Editorial September 9, 1950 Issue

TRUE VALUES

Helen Wood Bauman

CHRIST JESUS taught the value of simple goodness, of childlike innocence, peaceableness, integrity, and righteous desire. He exhorted his listeners to work diligently to increase their spiritual treasures, and thus enter heaven. When approached by one who was at variance with a brother regarding their inheritance, he said (Luke 12:15), "A man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth." On another occasion he asked (Mark 8:36), "What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"

The Master knew that one's soul, one's spiritual sense, is his most precious treasure, for only through it can eternal spiritual values be comprehended. He knew, too, that the physical senses, which war against spirituality and seek to drive mortals into the morass of materialism through lust for matter and material sensation, must be understood as deceptive and unreal. He warned the multitudes against wolves in sheep's clothing, which prophesy good that is never fulfilled, a description that perfectly fits the delusive material senses.

Through Christian Science we learn that matter is not separate from material sense, but a substratum of it, a mental concept which is evolved and controlled by the mind perceiving it. But Science goes further in its explanation of matter, declaring that the carnal mind is mesmerism, or hypnotism, and that matter is mesmeric illusion, which disappears in the measure that Spirit is understood as the only Mind. Who would evaluate illusion as substance or expend his efforts in building up masses of it in support of life and for human satisfaction? It takes childlike teachableness and a pure heart to evaluate matter as illusion and to act in accord with that evaluation. Furthermore, it takes great honesty to do so, for the belief that matter is true substance and of itself worthy of pursuit is deep-seated in so-called human consciousness.

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