"Practical repentance"

Albert F. Gilmore

Mrs. Eddy on page 19 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," in speaking of efficacious repentance, points out that one who continues to sin, even though he repents, has little sense of unity with God, "for," she declares, "he lacks the practical repentance, which reforms the heart and enables man to do the will of wisdom." Our Leader makes clear the quality of repentance which is practical, that which reforms one's thoughts and in consequence one's acts, thereby working the regeneration which accompanies spiritualization of consciousness.

The repentance so described does not necessitate violent or tumultuous action, or the destruction of our present state of consciousness, the mental house in which we live. Rather does it require us to transform our thinking, to rebuild it by putting in a new timber here, and another there,—that is, a right idea in the place of a wrong one,—and so continue until we shall finally come into the "stature of the fulness of Christ." Meantime, there has been no violence to our mental states, our highest concepts, but rather has consciousness undergone transformation through right ideas taking the place of erroneous beliefs. Truth supplants error in just this way, and our mental home is rebuilt until it becomes the "house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens," in which there remains no trace or semblance of the material beliefs which at one time may have seemed to furnish us with perfectly adequate shelter.

The word "repentance" carries the thought of mental rebuilding, and with such interpretation our Leader presented it. The writer of the book of Acts speaks of repentance as the "gift of God." As Christian Scientists, we know that the good thoughts, pure and holy, which supplant erroneous material beliefs are directly from God, the source of all good; hence they are His holy gift. Christ Jesus urged upon his hearers the necessity for repentance. "Repent ye, and believe the gospel," he urged, thus associating belief in the gospels with the change of heart which constitutes repentance. Mortals are prone to repent when suffering the effects of sin, but often when suffering ceases it is found that repentance has not become regeneration: the deep contrition which springs from the love of good has not wrought the reformation of thought which constitutes practical repentance.

The deep-seated longing to be better and holier which springs from a truly penitent and contrite heart joyously exchanges the seeming pleasures of the flesh for the blessings of Spirit. When once we glimpse the possibility of substituting the freedom and substantialities of spiritual being for the limitation and uncertainty of material existence, the urge is strong for that devotion to present demonstration which enables us to realize man's true condition as the offspring of divine good.

All men long for reality. They are eager to gain that which is reliable and permanent. Yet to few, it seems, is the truth revealed, because but few are ready to receive it. Christ Jesus, knowing this, declares, "Many are called, but few are chosen." But the call for repentance is universal. It is for all mankind; yet only those gain the true understanding of its meaning who are ready in some degree to relinquish their false material beliefs for the solid ground of Spirit. Not all the materially-minded wish to be disillusioned. While fully aware, perhaps, of the uncertain status of material existence, with all its changes, some are not prepared to acknowledge it as nonexistent, as unreal, and to disclaim every false belief in human selfhood.

Sorrow for the past, regret for misconceptions held to, are mental conditions which precede repentance. Without sorrow and regret, there can be no genuine change of thought, for these mental qualities are the forerunners of that state which repents of past wrongdoing. "Through repentance, spiritual baptism, and regeneration," writes Mrs. Eddy in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 242), "mortals put off their material beliefs and false individuality." Our Leader makes very clear that repentance is a necessary step toward gaining the spiritual sense of Life, the understanding which ushers in the kingdom of heaven.

False individuality is relinquished only as knowledge of the real man is gained. The way is plain, and all must travel in it. None can escape it, and none can win salvation without it. John the Baptist was assured of the necessity for that change of heart which, above all, demands the putting off of the false for the true. "Repent ye," he urged: "for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." He foresaw the necessity of changing the basis from matter to Spirit as the source of life, in order to gain that spiritual understanding which constitutes the kingdom of heaven. His words still reach us through the mist of years, losing nothing of their cogency, for repentance is as necessary a step toward gaining the kingdom to-day as it was then. It is a preliminary step which all must take.

Albert F. Gilmore

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November 13, 1926

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