Editorial February 17, 1940 Issue

Holding Thought to the Real

Duncan Sinclair

Christian Scientists are deeply grateful for the understanding they have of reality. Christian Science has revealed to them the truth of God's omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience. It has made known to them that He is infinite Spirit, infinite good, and that consequently matter and evil are unreal. It has taught them that the real man is the idea, the image, of God—that he reflects God, thus expressing the qualities of Deity. It has taught them also that the mortal or material sense of man is illusory or unreal, and that salvation consists of the overcoming of this false sense through the understanding of the real man. Because of this teaching, Christian Scientists are profoundly grateful.

With the understanding he has of reality, the Christian Scientist is equipped to meet the problems of mortal existence. He is measurably in possession of the spiritual understanding possessed by Christ Jesus, who said (John 15:7), "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." The Master knew that God, Spirit, is infinite—All—and that matter and evil are unreal; and it was this understanding that endowed him with spiritual power to do the wonderful works which characterized his ministry. He held his thought steadfastly to the real. He affirmed the truth and denied error, in this way healing disease, overcoming sin, and destroying the belief of death. So certain was Jesus of his method of destroying erroneous beliefs of whatever sort that he could say (John 8:51), "If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death." And keeping his own sayings, holding, that is, to the truth which he taught, he vanquished death in his own experience. Faithfulness to his understanding of reality gave him the victory over material sense in all its various phases.

The student of Christian Science understands how Jesus performed his works of healing, knows indeed the Science which he understood and demonstrated. And with this knowledge the student is doing in a measure what the Way-shower did. He is healing the sick and the sinning, restoring harmony where discord seems to reign, lifting the burden of lack where poverty claims to be, and all through his understanding of God and His creation—the same understanding which Christ Jesus possessed. Christian Scientists are doing these things, but all of them are desirous, all of them are praying, that they may be humble and pure enough, and clear enough in their understanding of spiritual truth, to do better and quicker healing work. They are striving to hold their thought more steadfastly to the real, that thereby the errors of material sense may be more efficiently and more speedily overcome.

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