TO a practitioner of Christian Science was brought a patient afflicted with a disease which, according to medical science, if curable at all, would require long years of treatment. This case was cured by purely spiritual means in two weeks. But large scars remained. "Man is without blemish," declared the practitioner; and the patient held to this statement faithfully. In a year, the scars had completely disappeared.
Metaphysically considered, scars are nothing but a belief in the reality of a past injury. The belief that the scar is real is the result of the belief that the injury was real. But "Spirit is the life, substance, and continuity of all things," as Mrs. Eddy states in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 124). When the belief that some part of the so-called material body has been destroyed is replaced by the clear conviction of the truth that man, as the reflection of indestructible Spirit, is indestructible, no scar can remain.
While nothing can prevent us from being grateful for Christian Science treatment, which has relieved the belief of an injury or disease, yet while scars remain we must remember that that which never existed can leave no trace of its supposed existence. If we hold to the belief that a disease was real and was cured by Christian Science, we are not holding to the absolute truth of the situation. This should be remembered when giving public testimony of a Christian Science healing. For the benefit of all hearers, when the event is being described the usual language should be used rather than the new tongue; but we should be careful not to accept in our own thought or impress listeners with the belief that the condition was real. We must remember that if the disease had ever been real Christian Science could not have destroyed it. The testimony, though not so worded, is intended to emphasize that important scientific fact.
Analogous to physical scars is the persistent memory of past wrongs done to ourselves or by ourselves. If mortal thought says we have been wronged, we should beware of holding the offending mortal to a belief of suffering. There is a false mental condition which, although it would never lead one to stoop to actual revenge, and would even permit one to go out of one's way to do good to the wrongdoer, nevertheless would hold that the offender had done something for which he must continue to suffer. In this condition of thought scientific forgiveness has not been reached. We should know that in his real being, as God's child, each one has always been governed by divine Principle, and therefore not only is but was incapable of wronging us. This divine sense of forgiveness is well worth working for, and must be worked for, especially in cases where the offending action has ceased. If our forgiveness of others is not complete, neither will the destruction of our own sense of error be complete.
The painful memory of a wrong done by ourselves is known as remorse, and this is sometimes keenly felt even where, as in the case of an accidental injury to another, no moral obliquity was involved. The word "remorse" is given in the Glossary of Science and Health (p. 588) as one of the synonyms of "hell." If sin were eternal, remorse would be eternal; but Christian Science shows that sin, wrongdoing, error, cannot be real, and therefore cannot be eternal. God is infinite good, and this excludes evil as a reality.
"Man is incapable of sin, sickness, and death" (ibid., p. 475). The method of healing remorse is essentially the same as the method of healing any other kind of scar. The wrong or injury was never real or actual, and so can leave no mental scar or painful memory. In reality, the past wrong action never occurred. Man not only is but was incapable of sin, sickness, and death. "Before Abraham was, I am," said Jesus of the Christ. In the light of absolute Truth we need not be diffident in declaring remorse or sorrow for wrongdoing to be unreal, for in denying the effect we are denying the seeming cause. The wrong or sin once destroyed in our consciousness, no painful after effect can remain. "God requireth that which is past."
