Article October 21, 1950 Issue

IMMUTABILITY

MARY BARNES

The spiritual universe and man of God's creating are the forever expression of invariable divine Principle. The so-called material universe, however, is in a state of constant flux. Nothing in it can be regarded as fixed or stable. It is full of variations, of ups and downs, comings and goings. It includes nothing upon which utter reliance can be placed. Even mortals that people this universe are often undependable, inconstant, and the laws which govern them are subject to amendment and annulment. These mutations belong solely to the material, or counterfeit, sense of existence, as is confirmed by these words from "Unity of Good" by Mary Baker Eddy (p. 61): "Coming and going belong to mortal consciousness. God is 'the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever.'"

When faced with evidences of fluctuation and mutability, we should therefore refuse to accept them as inevitable necessities or as any part of true being and should replace them with the spiritual, scientific facts of Life and man. Man is not a frail creature, healthy one moment, but sick the next; sometimes weak, sometimes strong; happy one day, but heavy-laden another; prosperous one year, but impoverished the next; loving on some occasions, but irritable on others. God, good, is invariable, and man is the eternal expression of invariable good; therefore he is always healthy, strong, happy, prosperous, and loving. He can be only prosperous, and loving. He can be only what God, his creative Mind, empowers him to be, since he does not exist as a separate entity, but as the reflection of the Divine Being.

Man is at all times Godlike because he is incapable of being anything else. The reflection cannot be different from its original. For instance, man cannot be sick when God, whom he reflects, is whole. To yield to the temptation of disease or any other form of discord or suffering is to believe that we have temporarily ceased to be Life's harmonious expression. This, however, is an utter impossibility. The conceiving Mind remaining perfect, Mind's spiritual conception, man, remains perfect.

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