"Son , be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee." This statement to a sick man as recorded in the ninth chapter of Matthew's Gospel shows that Christ Jesus, the greatest healer of all time, discerned the relationship of sin to disease in the carnal mind's enslavement of mankind. With clear, spiritual insight, Mrs. Eddy recognized this relationship and stated in Science and Health (p. 406), "Sin and sickness are both healed by the same Principle."

When Jesus healed the man sick of the palsy by forgiving his sins, the scribes who were present considered the Master's statement to be blasphemous. To this Jesus replied: "Whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house."

In another instance of healing, Jesus referred to a woman who "was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself" as one "whom Satan hath bound" (Luke 13:11, 16). The same evil influence—erroneous material sense —that induces men to sin also induces them to be sick. To the Master it was as much a temptation to be sick as it was to sin.

The same Satanic influence induced the Master's opponents to pervert everything he said and did. They imputed to him the error that was in themselves. Jesus was awake to evil's mental methods and through his own clear, spiritual understanding was able to separate his opponents as individuals from the evil they were responding to. "Father, forgive them," he prayed, "for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34). And so today if we would heal mankind, we must separate our concept of man from the world's belief in evil. Divine Love alone liberates. It does not condemn.

Someone has said that all the water in the seven seas cannot sink a ship unless it gets inside the ship. Likewise, all the evil thinking in the world is unable to make anyone sin or be sick unless it gets into his unguarded thinking through mesmeric suggestions of the so-called carnal mind. All the mental darkness in the world cannot project a single shadow into a consciousness filled with the light of spiritual Truth.

Sometimes Christian Scientists try to heal disease without adequately taking into consideration the evil that would induce men to sin. Practitioners learn from experience that to ignore the claims of sin in their healing work is to be handled by the same error— animal magnetism—that would make the patient believe that he is sick. We heal disease as we heal sin, by proving that man, the spiritual selfhood of each one of us, is no more in bondage to one than he is to the other.

False theological doctrines relentlessly hold men under condemnation to sin. The result is that those who are uninstructed in Christian Science are apt to respond to such doctrines, fulfill the conditions of sin, and incur its penalties. Such error would perpetuate rather than destroy the false claims of sin and disease.

Christian Science does not claim that one who sins is not a sinner. That would be folly. But this Science teaches that man, the image and likeness of God, is not the one who sins. Christian Science maintains that the true selfhood of each one of us is spiritual and is therefore immune to both sin and sickness. Through spiritual sense we are able to discern our true identity as sons of God, the sinless and diseaseless selfhood which constitutes our being. As we grasp this truth and yield to it, the mortal sense of self gradually disappears.

Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health (p. 447), "A sinner is not reformed merely by assuring him that he cannot be a sinner because there is no sin." And she continues, "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."

This is, of course, in accordance with moral law, and moral law is absolute spiritual law applied to relative, human conditions. Moral law rests upon spiritual law, is wholly dependent upon this law, and derives authority from it.

Christian Science is proving that as a society is based upon morality rather than upon mortality, it is able to meet and overcome the claims of both sin and disease.

As we understand and abide by divine Principle, God, and His beneficent laws, sin and disease disappear from our lives. As liability to sin and to be sick is overcome, a new and higher order of society will be established, one in which the efforts of men will not be threatened by recurring wars or pestilences.

Ralph E. Wagers