Article December 18, 1948 Issue

THE GREAT ATTAINMENT

THELMA STURTEVANT HEWITT

What is the great attainment, and can one hope to gain it through the study of Christian Science? The great and only attainment is the establishment of the kingdom of heaven in individual consciousness. The understanding of God's omnipotence, omnipresence, and allness, the consciousness of good as the only reality and of man as the forever reflection of good, is the way to peace and harmony, the kingdom of heaven. There is no greater attainment.

One who is struggling with a false sense of existence and endeavoring to free himself from the illusion of life and intelligence in matter may ask, "Is this attainment worth the effort one has to make to gain an understanding of God and man as revealed in Christian Science?" The answer is: "Yes, it is worth every effort one makes to put aside the cherished human belief that man is material. Actually all that one can give up is a false concept of God and man, and in doing this he awakens to the realities of being."

In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mary Baker Eddy says (p. 428): "To divest thought of false trusts and material evidences in order that the spiritual facts of being may appear,—this is the great attainment by means of which we shall sweep away the false and give place to the true. Thus we may establish in truth the temple, or body, 'whose builder and maker is God.'" False trust—dependence on human personality for security, reliance on matter for health—is a false god, which must be eliminated. The evidence of the physical senses, which testify of error at all times, appearing as well matter, diseased matter, pleasure in matter, lack of matter, or overabundance of matter, must go down before the spiritual facts of being.

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