Article December 9, 1916 Issue

Spiritualized Memory

MARY LORD

On page 407 of Science and Health we read: "If delusion says, 'I have lost my memory,' contradict it. No faculty of Mind is lost. In Science, all being is eternal, spiritual, perfect, harmonious in every action." Mind, thus capitalized, means ever the divine, and the writer is grateful for the light of a better realization of memory, as viewed in this larger sense. She had always prided herself on a remarkable memory, but in school days, before divine Science had revealed to her the one Ego, and "every good gift and every perfect gift" as coming down "from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning," the false sense of memory served the ends of evil even more than the purposes of good, and proving itself to be a "house divided against itself," was of necessity frequently "brought to desolation." As she was apt at memorizing, a day's lessons were carelessly skimmed over, and when examination periods drew near, that which seemed so readily attained was found to be not sufficiently absorbed, did not reflect a true understanding, and memory's proud boast suffered its fall. Many arduous hours of applied study were then requisite in order to escape complete failure.

"Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away," was the prophecy of Jesus the Christ, and this prophecy is approaching its fulfilment. As we grow in the knowledge of God, the false sense of the heavens and earth vanishes from those chambers of memory stored with useless knowledge; but the truth which His word imparts, the dawning light on some passage from Science and Health, or the wonderful correlatives found in Mrs. Eddy's other writings, are never lost.

When the periods of self-examination arrive, with the honest endeavor to "press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God," the messages of Truth stand out in letters of fire, illuming our path to meet our need, and failure is unknown, for the Word is indeed proven "quick, and powerful." On page 276 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy says, "Real consciousness is cognizant only of the things of God;" hence memory, being a faculty of Mind, can hold fast only that which is good. It cannot therefore hold to fears and superstitions, it cannot entertain resentment or hate; neither can it dwell on a dead past with all it seemed to hold of sin, sickness, and sorrow, but "forgetting those things which are behind," the student of Christian Science is willing to "let the dead bury their dead." This enables him to see true manhood and true womanhood in all their perfection. It also shows him how to aid some struggling one to forget the dream of pain or woe from which he is awakening, and to remember man's creator, who made all and beheld it as "very good."

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