Article October 16, 1909 Issue

Mrs. Eddy's declaration that life is not contingent upon...

Alfred Farlow

Shreveport (La.) Journal

Mrs. Eddy's declaration that life is not contingent upon the heart, blood, etc., means simply that life is above and beyond material organism, that God is the life of the universe, as is set forth in the Master's declaration, "It is the spirit that quickeneth," — it is Spirit that gives life and existence. If our Master's teaching is carefully observed, we learn to anchor our hope beyond the evidence of the sense and to rely primarily upon God in compliance with Paul's teaching: "Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth." On one occasion Jesus said, "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent," meaning that a true and correct understanding of God and His Christ, His "express image," gives an understanding of the Science of being whereby existence can be made more permanent and substantial.

While our critic finds opportunity for ridicule in the theories and experiments of scientific men, thousands upon thousands of cultured and thinking persons are waking to the fact that there is something more worthy of the supreme attention of man than materiality. Why should it be thought a matter of ridicule that an implicit reliance upon God, who created man in the first instance, should give occasion for the instantaneous reproduction of a lost member? To ridicule such a proposition is to ridicule the sacredness of divine cause and effect, to ridicule the teaching and practice of our Lord.

The most important matter is that we shall understand and live according to the kingdom of God; that we shall attain unto righteousness and thereby rise above the unnecessary anxieties of mortal existence; and since man in the full stature of manhood in Christ is wholly spiritual and not even partly material, it is evident that nothing short of spiritual perfection will do away with all anxiety. We may, by diverting our thoughts to God, in our present condition, escape a part of the anxiety which usually attends the life of the individual. To escape all anxiety means to rise to a point where the body does not have to be considered at all from a material point of view, but where perfect harmony of the body is vouchsafed in the divine presence; and such a climax is the ultimatum of Christianity.

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In an article entitled "Truth and Error," which appeared...
October 16, 1909
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