Article September 6, 1952 Issue

APPRECIATION

ELOISE PATTILLO HENDRICK

A Wise writer once observed, "We see things not as they are, but as we are." Paul declared (Titus 1:15), "Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure."

One of the obvious limitations of so-called mortal mind is its inability to appreciate spiritual truth, the facts of God and His spiritual creation. It is only in proportion as human consciousness is spiritualized and freed from material fears and prejudices that one discerns and demonstrates spiritual facts. It sometimes seems easier for a child unencumbered by adult attitudes to grasp the teachings of Christian Science than for the erudite scholar to do so. This is why the Master's saying (Luke 18:17), "Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein," is as compelling now as it was centuries ago. Willingness to part with material beliefs and the pride of false learning and eagerness to seek fundamental truth prepare the way for entering the kingdom.

Mary Baker Eddy writes (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 300), "Finite sense has no true appreciation of infinite Principle, God, or of His infinite image or reflection, man." It is clear then that one understands and demonstrates the facts of God and man through spiritual sense. One can only do this through changing the base of his thinking. He must cease regarding man as evolved materially from mortal parents and grasp the fact that man and the universe are evolved spiritually as ideas in divine Mind. He must insist, furthermore, that because of his status as God's child, man inherits only from this divine source and is conditioned by spiritual law, not material. Man's capacities, his health, his usefulness, and his progress are infinitely good and blessed and are never at the disposal of material beliefs of chance, injustice, and discord.

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