Article April 7, 1951 Issue

"ABSENT FROM THE BODY"

ELISABETH B. BRUNN

Millions have read St. Paul's statement in his letter to the church at Corinth (II Cor. 5:8), "We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord," without understanding its full import or the way to apply it to everyday life. They have wearily wondered. "How can I be absent from the body, when pain, distress, and discomfort continually force my attention to bodily conditions?"

Christian Science has brought to humanity the understanding with which to perceive the spiritual sense of Paul's encouraging words and the way they may be applied by any individual to his daily experiences. In the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy answers the above query (pp. 216, 217): "When you say, 'Man's body is material,' I say with Paul: Be 'willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.' Give up your material belief of mind in matter, and have but one Mind, even God; for this Mind forms its own likeness."

To the beginner in the study and application of Christian Science, it may seem difficult to give up his belief in matter, and he may ask, "How may I have this one Mind and see myself as God's own likeness?" The answer came to one student of Christian Science when she realized that this Science is based on the truth contained in the Bible as revealed in Genesis 1:31, "And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." At a time when the student was faced with physical suffering, the practitioner who had been called to help her asked, "What are you thinking?"

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