Editorial April 20, 1940 Issue

Preservation

Evelyn F. Heywood

When men come to understand their relationship with God they know that all that is true, and therefore of value, is eternally preserved. This preservation is not at the mercy of circumstance or the caprice of chance. It is based on Principle and governed by law. In the human experience much may have to be relinquished; much that has been most jealously preserved may be found to be built upon sand, outside the protection of law. Christ Jesus did not tell his followers that the house built upon the rock would escape all testing of its strength and durability. The rain would descend, the floods would come, and the winds would blow and beat upon it. The significant fact was that it would not fall. And why? Because of its foundation. This was the guarantee of its preservation, the proof of its permanence.

In her definition of "Abraham," Mary Baker Eddy has written on page 579 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." "This patriarch illustrated the purpose of Love to create trust in good, and showed the life-preserving power of spiritual understanding." A study of Abraham's career shows that again and again the suggestions of danger and disaster threatened him, but in every instance he was preserved. And this because he trusted; because in the midst of conflicts and temptations where his deepest human loyalties and affections were concerned Abraham put God first, thus preserving his obedience and his faith.

In every instance Christ Jesus proved to the world the life-preserving power of spiritual understanding. In the wilderness, when he refused to give even passing consideration to the specious and glittering promise of the tempter; amidst the angry crowd that would have cast him over the cliff; in a great storm on the lake; surrounded by the bitter enmity of the people he had hoped to deliver; assailed by the arguments of sin, sickness, limitation, and death, the integrity of his purpose, of his courage, his love and steadfastness, was preserved intact.

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