Do we, by suffering pain in body or in mind, honor God? No, for whatever calls our attention to the body, to matter and materiality, dishonors God by making us believe in gods many and minds many, in good and evil, in Spirit and matter, in health and sickness.
The belief that suffering is God's means for punishing us perpetually for specific sins committed in youth or in some later period of life is a remnant of outgrown scholastic theology. This theology sometimes seems to describe God as a resentful, cold-hearted Person, who would have His own Son slain to appease His wrath against sinful mankind, while still keeping mankind sinful and punishing them with suffering. There is no logic in this theory, and it contrasts sharply with the teaching of Christian Science, which preaches that God is Love, omniscient Mind, the Principle of being. Gaining this right understanding of God, we shall realize that sin and suffering are not inevitable.
In her work Miscellaneous Writings, Mrs. Eddy states: "Truth is won through Science or suffering: O vain mortals! which shall it be? And suffering has no reward, except when it is necessary to prevent sin or reform the sinner."Mis., p. 362;
