Editorial January 29, 1955 Issue

THE ESSENCE OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE

Helen Wood Bauman

To follow a teaching one must understand its inherent meaning—its essence. Mary Baker Eddy describes the intrinsic character of Christian Science in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" where she says (p. 271), "The Sermon on the Mount is the essence of this Science, and the eternal life, not the death of Jesus, is its outcome." In order to overcome mortality in its every phase, and this is the mission of Christianity, one needs to grasp the value of the Master's precepts as outlined in his great sermon and to apply them directly to human needs.

Affirmations of God's allness and man's spiritual perfection — eternal truths which Christian Science reveals—indicate the absolute standpoint from which one views real existence. But the Sermon on the Mount points out the regeneration which Christian Science demands if one is to demonstrate his sinless, deathless life in Spirit.

In the Beatitudes Christ Jesus taught that the essence of divine reality is made manifest through the spirit of humility, meekness, mercy, purity, peaceableness, patience under persecution. God-derived qualities, he taught, are God-blessed. They who express this essence of reality are "the light of the world" (Matt. 5:14). They help to guide men out of ignorance and sin.

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