Editorial August 11, 1934 Issue

"The great attainment"

Duncan Sinclair

An ideal ever before the thought of genuine students of Christian Science is that they shall bear constant witness to spiritual reality. They hold to this ideal because through it the mastery is gained over material sense, which witnesses only to the passing, the temporal, the unreal. Christian Science has given them a great revelation of true being. Through this Science they have come to know God and His creation—that which is His reflection—as perfect, and to utilize spiritual sense to distinguish between the real and the unreal. And thus they have become equipped to rid themselves of whatever is false. On page 428 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy refers to getting rid of false material appearances in this way. She writes, "To divest thought of false trusts and material evidences in order that the spiritual facts of being may appear,—this is the great attainment by means of which we shall sweep away the false and give place to the true."

In striving after "the great attainment," just referred to, the Christian Scientist has his happiness before him, and his health, too; for he knows that erroneous materialistic views bring discord and disease. By allowing his thought to dwell on matter as real and on the belief that so-called material law governs him, he is putting his mental weight on the wrong side. He is giving to matter and material law a power they do not possess, since God, Spirit, is infinite, and spiritual law alone is real law. It is this false trust in materiality which brings about all human suffering, including disease. It must be displaced by understanding and faith in God, Spirit, and His law, to ensure harmony and to establish health.

Christ Jesus differentiated between the real and the unreal with great clarity. It was his understanding of real spiritual being, as distinguished from a false material sense of creation, that enabled him during his ministry to heal "all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people," as Matthew states in the fourth chapter of his Gospel. Jesus attained to great heights of spirituality, because throughout his earthly career he allowed the facts of spiritual being, which were ever before his thought, to rule in his life. Thus he resisted the temptations of material sense, and taught others to do the same. Our Leader says (No and Yes, p. 31), "Jesus cast out evils, mediating between what is and is not, until a perfect consciousness is attained."

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