Article September 21, 1907 Issue

CHANGE

CASSIUS M. LOOMIS.

It was for years the writer's habit of belief that the universe is subject to constant change. Sense observation has led us into many such errors. Now, in Christian Science one must pause to ask, What is it that changes? Can God and His universe change? How restful the assurance that comes over him who knows whereof he speaks! We are sure that God and His universe is changeless, eternal, and that like man it will abide forever. It is our human concepts that change—Divine light and wisdom never change.

Mrs. Eddy says, "The elements and functions of the physical body and of the physical world will change as mortal mind changes its beliefs" (Science and Health, p. 124). Is there not a complete sermon in these simple words? The more we ponder the truism the deeper and broader it seems. I remember that when I was a mere lad living on a farm, there was a variety of potato that had become very popular among agriculturists for various reasons. It was prodigious grower, a rather fine, blue-striped vegetable, and it was lauded and sought for everywhere; but one year almost the entire crop rotted in the hills, and because of this the variety fell into quick disfavor. Repeated after attempts to raise them proved more or less futile. What was lauded before was now condemned, and the innocent potato became the subject of much discussion among expert farmers. Yet after that newer and even better varieties sprang up and took their places in the markets of the world. For some unknowable reason a change had come upon the vegetable kingdom; not that the potato family was to be wiped out, but only this one variety.

Did God change those farmers' beliefs? Did he put the germ of decay into the potato? In brief, can an infinite, perfect Father cognize that which does not manifest perfection? Certainly not; the difficulty must be traced to a finite rather than an infinite source. During those same years of my boyhood we had not a few bodily ailments. We had primitive names for them, and our remedies were homespun and primitive also. Today men have many new and scholarly names for human ills, and yet they are still groping in the dark and blindly guessing. Burbank, the now famous horticulturist, is quietly at work changing human beliefs. But, say the materialists, he is only showing us that the species can be improved. True, very true; but every seeming improvement is just one step nearer the divine flower we do not see. We are forced to the conclusion that mortal thought is tending upward. Its ideal is the spiritual haven of universal harmony.

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