Article August 12, 1939 Issue

"The material so-called gases"

THOMAS C. ELLIOTT

The writer of this article found it necessary to follow a course of instruction on Air Raid Precaution with a view to qualifying as an Air Raid Warden. The first lecture attended was a condensed restatement of a previous series, and the instructor devoted the whole of the time available to the subject of gas attacks, classifying all the known types of gas according to their supposedly injurious effects.

No student of Christian Science will be surprised to hear that immediately on returning home the writer took up our textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, with a view to counteracting the vivid impressions of the lecture. The book was opened, apparently at random, to page 293, and the first word to meet the eye was "gases." Startled to see this word standing out boldly on the page, to the momentary exclusion of all else, the writer felt a wave of gratitude for its qualifying adjectives, "the material so-called gases and forces;" but immediately the thought came that the word "gases" had not, when Science and Health was written, assumed the sinister association attached to it in more recent years. Following at once upon that thought came wonderful enlightenment.

The instructor in the course of his lecture had divided the gases used in warfare into four categories, according to the type of damage they are reputed to inflict, and it was suddenly seen that Mrs. Eddy has classified "the spiritual forces of divine Mind" in four categories. The sentence runs thus: "The material so-called gases and forces are counterfeits of the spiritual forces of divine Mind, whose potency is Truth, whose attraction is Love, whose adhesion and cohesion are Life, perpetuating the eternal facts of being."

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