Editorial February 23, 1952 Issue

"FROM SENSE TO SOUL"

Helen Wood Bauman

Eleven times the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, employs the words of this title in her writings. This hints the need that they be carefully studied by her followers. Ringing with the hope and trust this Science instills in human hearts, these words point to a sure haven from mortal troubles. They refer to the journey the so-called human mind must take as it departs from the false belief of life in matter and seeks the freedom of life in Soul, God. The journey is a mental one and involves removing the basis of being from corporeal sense to Soul, where man is found eternally perfect and spiritual, sinless and deathless—harmonious as Soul's perfect, immortal expression.

In her Message to The Mother Church for 1902 Mrs. Eddy names certain steps required of mankind before they reach the Christian goal of perfection. She says (p. 10): "When the human mind is advancing above itself towards the Divine, it is subjugating the body, subduing matter, taking steps outward and upwards. This upward tendency of humanity will finally gain the scope of Jacob's vision, and rise from sense to Soul, from earth to heaven."

Christian Science shows that the physical senses are not in the body, but that the flesh is produced, conditioned, and sustained by the physical senses. It also discloses the fact that these senses are illusions, that their evidence is only belief, and that they have no relation to man, whose senses are Soul-derived. It is such knowledge that makes possible the subjugation of the body so that it becomes the servant rather than the master of thought. Subduing the senses—refusing to believe them real—we subdue their mental impressions, their subjective mind-pictures, which appear to be solid matter; our steps turn "outward and upwards," away from the unreal personal self to the spiritual self, through which Soul's pure elements are manifested. The demands of the senses for material satisfaction subside, and spiritual values are appreciated.

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