Article February 2, 1935 Issue

Reversing Error

[Original article in German]

FRIEDA JACOB

On page 120 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy we read, "Science reverses the false testimony of the physical senses, and by this reversal mortals arrive at the fundamental facts of being." From this statement we see that this rule must be strictly observed, since it shows how to utilize one's understanding of the truth. Thus one of the important rules in Christian Science is to reverse error.

A shining example of forgiveness was given by Joseph, as related in the Old Testament. After years of separation, and after he made himself known to his brothers, he said, "Fear not: ... ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good." If we think that anyone has done us a wrong and we suffer under this oppressive thought, it is an indication that we have not reversed error. And until we have done so, we shall remain under the pressure of this false sense. How often we find in the Bible that Christ Jesus dissented from the thought of those about him. When Pilate asked him whether he was king of the Jews, he replied, "My kingdom is not of this world." Of the little daughter of Jairus he said, "She is not dead, but sleepeth." He knew how to correct the subtle suggestions of error through reversal. When the rich young man addressed him as "Good Master," his reply was, "There is none good but one, that is, God."

When reversing error with the truth, we reject it. When Moses cast his rod upon the ground, and it became a serpent—a suggestion trying to tempt him to believe in evil—Moses fled before it. But the Lord said, "Take it by the tail;" he obeyed, and as he saw it become "a rod in his hand," Moses gained an enlarged understanding of the nature of evil. Also, we read that, when the people of Israel were bitten by serpents in the wilderness, Moses set up the serpent of brass, and when any "beheld the serpent of brass, he lived." The true sense of serpent Mrs. Eddy indicates on page 515 of Science and Health as follows: "The serpent of God's creating is neither subtle nor poisonous, but is a wise idea, charming in its adroitness, for Love's ideas are subject to the Mind which forms them,—the power which changeth the serpent into a staff."

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