Article March 20, 1937 Issue

Spiritualizing Human Thought

JOHN L. RENDALL

To awaken human thought to spiritual truth may be said to have been the essential purpose of Christ Jesus. During his brief earthly career it was his constant effort to turn the thought of humanity away from materiality to the contemplation of spiritual realities. Hence he said, "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." In like manner it is the purpose of Christian Science to lift humanity above its material concepts of life and existence into a realization of the facts of spiritual existence as Jesus taught them.

The warfare against "the world, the flesh, and the devil" is not new in Christian experience, but it has received a new impetus and enlarged scope through the teachings of Christian Science, as set forth in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy and her other writings. The clear and positive teaching of Christian Science is that the spiritual is real, and therefore the material is unreal. Humanity in general accepts the fleshly sense and what it includes as the real, notwithstanding Jesus' positive teachings to the contrary. Hence the need that human thought be spiritualized.

In this connection Science and Health states (p. 95), "We approach God, or Life, in proportion to our spirituality, our fidelity to Truth and Love; and in that ratio we know all human need and are able to discern the thought of the sick and sinning for the purpose of healing them." We also read (ibid., p. 354), "The words of divine Science find their immortality in deeds, for their Principle heals the sick and spiritualizes humanity." The healing wrought in Christian Science spiritualizes humanity, in that it turns thought wholly to God, or Spirit, as the one healing Principle.

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"Mind the light"
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