Article December 6, 1913 Issue

"Take no thought"

GEORGE H. KINTER

The question, What shall we do with the body, or how shall we properly care for it? has brought trouble to the ages, and today it precipitates one of the hard problems in theology as well as in science and medicine. We are not, however, left without wise guidance in this respect, if we have recourse to Holy Writ. Our Master said, "Take no thought . . . for the body." Here is a distinct utterance by way of divine direction as to what we should do about the body. Most theologians, and Christian believers in general, do not understand that Jesus is to be taken simply at his word; but this fact remains true.

On page 478 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy writes, "That body is most harmonious in which the discharge of the natural functions is least noticeable." The first great mistake of mankind was made in the assumption that the ills which "flesh is heir to" are resident in the flesh, or the body. Christian Science makes it plain that the ills of the flesh, so called, are resident first of all in mortal mind, and that the divine Mind alone heals. This truism at once makes it clear that the whole problem is a metaphysical and not a physical one. When Mrs. Eddy tells us on page 201 of Science and Health that "the way to extract error from mortal mind is to pour in truth through flood-tides of Love," we immediately go back to the paragraph preceding this one, and read: "We cannot fill vessels already full. They must first be emptied." Inferentially, we thus learn that it is quite as impossible to empty human consciousness at once, as it would be to fill it with something else while it is already quite full.

It will require much meditation upon the Master's counsel, "Take no thought," to assure us that it is applicable to the present-day needs of humanity, and it is well for us to note all that he actually said, to wit: "Take no thought for your life, . . . nor yet for your body, . . . saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (for after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; ; and all these things shall be added unto you." Viewing this statement from the Christian Science standpoint, we observe that when Mrs. Eddy tells us we "cannot fill vessels already full," we are impelled first of all to empty consciousness of that which has occasioned so much distress and discord, sickness, disease, and death. But the way to do it, as she says, the way to get error out of mortal mind, is not by trying to extract that which offends, but by pouring in truth, and that "through flood-tides of Love."

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