Article July 13, 1940 Issue

Beauty

BENJAMIN N. RIPPE

SPIRITUAL contemplation of the nature of beauty, in the light shed upon it by the study of the Bible and the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, results in the understanding that beauty is an attribute of God, wholly spiritual, and, like every other quality of divine Mind, can be neither in nor of matter. It becomes apparent through such study that a proper understanding of beauty cannot be gained merely through contemplation of material objects, and should not thus be sought. Only through spiritual understanding can we find what we seek. Learning to seek beauty in Spirit is essential as a scientific point of departure, particularly in view of the wholly material light in which it is regarded by mortal mind.

The Bible and Mrs. Eddy's writings not only provide us with a scientific basis for an inquiry into the nature of beauty, but reveal to us as well what real beauty is, aside from any misleading material considerations. While the human mind cannot distinguish between the false and the true, we have, in Christian Science, the absolute standard, the perfect criterion, against which to test and measure all things and qualities. Spiritual understanding alone is the touchstone by which we may, beyond any possibility of mistake, distinguish between the ideas of God and the of mortal mind.

Mrs. Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 505), "Understanding is the line of demarcation between the real and unreal." If we would demonstrate our understanding of any spiritual quality, such as beauty, it is necessary to cultivate and consciously express the spiritual sense which man, as the idea of Mind, eternally reflects. The Psalmist must have understood this necessity when he said, "One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple."

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