Editorial December 2, 1944 Issue

Accept Only Good!

John Randall Dunn

One of our splendid young aviators, an earnest student of Christian Science, wrote to his mother, "If word comes to you that I am missing in action, don't accept it!" What a message of strength and courage is this for those whose dear ones are facing dangers in distant lands; yes, and for every Christian soldier at home or abroad confronted with error's devious and devastating arguments! Christian Science is teaching mankind not to accept as truth and reality the carnal mind's suggestions of discord and disaster. Starting from the premise that the great First Cause is Spirit, infinitely good and harmonious, the student naturally deduces the fact that all real effect must be spiritual, manifesting the rhythm and order of its creator, as "when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.'"

The proposition, therefore, that evil or discord in any guise can have existence, continuity, or lawful support in the divine economy is as untenable as would be the assertion that darkness has an abiding place in light. Thus with flawless logic does Mary Baker Eddy write in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 231): "God is not the author of mortal discords. Therefore we accept the conclusion that discords have only a fabulous existence, are mortal beliefs which divine Truth and Love destroy."

Is it not evident that Christ Jesus did not accept mortal mind's verdicts that a certain man was a hopeless cripple, or another had been born blind, or this woman was a hardened sinner, or that Lazarus was dead? When the Master spoke of an infirmity as produced by Satan, and therefore not traceable to the will of a good God, he showed the illegitimacy of all discord and inharmony. Just as a sympathetic and understanding schoolteacher will see the correct answer to a problem in spite of a pupil's manifold mistakes, is it not reasonable to assume that the great Teacher of Nazareth, with divine compassion, looked through the mist-distorted pictures of the carnal mind to the infinite harmonies of real being? In a memorable paragraph in Science and Health our inspirational Leader, Mrs. Eddy, elucidates this thought (ibid., pp. 476, 477): "Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick."

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