Article April 7, 1945 Issue

"God requireth that which is past"

NELL A. SHELTON

What is this past which God requires? Do we gaze backward with regret, with longing, or with, fear that a human past has power to limit, restrict, determine, or influence our present? The surest way to overcome such fear or regret is to see what constitutes the past which God requires.

Moffatt's translation of this familiar verse in the book of Ecclesiastes (3:15) reads, "Whatever is, it has already been; whatever is to be, already is; and God is ever bringing back what disappears." In her book, "Miscellaneous Writings," Mary Baker Eddy has written (p. 181), "When we understand man's true birthright, that he is 'born, not ... of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God,' we shall understand that man is the offspring of Spirit, and not of the flesh; recognize him through spiritual, and not material laws; and regard him as spiritual, and not material." And farther on in the same paragraph she says: "Mortals will lose their sense of mortality—disease, sickness, sin, and death—in the proportion that they gain the sense of man's spiritual preexistence as God's child: as the offspring of good, and not of God's opposite, —evil, or a fallen man."

It is of the utmost importance to "understand that man is the offspring of Spirit." The correct starting point then is to "gain the sense of man's spiritual preexistence as God's child." We learn from the study of the Bible and "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy that man is God's perfect child, made in His image and likeness. We learn also that God eternally maintains His image and likeness.

Enjoy 1 free Sentinel article or audio program each month, including content from 1898 to today.

Send a comment to the editors
NEXT IN THIS ISSUE
Poem
Promise
April 7, 1945
Contents

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit