MRS. EDDY'S clear and unmistakable denial of the reality of sin is a favorite rallying-point for the opponents of her teachings. Many have wilfully persisted in twisting her meaning, while many others have honestly failed to grasp it. Even from Christian pulpits it has been said that inasmuch as Christian Science denies the reality of sin, its adherents can sin with impunity, and yet claim they are not sinning because there is no sin! This is equivalent to saying that the nothingness of a thing constitutes its attraction, when, as everybody knows, that which is recognized as nothing possesses nothing with which to attract.
The belief of pleasure or satisfaction in sin constitutes its only reality or power, but Paul's statement, "Unto the pure all things are pure," has frequently been quoted to justify wrong-doing. Just as if it were possible for the pure in heart to desire to do wrong! Viewed in the light of Christian Science, Paul's statement evidently means that to the "pure" (those who discern the one and only creation, and that one spiritual) there can be no recognition of the false claim of impurity. To such an exalted thought nothing can really exist outside the realm of good, and when evil is recognized as nothing, no thing, it is seen to be no part of God's creation, and undeserving of recognition except as a lie.
To participate in or even to condone or excuse sin, is an evidence of some degree of impure thinking, and he who does such things forfeits all right to the claim of purity. God is "of purer eyes than to behold evil," Habakkuk declares, and to be godlike we must follow the divine example. We must learn to lose all sense of pleasure or satisfaction in sin, for until this state of consciousness is attained, sin will be to us a reality. Nevertheless, to reach this spiritual state is not the work of a moment, for, as Isaiah says, "precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little." But whether long or short, the time required in this purifying process should not be taken into account, for "one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." It must be plain, however, that the sooner a start is made the sooner will the destination be reached. Longing for and lingering around the flesh-pots of Egypt while promising ourselves to begin the journey on the morrow, or else blindly flattering ourselves that we have overcome the things in which we still participate, is only to invite difficulties.
