Article March 1, 1941 Issue

Correct Standards

EDITH A. FRIES

"What can be the standard of good, of Spirit, of Life, or of Truth, if they produce their opposites, such as evil, matter, error, and death?" So writes Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, on page 539 of her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures."

What would happen in the commercial world if there were no mathematical rules—if, for example, two fours could be eight, and also something besides eight? No one dreams of questioning the everyday facts of mathematics or imagines that they can become something else. How naturally the truth about two fours is accepted by everyone! It gives rise to no controversies, no misunderstandings, no discord. We are never fearful as to its availability. We do not believe that accidents, floods, fires, earthquakes, disasters of any sort, can have any effect on mathematical facts. We never fear that they will change or become useless. On the contrary, we have a feeling of certainty that their perfection is assured. And it is a matter for everlasting gratitude Mrs. Eddy has given us in her writings exact, scientific knowledge concerning God and man, with rules for its application to the problems of daily life, so that literally thousands of students are now utilizing this knowledge to destroy all manner of evil—sin, sickness, selfishness, slothfulness, false pride, intolerance, and so on, as well as domestic, school, and business troubles.

In mathematics, two fours have no power to stop being eight, no power to alter an accepted mathematical fact. And the real man has no power to stop reflecting God, good, health, justice, honesty, and so on. Imperfect mortals cannot cause God's reflection to be something unlike God. Mrs. Eddy writes (ibid., p. 475): "Man is incapable of sin, sickness, and death. The real man cannot depart from holiness, nor can God, by whom man is evolved, engender the capacity or freedom to sin." The writer recalls hearing at a Wednesday evening meeting a testimony to the effect that a physical disorder was suddenly healed when the sufferer realized the truth of the statement just quoted. In the light of Jesus' teachings, it should not seem strange that there is an ever-available truth about man which, when understood, will reveal and demonstrate man's immutable harmony.

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