Article September 18, 1954 Issue

ERASING MISTAKEN CONCEPTS

THOMAS HENRY COFFEEN

"There is one body, and one Spirit, ... one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all" (Eph. 4:4, 6). In these words the Apostle Paul shows how clearly he understood the oneness of divine Principle and its idea and the allness of God, whose reflection is man and the universe. His further words to the Ephesians that the old man must be put off, and "the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness" (4:24), must be put on, reveal the divine method of salvation. It is the mental process of putting off the mistaken material sense concept of man as mortal, sick, sinful, and limited and replacing it with the true spiritual sense of man as perfect and harmonious, made in the image of God.

Mary Baker Eddy, also, clearly saw the distinction between so-called mortal man and the perfect man of God's creating. She understood Paul's explanation of the method by which we attain salvation. In the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," she writes (p. 476): "God is the Principle of man, and man is the idea of God. Hence man is not mortal nor material. Mortals will disappear, and immortals, or the children of God, will appear as the only and eternal verities of man."

We turn confidently to the principle of mathematics to guide us in erasing and correcting mistakes which may have entered into a mathematical problem. So we can turn with still greater assurance to divine Principle, God, and demonstrate that "the only and eternal verities of man" are forever present to erase the mistaken concepts called sin, sickness, lack, or discord of any kind.

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