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Freedom from guilt

Argue for your spiritual innocence, and walk free.

From the January 2001 issue of The Christian Science Journal


A friend of mine invited me to a play in which he was taking the part of a judge in a trial. Toward the end of the play, the audience became the jury and had to decide on a verdict. Two different scripts had been prepared to be acted out depending upon the audience's decision. If the verdict was "guilty," the prisoner was sentenced to die. If "not guilty," he was freed.

This reminded me of another trial—not a play, but an allegory. At the end of chapter 12 in Science and Health, Mary Baker Eddy uses the setting of a trial to illustrate what's involved in healing the sick through Christian Science treatment.

There are two scenes in this allegory. One takes place in what is called the "lower Court of Error," and the other takes place in the "Supreme Court of Spirit." The "lower Court" finds a man guilty of sickness, and his penalty is death. The "Supreme Court of Spirit" finds him "not guilty," there is healing, and he is freed. What does this allegory mean by "not guilty," and how do we use this concept when we pray for healing?

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