Editorial September 8, 1951 Issue

THE RIGHT APPROACH

Helen Wood Bauman

Christian Science bases its approach to the destroying of evil on the revelation of God's infinitude. This precludes the actual existence of anything unlike Him, anything contrary to His greatness and goodness. The admission that God is Mind, the only Mind, and that man is not a mind, but the idea of the one infinite Mind, leads one to the honest conclusion that an evil mind must be a supposition. Consequently, when some disturbing aspect of human existence confronts one, his emphatic effort must first be to realize that the problem is not present, and that his task is to prove that it is not.

This knowledge of evil's negative status does not dismiss the need of discerning its nature, however; and the method of spiritual healing which Mary Baker Eddy discovered includes a conscientious exposure of error's bewildering ways. No longer need men be mystified by it or helpless in its grasp. To perceive its nature is one step in overcoming it with good, for this perception indicates alertness and intelligence, and intelligence is power. In giving the seeming false mind a specific name, Mrs. Eddy explains both its nature and its action. She says in the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 103), "As named in Christian Science, animal magnetism or hypnotism is the specific term for error, or mortal mind." Here we find the important instruction that error is animal in nature and magnetic in action. But it is nevertheless unreal and nothing more than something surmised.

Paul's specific term for suppositional evil was "the carnal mind," and he declared it to be "enmity against God," that is, the opposite of good and not subject to God's will, not included in Truth. Christ Jesus' specific name for the opposite of Truth was "a liar, and the father of it." In his denunciation of error the Master began by condemning the liar, the father of the lie. The Christian Scientist handles animal magnetism by overcoming the hypnotism that claims to evolve mesmeric mental pictures. Not to do this is to attempt to destroy hypnotic illusion without stopping the mental action of the hypnotizer, suppositional mortal mind.

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit

THE RIGHT APPROACH

We'd love to hear from you!

Sign up for unlimited access