Arizona republican., 1917-05-17
(The Christian Science Monitor)

ne SfTlStidn SCiSfCC HOfitoIJ
This is the law of Truth to error,
| says Mrs. Eddy, Thou shalt surely die
This law IS a divine energy. Mortals
cannot prevent the fulfilment of this
| law; it covers all sin and its effects.
! miscellaneous Writings, p. 20S).
| Christian Science is sometimes igno-
rantly accused of dealing uniustly with
SIM of ignoring it, because this Sci
ence teaches that sin is unreal. But the
| foregoing quotation should set all sus-
| picions at rest. Christian Science not
| only makes it plain that sin should be
punished il also shows that sins pun
ishment is inevitable since this punish
| ment is the outcome of a divine law
or principle that no amount of human
| pleading, nor human belief in a creed
| or ceremony of any kind whatsoever
can set aside. No one knows so well as
a thorough student of Christian Science
| that it is impossible to excuse the
guilt of sin, just as it is impossible, for
| instance, to excuse an error in num-
bers; all errors, as it is perfectly plain
must be corrected and not excused. The
| student, therefore, instead of finding
/ Christian Science a cloak or an excuse
| for sin, actually finds that it exposes
even the dormant errors lurking in his
consciousness, thus compelling him to
uproot these evils if he would progress
! in the straight and narrow way that
leads to divine harmony. How, you ask
does Christian Science expose the err
| ors in the human mind? BY holding
to just one standard, the standard of
| Spirit. God, and -rearizing that there
! can be no other. That would mean that
materiality can never be taken as a
standard of successful living; the
things of God, Spirit, as revealed in the
h I'd ri
to the Scriptures" are alone worthy
of this place in human thought and
action.
What, then, does the eXpiation of sin
mean? What does the bible mean when
it so clearly indicates the eternal pun
lshment of sin on the one hand and
yet on the other hand promises its
forgiveness? How can two such con-
Trajectory statements ever be recon-
| ciled? 1t took one who reasoned only
| nom the basis of the absolute, the
basis of the allness of the spirit and
the nothingness of matter, to answer
these questions. In one of the religious
tenets of Christian Science, Mrs. Eddy
says: I'VE acknowledge Gods forgive
ness of sin in the destruction of sin
and the spiritual understanding that
casts out evil as unreal. But the belief
in sin is punished so long as the belief
lasts" (Science and Health, p. 49O.
Sin, therefore, is forgiven when it is
destroyed in mind, that is, when
through spiritual understanding its I'M
reality appears, while the expiation OF
sin would mean the suffering, eternal
ly, with sin and a consciousness OF
guilt, that continues in our experience
until the unreal nature of sin and all
evil appears.
1t must be perfectly plain that when
we apprehend anything as a delusion
or as unreal, it loses it's false power
over US and the consciousness of guilt
is removed. This does not mean how
ever, that a mere verbal statement to
the effect that sin is unreal, is all that
is necessary. In this, as in all other
things appertaining to Christian Sci
ence, it is not what is said that counts
but rather what is lived. That sin is
unreal, having no being, influence nor
expression, must be proved or demon
strated in daily life practice. For the
sinner to say that sin is metaphysically
unreal, and then still love to sin would
be the worst form of sin imaginable
1t would be nothing less than moral
suicide and would prove total lack
of spiritual apprehension. OF such a
one Mrs. Eddy says: HE is joining
in conspiracy against himself
against his own awakening to the aw-
full unreality by which he has been
deceived. Only those, who repent OF
sin and forsake the unreal, can fully
understand the unreality of evil" (Sci-
ence and Health, p. 339).
Thus the suffering which is eternally
a part of the expiation of sin through
the discomfort it produces, drives the
sinner to seek a new basis of thought
He has always been a firm believer ir
1.-The reality of matter; the evidence OF