Article December 20, 1952 Issue

LOOK AT THE PERFECT MODEL

PAUL J. LICHTENFELS

Who does not desire to demonstrate wholeness, harmony, and perfection in his experience? Individual salvation depends upon the expression of these qualities in our lives, and our demonstration of them depends in turn upon the model we are holding in thought. Wholeness, harmony, perfection, are the very nature of God, and He is the one to whom we look as our model. The Bible says (Isa. 45:22), "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else."

Christian Science teaches that spiritual man reflects only Godlike qualities and that a material body is not this man. It shows us how to turn from the physical body to the spiritual reality and to identify ourselves with this reality. Mary Baker Eddy, our revered Leader, writes in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 261): "Look away from the body into Truth and Love, the Principle of all happiness, harmony, and immortality. Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true, and you will bring these into your experience proportionably to their occupancy of your thoughts."

Looking to the body is always erroneous. One mistake is to believe that disease is in the body. The disease that appears to be there is only a dream of so-called mortal mind. It is like the motion picture screen, and the images of disease upon it are the projections of mortal mind. Once the writer saw a person who manifested a distressing skin irritation, and he thought, Poor fellow, I know what you are suffering, because I once had a similar difficulty. Within an hour he found that the picture which he had imaged in thought was manifested on his body as a return of the difficulty. Considering the situation, he awakened to the erroneous nature of his thinking. He turned thought from mortal mind concepts to the perfection of God. He identified himself as an idea of God, reflecting wholeness and harmony. The difficulty disappeared as quickly as it came.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

GOD'S PRESERVING PRESENCE