Article March 17, 1951 Issue

"EARTHLY LOSS IS GAIN"

HENRY F. MUNDT

Mary Baker Eddy writes in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 452), "When outgrowing the old, you should not fear to put on the new." One beginning the study of Christian Science may feel a reluctance to part with some phase of sensual indulgence, but this is usually traceable to a misunderstanding of what constitutes true selfhood and genuine satisfaction.

The student may feel that in parting with a so-called pleasure or false appetite he will be losing something real; and this belief deters his spiritual progress. The sublime mission of Christian Science, or the promised Comforter, is not to deprive anyone of any real good, but to bring to deceived and fearful humanity a wonderful revelation of what constitutes true manhood and womanhood—the real you and me that God creates in His likeness— spiritual, not material; pure, not impure; forever satisfied, never dissatisfied or needing anything other than what his Maker has already provided for his completeness.

Because of its incompleteness and finiteness mortal mind craves something to satisfy its discontent. Smoking, drinking, and other sensual indulgences seem to assuage this false craving, but at best the relief is only temporary. Of necessity it must always be so until mortal belief is corrected by Christian Science, the truth of being. The truth is that the whole fabric of mortal existence is a mesmeric dream, including its suffering, deformity, sin, lack, and hatred. Just as we do not lose anything tangible when awaking from a dream, we never feel any sense of loss when awaking from the false sense of mortal existence to the true and spiritual sense of Life as God, infinite good. Mrs. Eddy writes (ibid., p. 296): "The so-called pleasures and pains of matter perish, and they must go out under the blaze of Truth, spiritual sense, and the actuality of being. Mortal belief must lose all satisfaction in error and sin in order to part with them."

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