Editorial November 26, 1927 Issue

Man's Eternal Noon

Albert F. Gilmore

With mankind in general, youth has been looked upon as an exalted state, the perpetuation of which would insure everlasting happiness. The Greeks exalted youth in their surpassing sculpture, and most of the ideals of physical perfection set forth in the centuries since have sprung from the masterpieces of Phidias and Praxiteles. David's concept of physical excellence found expression as the strength and endurance of youth, so that he wrote, "Bless the Lord, O my soul,.... who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's." Renewal of the conditions of youth was, in the sight of the great singer, the greatest blessing to be received in human experience.

But to be eternally youthful would not fulfill divine purpose. Neither the Greek exaltation of youth nor David's song, so far as it was based upon a material concept of life, reveals the true state of man. It remained for Mrs. Eddy in her transcendent revelation to set forth the facts as to man's eternal exaltation, of his existence at the standpoint of perfection, which cognizes neither youth nor old age.

In setting forth the wondrous glories which inhere in man's true selfhood, our Leader writes in surpassingly appealing words on page 246 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures": "The radiant sun of virtue and truth coexists with being. ManhoodA correction was made in the December 10, 1927 Sentinel: "The first word of the passage quoted from Science and Health in the third paragraph of the first editorial in the Sentinel of November 26, should be 'Manhood' instead of 'Mankind,' which appears through a typographical error." This correction has been made on JSH-Online. is its eternal noon, undimmed by a declining sun." The eternal noon of true being, that is, its fullness and splendor, is man's perpetual state; and while the strength, the joy, the radiant expectancy usually associated with youth belong to all God's ideas, yet since they are eternal attributes, they never pass into age and blight. Rather do they abide forever as qualities of the perfect man, the man of God's creating.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Editorial

God's Sufficient Grace and Care