Free trader-journal. (Ottawa, Ill.) 1916-1920, 1917-05-16

therefore needs to be considered from
the standpoint of evils essential mega
tiveness, if it is to be handled in.
diligently. This of course does not
mean that the practice of Christian
Science ever consists of reiterating in
the patients ear that there is nothing
the matter and he should just forget
II. as we yet occasionally hear even
in this enlightened period. What il
means is that if the sick man has
been regarding disease as being some
thing that it in fact is not, and gov
erning accordingly his conduct and
especially his thinking, his difficulty
doubtless lies very much in that di-
rection. and he certainly will be helped
not harmed. by learning TO see disease
for what il is. lie needs not TO
shut his eyes but TO open them For
instance. il would be difficulty to con
ceiye anything more depressing than
for the victim of suffering TO believe
that in some unaceountable way di-
vine purpose is being accomplished
by means of his painful experience.
Therefore one of the things the sick
man needs 10 know is that his Maker
is not a party to his und0ing, not in
the remotest degree. He needs to
know that since infinite intelligence
in its very nature could not be the
author of such discordant thing
as sickness, and since God be omni-
nipctent. the only power, and there is
therefore no other power that could
be it's author. the basis then of sick
ness. like ignorance and other forms
OF forms of evil, must be nonentity,
or negatio1, not something, but the
absence or lack OF something
In this way the sick man may learn
that disease is not the result Of any
real law. but is the expression, mani
festati0n, or effect Of certain CHROME
Gus modes or habits of human belief,
which through they may have been
for ages formulating AMI fastening
themselves upon an apparently help
less humanity, are foud on examina
ton to be utterly unlawful and alb
normal and without justification other
than that mankind for long time
has been asserting and submitting TO
them
Christian Sci nee dscIoss to its
students that the accumulated beliefs
of the human mind commonly known
as laws and health. but which might
be termed more appropriately laws OF
disease, are not really laws, being di-
rectly at variance with the divine and
true law, and therefore in their final
utterly impotent and void.
The Christian Scientist therefore
knows he has a right to resist. but he
also knows that mere blind resistance
is not effective In becoming a
Christian Scientist, therefore, it Is nor |
necessary for one to assume an at |
Litude Of strutting about with chip |
on ones shoulder, challenging cold |
Traits, germs. accidents, neighbor hood |
opinion, and other unpleasant things, /
% do their worst.
The genuine Christian Scientist Is
lot queer or spectacular person. He |
loes not seek trouble, though when /
rouble arrives he usually finds he can
meet 1t with less fear than before,
nd with an altogether better demon
tration OF the attribute Of mans real
elf, The method the Christian
Scientist employs for annulling unjust !
with regard to health is
In orderly method, in which the be- |
ginning is not mistaken for the end |
ng, nothing is assumed or taken for |
granted, nor is step number two at I
tempted until step number one has I
been mastered. The factors that /
cause the human body to respond with /
A percentage of similar symptoms |
under similar circumstances, and /
which because of this tendency have |
bee mistakenly supposed to be the /
result OF some material Or physical |
law, but which Christian Science |
show to he primarily mental factors,
the fruit of perhaps centuries of wrong
thinking, may not because OF this be
dismissed as with a wave of the hand !
Nor does Christian Science attempt to
do anything of that sort There must
be O systematic and thorough un1oing
Of the false mental processes by which
these conditions have come about !
One may eYade the issue, as 1t were,
by bodily effects Of sick thoughts, and
thus for the day or the week or the
year obtain a kind Of immunity but
such a course can be Of but temporary
advantage at best.
1t is observed in this connection that I
all systems Of treatment for the sick |
take more or less account Of the fact /
that disease condition of the body |
as it appears 10 the phyical senses Is |
only the effect Of something else. but |
as a rule these systems are content tc !
discern a cause possibly one or two or
three stages removed but not a whit /
ess physical than the outward mani |
Of the disease Such so
,alled cause is itself only an effect. /
Correctly speaking, nothing in or of I
he material body could be the cause |
If disease, for matter cannot do any |
hing of and by itself Matter does
not have initiative or intelligence or
,reative power. II cannot make II. |