Article April 20, 1940 Issue

Atomic Action

ESTHER SAVILLE DAVIS

In "Miscellaneous Writings" by Mary Baker Eddy (p. 190) we find a statement that should revolutionize and emancipate modern thinking. It falls like gentle dew from the heaven of hope upon the parched earth of doctrinal doubt, for it attributes all cause and effect to Mind. It raises the radical banner of freedom—freedom from bondage to material law—by transferring thought from matter to Spirit. It opens the highway to the loveliness of spiritual living. The statement reads: "Atomic action is Mind, not matter. It is neither the energy of matter, the result of organization, nor the outcome of life infused into matter: it is infinite Spirit, Truth, Life, defiant of error or matter."

Seventy-four years ago the belief that matter is real received its deathblow when Mrs. Eddy discovered the Science of Life and gave to the world "the scientific statement of being" (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 468). The truth in this statement of the allness of Mind and the nothingness of matter has healed thousands of cases of disease. It has also restored many people to usefulness by freeing them from so-called laws of physiology and heredity. It has brought to others emancipation from the latent fear of death by revealing man's true birthright of eternal life in God, good.

In the Bible we read that the sons of the prophets were gathered together, during a time of famine, at the home of Elisha, who ordered his servant to seethe pottage for them. Some gourds from a wild vine of unknown species were shredded into the pot, and while eating the pottage the sons of the prophets felt as if they had been poisoned and cried out to Elisha for help. Elisha's quick solution of the difficulty is recorded thus: "He said, Then bring meal. And he cast it into the pot; and he said, Pour out for the people, that they may eat. And there was no harm in the pot." The power of spiritual understanding which the prophet possessed enabled him to transform the incident, which was fraught with the possibility of disaster, into a helpful experience.

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