Article May 22, 1954 Issue

"SPACE FOR REPENTANCE"

VIVIEN U. LYNCH

The definition of "year" which Mary Baker Eddy gives in the Glossary of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" is found on pages 598 and 599. It reads in part, "A solar measurement of time; mortality; space for repentance." A dictionary tells us that repentance is contrition, which means sorrow for and turning away from wrongdoing. Wrong thinking precedes wrongdoing. To the Christian Scientist, repentance means sorrow for and turning away from material thinking and love of matter, as well as from material modes of action.

When so-called mortal mind records the ending of an old year and the beginning of a new one, with sorrow for the former as something lost and fear for the latter as something uncertain, such thought is vain. Human thought may be turned toward the future with dread or with anticipation, hope, and desires more or less material in nature. Thought engaged in any of these ways tends to obscure spiritual vision and to blind one to the opportunity of the present moment.

Time is a mortal concept, opposed to eternity. When one thinks of year as "space for repentance," one may see it as opportunity for growth in grace and understanding, as opportunity for retracing, reconstructing, and rebuilding—opportunity, in short, for learning more of God and for demonstrating an ever greater sense of at-one-ment with the Principle of all being, God. Seeing year in this way, one is inspired and is freed from error.

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THE EXAMPLE OF ELIJAH
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