On Sunday last, a clergyman delivered a sermon in the...

Harold David Joffe, former Committee on Publication for Transvaal, South Africa,—Johannesburg

Star

On Sunday last, a clergyman delivered a sermon in the cathedral. He was reported to have said that "any system that denies the reality of sickness and diseases is simply masquerading." In view of the fact that Christian Science denies the reality of sickness, I shall be grateful if you will allow me space to make a brief explanation of how this (to some people) extraordinary conclusion is arrived at.

That Christian Science heals sin and disease of every kind is an established fact. Many famous doctors and ecclesiastics have acknowledged this to be so.

In Christian Science the word "real" is used in its fundamental meaning. It means that which is "absolute," "true," "existing inherently," in other words—that which is eternal and indestructibly true. God, Truth, alone is fundamental and eternal, and therefore only that which is like God is pronounced real and true in Christian Science. Mary Baker Eddy wrote (Science and Health, p. 525): "Everything good or worthy, God made. Whatever is valueless or baneful, He did not make,—hence its unreality."

A clearer aspect of the fact that disease, although appearing to the five physical senses to be true, is not fundamentally real is provided by the following simple analogy: In music, ignorance of the rules of music may produce discord. This discord is evident to the physical senses, but is not inherently real, because it vanishes into its native nothingness as soon as the rules of music are understood and practiced. In the same way all discordant conditions, such as sin, disease, and poverty, in human experience are caused by an ignorance of divine Principle, God, and an understanding of divine Principle destroys the discord. Surely this is what Christ Jesus meant when he said, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Freedom from what? Why, surely, freedom from the baneful effects of ignorance of the truth!

If Christian Science merely denied the reality of disease, and left it at that, it would be about as efficacious as moonbeams to melt ice; but it does much more than that, because it demonstrates that disease is nothing since God, Truth, is all, and thus Science destroys the most inveterate diseases, sometimes instantaneously. An understanding of the allness of God is necessary to demonstrate Christian Science.

Most of us who are Christian Scientists became interested in this religion when we were healed of discordant conditions when all other means had failed. We found that disease was not a creation of God, and had none of the laws of God to support it. The understanding of God's loving and protective laws heals disease.

No! Christian Science, which proves by its works that sickness and disease are unreal, is not a masquerade, but it proves disease to be a masquerade.

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit