CHRISTIAN SCIENCE disposes of the belief of evil through the understanding that God, good, is the only cause. In demonstrating the fact of God's allness, however, students of Christian Science do not ignore the claims of evil or deny that these claims appear to have an origin. Before Mrs. Eddy's discovery of Christian Science, physical causation was generally considered responsible for the majority of the ills of mankind, and further material investigations were pronounced necessary for their alleviation.
To-day, the world in general is changing to some extent from belief in physical to belief in mental causation; and investigations into the workings of the so-called human mind occupy thought to a much greater extent than formerly. Fear, superstition, anxiety, and worry are more generally being looked upon as cause, and sickness, sin, and death as effect. But of what benefit is it to suffering mortals to be told that their ailments have a mental rather than a physical cause, if no remedy for those mental conditions can be offered? What comfort would a victim of indigestion derive from the assurance that his suffering was the result of worry rather than of the food he ate, if he could not at the same time be assured that worry could be overcome,—in other words, that the so-called cause itself was without actual foundation?
Christian Science proves that these disturbing elements of the human mind are themselves merely suppositional effects instead of causes,—the result of beliefs without actual origin, —and that they can be eliminated by a correct understanding of the one perfect divine cause, God. Neither by ignoring the so-called mortally mental cause, nor by regarding it as natural or insurmountable, but by handling it in a Christianly scientific manner, is it proved powerless and without foundation.
To illustrate: a lurid description may have been given to a child by his school-fellows of a certain house supposed to be haunted by a grim monster which in the darkness would emerge and seize any undefended passer-by. The story makes a deep impression on the child, but is forgotten until he has to pass the house at night alone. Then it comes back to him, and in terror he glances at a window, where to his distorted imagination certain shadows apparently take the outline of the ghost. Fear seizes him, and trembling he reaches home—perhaps to fall, sick with fright, in his mother's arms. Obviously, fear is the cause of his sickness. His mother, through loving tenderness, draws from him his tale of terror, and by the truth removes the so-called cause. A ghost the cause of his fear! And yet the ghost had no real existence! How often has some mental picture of disease been imprinted on thought, to manifest itself in later years as a physical ailment! Only the light of spiritual understanding which Christian Science brings can obliterate the picture; for so long as disease is regarded as a reality, how can the fear of it be overcome?
Yes, some one may say, I can see that a mental picture can be obliterated; but what of the worry which causes my physical condition? It is not a mental picture; it is an actual condition,—circumstances, environment, lack, are all very real to my sense of existence. On page 86 of "Miscellaneous Writings" our Leader states, "The atmosphere of mortal mind constitutes our mortal environment." Is not environment, therefore, effect rather than cause? The atmosphere of mortal mind, full of the ghosts of its own conception, needs to be cleared by spiritual understanding. Reasoning from the one foundational fact that God, good, is the only cause, the only power and presence, we shall see that man can in reality manifest only the God-qualities, and that it is a false sense of these qualities which needs to be changed, in order that the spiritual facts may appear. A sense of the absence of divine Love must yield to the understanding of Love's omnipresence and the realization that He supplies every human need and will never leave His children unprotected or alone. These facts accepted, could there be any cause for worry? Would not worry be proved as causeless as the imaginary ghost?
How many of our fears can be traced to the false belief that God, divine Principle, is condemning us? Correct this false belief, realize the truth of Jesus' words, "God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved," and the effect on our lives will be most marked. It is false belief, not God, that is against us. We are on God's side, nestling under the shadow of His wings, claiming His protection from all false belief, in the form either of sin or of sickness. They, not we as God's children, are condemned; and we can demonstrate their unreality as we realize the truth of our Leader's statement in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 207): "There is but one primal cause. Therefore there can be no effect from any other cause, and there can be no reality in aught which does not proceed from this great and only cause."
