Editorial January 5, 1957 Issue

EFFECTIVE REBUKE

Harold Molter

The Christian Scientist does not ignore evil. His work is to expose and rebuke it, to understand and demonstrate its nothingness as Jesus did. It is recorded in the Bible that Jesus on a number of occasions rebuked the erroneous or false beliefs which held people in bondage to sin, sickness, or some other discord. When confronted with a diseased person, Jesus said to the lie which enslaved the sufferer (Mark 9:25), "Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him."

On another occasion the scribes and Pharisees brought to Jesus a woman whom they accused of a sinful act. The Master exposed and rebuked the error in their thoughts with the simple statement (John 8:7), "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." The result was that instead of fulfilling their secret desire of involving Jesus in an infraction of the Mosaic law, they left the scene, one by one, convicted by their own sins. This gave the Master an opportunity to heal the woman; he did not condemn her, but admonished her to sin no more.

Mary Baker Eddy writes in the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 447), "Expose and denounce the claims of evil and disease in all their forms, but realize no reality in them." And a little later she writes, "To put down the claim of sin, you must detect it, remove the mask, point out the illusion, and thus get the victory over sin and so prove its unreality."

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