Editorial August 19, 1933 Issue

"Sickness as only thought"

Duncan Sinclair

On page 208 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," in a paragraph with the marginal heading "Sickness as only thought," Mrs. Eddy makes the following declaration: "A material body only expresses a material and mortal mind. A mortal man possesses this body, and he makes it harmonious or discordant according to the images of thought impressed upon it. You embrace your body in your thought, and you should delineate upon it thoughts of health, not of sickness." And thereby she sets forth facts of great importance to mankind, facts which were almost entirely hidden until Christian Science revealed them, facts the understanding of which opens up unlimited possibilities of betterment to the human race.

Let us see how Christian Science enables one to reach the conclusions drawn by our Leader. God is infinite Mind. Mind expresses itself in ideas. Hence, Mind's creation, including individual man, is spiritual, not material. Indeed, since Mind, or Spirit, is infinite, in reality there is no material creation, no material or mortal man. What is called a mortal is an illusory or false concept of man. Further, since God is infinite good, what men call evil is unreal, whatever form it may seem to take. As these things are discerned, one sees not only the erroneous nature of a so-called material body, but also the unreal nature of a diseased or sick material body.

The position, then, as Christian Science reveals it is that the real man exists, spiritual and perfect, conscious only of good, but that there seems also to exist a material or mortal man, apparently conscious of both good and evil, and that this mortal man appears to be healthy or sick according to the thoughts delineated on a so-called material body. The problem is how to govern this so-called body by right thinking. On this point the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science writes (Science and Health, p. 167): "The scientific government of the body must be attained through the divine Mind. It is impossible to gain control over the body in any other way." She then adds: "On this fundamental point, timid conservatism is absolutely inadmissible. Only through radical reliance on Truth can scientific healing power be realized."

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