Editorial October 7, 1933 Issue

Healing through Christian Science

Duncan Sinclair

Before the discovery of Christian Science by Mrs. Eddy it was very generally accepted by Christians that they should confine themselves almost entirely, if not altogether, to the healing of sin. The methods of medical science were regarded by the majority as the best means of treating the diseases common to mankind, and they reposed their faith in those methods. Unquestionably, under this system the sick received much care, for its proponents were actuated by an earnest and sincere desire to alleviate human suffering. But those Christians who sought its aid, having faith in it, failed to realize that the great Way-shower, Christ Jesus, used only spiritual means in healing, and that he applied the same means to heal both sickness and sin. Nothing is plainer in the Gospel records of the New Testament than the fact that disease was healed as sin was healed by the Master, through his understanding of divine law.

What is sin? Usually, it is regarded as a moral offense, a breaking of the moral law; and this way of looking at it covers a multitude of sins. But in the final analysis, and from the Christian Science point of view, sin is all unspiritual thinking; that is, all thinking which is devoid of spiritual qualities. Viewed in this way it is apparent that sin—unspiritual thinking—can be overcome by substituting divine qualities for material beliefs or divine ideas for unspiritual thoughts. That is the way in which sin is destroyed in Christian Science. The Christian Scientist knows the unreality of all thinking that is not good; knows that spiritual qualities or ideas alone are real, and that these are endowed with divine power to destroy evil; and so he employs spiritual qualities to destroy false or sinful beliefs.

Next, what is disease? It is an experience of so-called mortal man, an inharmonious condition of mortal thought, usually externalized on the body. Those who do not understand Christian Science may believe that the body can be diseased apart from mortal consciousness; but it is not so, for, as Christian Science shows, mortal, material beliefs are the seeming cause of all disease. Here, then, is surely a striking similarity between sin and disease: both are mental; both have their source in mortal, material thinking.

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