Article December 28, 1946 Issue

Commuting the Self-Sentence

DOUGLAS ROBERTS

"Suffering , sinning, dying beliefs are unreal. When divine Science is universally understood, they will have no power over man, for man is immortal and lives by divine authority." So we read on page 76 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy. Since he is immortal, who or what can sentence man to suffer? Since man is under divine authority, who or what has power to overrule the law of God, of omnipotence, thus seeming to obstruct man's harmonious, God-ordained activities? The answer must be "nobody" and "nothing."

Does God, who is man's infinitely loving Father-Mother, authorize His offspring or reflection to live, and yet not endow him with all the necessities of life, such as health, happiness, dominion, power, wisdom, and glory? And, by the same token, is not this divinely created man immune to any supposition of evil that claims to exist outside of infinite good? There is no counter authority to divine Principle, Love. Therefore, no authority or power can sentence man to imprisonment in sickness, poverty, old age, sorrow, fear, frustration, sensualism, or death. Dwelling as he does in the spiritual awareness of God's allness, man must be unaware of the claims of evil.

Who or what is it that seems to suffer, sin, and die, and who or what inflicts these evils? Mrs. Eddy answers these questions with perfect directness when she writes (ibid., p. 391): "Mortal mind alone sentences itself. Therefore make your own terms with sickness, and be just to yourself and to others;" and (ibid., p. 378): "Disease has no intelligence. Unwittingly you sentence yourself to suffer. The understanding of this will enable you to commute this self-sentence, and meet every circumstance with truth."

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