Article August 28, 1920 Issue

Especially familiar to Christian Scientists is the vision...

The Christian Science Monitor

Especially familiar to Christian Scientists is the vision described in the Apocalypse of "a new heaven and a new earth," wherein "there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away." And the prophet Isaiah, also speaking of the new heaven and new earth, tells us that "the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind." The significance of this promise is understood when the truth of Christian Science, as taught by Mrs. Eddy in the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," and in her other writings, is proved through practical application to the problems of everyday life, and it is seen, in the light of Christian Science, how, in the degree that it is demonstrated, the former things, the finite, sensuous, lying, material, sick concepts, all false and untrue, which formed the sand foundation of the old tempest-tossed world of materiality, absolutely disappear from consciousness. They are indeed "passed away," and shall not even be remembered nor come into mind, because that which is "passed away," which is proved false and without existence, self-evidently cannot be remembered. If it is not true now it never was true, and there is then nothing to be remembered. That which is now, the All-in-all, is without beginning, just as it is without end; it is the ever present and eternal I am, of which Jesus bore witness when he said, "Before Abraham was, I am," and again when he prayed, "And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was." It was as though he had said: Let that be seen as being expressed which has existed from all eternity, because of man's unity, his indestructible, inalienable, eternal relationship with his divine Principle, God.

Mrs. Eddy in Science and Health emphasizes again and again that "the infinite has no beginning. This word beginning," she says (p. 502), "is employed to signify the only,—that is, the eternal verity and unity of God and man, including the universe." So as each advance step is taken in the demonstration of Christian Science, as each material belief, each belief in material pleasure or pain is let go, the individual is simply awakening to the realization of the all-inclusiveness of infinite Mind; he is learning that Mind includes within itself all good, and that Mind's idea, man, is eternally sustained and maintained in Mind, and reflects every quality of Mind. He no longer remembers the "former things," for they are no part of his consciousness. He has simply found the beauty and bounty, the completeness, the wholeness, which infinite Mind forever includes. "Unfathomable Mind is expressed," Mrs. Eddy tells us on page 520 of Science and Health—is, not will be. So it is only for each one to recognize this infinite expression of infinite Mind, by means of the spiritual perception which is quickened through Christian Science.

In the same way, when a patient is healed through Christian Science, all that has happened is that some part of that which before beclouded his concept of being as the immaculate idea of the eternal divine Principle, God, is passed away; in other words, it is seen as never having existed except to the beclouded vision of the human mind, and just to the extent that the false concept is wiped away, exactly to that extent can the true concept be seen as being expressed. It is not that the patient has actually been sick and is healed, for if it were ever true that there was a sick man it would still be true, and healing would be impossible. Just as Jesus raised Lazarus through the understanding that Lazarus had never died, so Christian Science heals the so-called sick through the understanding that man, God's image and likeness, never has been and never could be less than perfect. The patient is healed in Christian Science when the false belief is destroyed through the understanding of man's true being as the perfect expression of the perfect Mind which created him. In other words, that which is interpreted as healing is simply the perception of that which has existed from all eternity, man the image and likeness of his Father-Mother God.

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