Article January 6, 1951 Issue

SIGNS OF THE NEW BIRTH

LESLIE BURN ANDREAE

Every Christian Science demonstration, wherein healing and regeneration are one, is a step in the new birth. Listen to our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, in her article "The New Birth" from "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 18): "The prominent laws which forward birth in the divine order of Science, are these: 'Thou shalt have no other gods before me;' 'Love thy neighbor as thyself.' These commands of infinite wisdom, translated into the new tongue, their spiritual meaning, signify: Thou shalt love Spirit only, not its opposite, in every God-quality, even in substance; thou shalt recognize thyself as God's spiritual child only, and the true man and true woman, the all-harmonious 'male and female,' as of spiritual origin, God's reflection,—thus as children of one common Parent,—wherein and whereby Father, Mother, and child are the divine Principle and divine idea, even the divine 'Us'—one in good, and good in One." This positive, arresting statement is foundational to spiritual progress. Humility, patience, persistence, are required to ensure obedience to its demands.

To forward the new birth, the spiritual sense of substance should be cultivated and loved. This can be done by understanding that ideas reflect the substance of Truth, Spirit, Mind, and therefore have form, outline, individuality, and identity, and that in a manner appreciable to human sense they replace sin, disease, and death, the objectification of negative material thinking. Through this healing and regenerative process we learn to love the substance of Spirit, thus participating in the new birth.

The quotation with which this article begins may be studied profitably in conjunction with the paragraph on page 463 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" where, under the marginal heading "Scientific obstetrics," Mrs. Eddy says: "To attend properly the birth of the new child, or divine idea, you should so detach mortal thought from its material conceptions, that the birth will be natural and safe. Though gathering new energy, this idea cannot injure its useful surroundings in the travail of spiritual birth." This paragraph continues with several dynamic statements dealing with "the birth of the new child, or divine idea," and concludes by saying: "When this new birth takes place, the Christian Science infant is born of the Spirit, born of God, and can cause the mother no more suffering. By this we know that Truth is here and has fulfilled its perfect work."

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