Article April 12, 1947 Issue

Bearing True Witness

BERTHA MARY BERRIDGE

The earnest desire and effort to abandon a material sense of oneself and of one's fellow man and to bear witness only to man's true selfhood seems dogged at every step by a mesmeric opposite view of God good, and His creation. This lying supposition our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, names animal magnetism. She did not invent this name, but says that it is the specific term for mortal mind (see "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." p. 103). Mrs, Eddy teaches that man, God's manifestation is cognizant only of that which is truly good.

In Genesis (2:6) animal magnetism is described as a mist arising from the earth after creation had been revealed as perfect and complete. Today, as of yore, this mist, or the mental suggestions which have been foisted onto humanity by false physical and theological education, arises from earthly or mistaken views of God and man calling God a person and man a mortal personality. These views would "if it were possible... deceive the very elect." those who should know better.

Unenlightened opinion calls these erroneous beliefs truth, and much alertness is needed to keep ourselves free from their insidious blandishments. Spiritual understanding, however, shows that they are without foundation. In all of her writings our Leader makes it clear that the claim of animal magnetism to be either a person or a thing must be recognized as having no power, although claiming the prerogatives of the infinite One.

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The Nowness of Good
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