understanding, in order to learn! And the latter were so patient and kind in their explanations, while turning the students' thought to the Bible and to "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" and Mrs. Eddy's other writings, as the textbooks wherein were to be found the answers to all their questions.

It was not long until the student realized that what had chiefly to be striven for was spiritualization of thought; that he had to become strong spiritually. Did not Christian Science show that material sense was the supposititious cause of all the sorrow and suffering of mankind? Did not Christian Science make clear that the carnal mind, which "is enmity against God," as Paul declares, was responsible for all seeming inharmony, and ultimately death? And while this Science exposed the apparent source of all inharmony, it at the same time taught how the carnal mind, material sense, could be overcome by spiritual understanding, gained through spiritual sense, that real sense which is the possession of all men. Speaking of the development of the might of divine Science, Mrs. Eddy writes on page viii of the Preface to Science and Health, "To develop the full might of this Science, the discords of corporeal sense must yield to the harmony of spiritual sense, even as the science of music corrects false tones and gives sweet concord to sound."

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