Article January 15, 1977 Issue

Invalidism Is Invalid

ALICE KINSMAN SMITH

Spiritual healing is more than comfort, or relief from affliction. It is renewal, reformation, restoration to original perfection. It lifts one out of suffering and eliminates invalidism. Invalidism yields to the healing activity of divine Spirit.

The word "invalid" can refer to a physical condition—"suffering from disease or disability." But the same word, differently pronounced, has a different meaning—"being without foundation or force in fact, truth, or law." The latter has particular significance in the application of the truths of Christian Science to physical disability. We need to know that invalidism is invalid, that an inoperative, unsound condition has no foundation or force in the divine law that governs man. The statement that invalidism is invalid is far more than a play on words. When understood, it frees thought from the mesmeric arguments of life in matter. It brings the law of God into focus with liberating results.

The metaphysics of this liberating process is concisely stated in the allegorical trial in Science and Health. Here Mrs. Eddy depicts Christian Science as attorney for Mortal Man. Science says in the closing argument for the defense, "In the presence of the Supreme Lawgiver, standing at the bar of Truth, and in accordance with the divine statutes, I repudiate the false testimony of Personal Sense." Science and Health, p. 440;

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