Editorial August 6, 1955 Issue

A VULNERABLE POINT

Helen Wood Bauman

David recognized the vulnerable point in Goliath's defense when he described his antagonist as one who "hath defied the armies of the living God" (I Sam. 17:36). In his own way David recognized the powerlessness of that which opposes reality, of that which claims existence apart from God. Christian Science explains all evil as defiance of God, and it demonstrates the advantage which Truth holds over false beliefs, over all that contradicts God's spiritual and perfect creation. For false beliefs must necessarily give up their claims when spiritual facts are understood.

Spiritual facts, which Christian Science reveals, include God's allness and omnipresence and man's inseparability from Spirit; God's pure perfection and man's spiritual well-being. And beliefs in the reality of sin and disease defy these great facts. Consequently false belief is the vulnerable point to attack in our application of Science to human problems. The question which we should ask ourselves and those who seek our help in Science is not, What error is present? but, What do we believe is present? Not the seeming sinful or diseased condition, but the patient's belief in the reality and existence of that condition is the vulnerable point which must be attacked through Truth.

Mary Baker Eddy says in "Retrospection and Introspection" (p. 63), "We attack the sinner's belief in the pleasure of sin, alias the reality of sin, which makes him a sinner, in order to destroy this belief and save him from sin; and we attack the belief of the sick in the reality of sickness, in order to heal them." Our knowledge that man is not a mortal believing in material conditions, but the spiritual son of God, knowing Mind and its ideas, is our David's sling, our trusted weapon. With this knowledge we are armed to fell the mortal beliefs which defy the armies— the truths—of the living God.

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A VULNERABLE POINT

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