Editorial January 30, 1965 Issue

Binding the Strong Man

Helen Wood Bauman

A simple parable may teach profound lessons. This can be said of the parable Christ Jesus gave on the need for getting down to fundamentals in the process of destroying error. He said (Matt. 12:29), "How can one enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house."

In the light of Christian Science, one can grasp the true import of this parable. Interpreting it in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy says (pp. 399, 400), "In other words: How can I heal the body, without beginning with so-called mortal mind, which directly controls the body?" A little farther on she adds, "Mortal mind is 'the strong man," which must be held in subjection before its influence upon health and morals can be removed."

While the desire merely to rid people of sin and pain through Science is compassionate, it does not achieve sufficient penetration in scientific mental work to get to the bottom of the error involved and thus cope with stubborn maladies. Even though the less penetrating work may be prayerful and sincere, it does not uproot the basic cause of the difficulty and destroy the elemental materialism involved in all human discords.

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