Article November 21, 1953 Issue

WHAT AM I ACCEPTING?

PAUL J. LICHTENFELS

As a small boy the writer was taught to turn when confronted by discord to the truth of God and man as found in "the scientific statement of being" on page 468 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy. In it is the assurance that life, substance, and intelligence are not material but spiritual. He always completely accepted the promise that this turning to God would solve his difficulties, and invariably he experienced a return of harmony.

Basic to the overcoming of error of any nature are the repudiation of the mistaken belief that life, substance, and intelligence are material and the realization that these elements of being are wholly spiritual manifestations of divine Mind, God. This understanding is the kingdom of heaven. Christ Jesus said that to enter this realm of spirituality one must become as a little child, and he demonstrated true childlikeness in his healing work by attributing all power to God and by recognizing Him as Father, the source of all being. Mrs. Eddy says (ibid., p. 52): "The 'man of sorrows' best understood the nothingness of material life and intelligence and the mighty actuality of all-inclusive God, good. These were the two cardinal points of Mind-healing, or Christian Science, which armed him with Love."

Right thinking, or acceptance of the spiritual as actual, is the way to the kingdom of spiritual realization. False belief says that insurmountable road blocks of material thinking are before us, obstacles externalized as sin, sickness, lack, greed, graft, ignorance, war, and death. These are the essence of the illusion that life, substance, and intelligence are material. To accept this mistaken road information or compromise with it means a long detour in the wilderness of error.

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