The Inutility of Pain

The ministry of suffering has been a frequent topic for religious homilies, and the statement that our Lord was made perfect through suffering is often quoted as evidence that pain has a vital and inseparable relation to character.

This assertion of the necessity of suffering and its salutary effect is the logical outcome of its classification as providential. The maintenance of God's goodness and wisdom, together with the claim that sorrow and pain are "from the Lord,"—these render the conclusion inevitable that their end is beneficent, and that therefore we should accept the situation with grace, if not gladness.

A further logical outcome of the above premises has not been generally accepted, however, even by devout Christians; viz., that this divinely appointed experience should not be shunned or intentionally lessened, but accepted a dispensation of that Love whose gracious purpose it would be un-Christian and rebellious to thwart.

The traditional view of this subject is frequently referred to in the non-religious press, and the following excerpt from the editorial columns of the Boston Transcript. presents a lay opinion respecting our theme which is no less pertinent than logical. The writer says:—

"It does not seem to the ordinary layman that human suffering always results in bringing the sufferer nearer to mental or spiritual perfection. . . . While it is true that strong souls rise upon the experiences that have caused them pain, it is not to be denied that weak souls are often made mean and uncompanionable by hardship. . . . If suffering is invariably a means of regeneration, the terrible oppressions endured by criminals in days gone by, and still in some prisons, should show results in better lives. . . . If pain is a certain means of salvation, men ought to endure it with satisfaction; but the fundamental requisite of Christianity is to prevent suffering even of one's enemies,—a curious command if we thereby take from our neighbor a means of regeneration. If spiritual excellence is to be surely attained by physical and mental pain, we ought to wish suffering to befall our relatives and friends, unless, indeed, we are prepared to believe that physical well-being is more desirable than spiritual perfection,"

It is certainly to escape the author's conclusions, and it is no less difficult to bring harmony and consistency out of the confused thinking which obtains in the religious teaching of the past regarding this matter. If suffering is divinely sent, it must be for wise and good ends, and we are wronging ourselves and dishonoring God in our every endeavor to escape or limit it.

When, however, we come to understand, in Christian Science that suffering has no place or part in God's plans or government; that it is but the experience of the falsity and disharmony of material sense, the associate and outcome of the idolatry of false belief, then we know that it is as alien to God's child as it is to God; that it is neither real nor necessary in the spiritual universe, and that the only service it can render is in reminding us that we are out of the domain of Truth, that we are companioning with swine when we ought to be sharing the joys of our Father's house.

Suffering no more befits a child of God than does sin. Both are foreign to God and His reflection. Pain has place in our education only so far as we are consciously or unconsciously irresponsive to Love. W.

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit