Article December 29, 1956 Issue

MAINTAINING CONTACT

FLORENCE MILLER KLEIST

In this age we hear much about making and maintaining right contacts. By this is usually meant the establishing of certain relationships for the purpose of benefiting oneself economically, socially, or politically. Individuals sometimes go to great lengths to associate themselves with persons or groups through which they expect to gain some personal advantage.

While it is right and good that we should endeavor to associate ourselves with the highest and best in human relationships, it is a mistake to suppose that through some material source or avenue we can obtain something which God has not or will not bestow upon us. The grave danger in such seeking is that in proportion to our reliance on material means we lose our trust in Almighty God. The Psalmist says (Ps. 118:8, 9): "It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes."

In "Retrospection and Introspection" Mary Baker Eddy says (p. 28): "Our reliance upon material things must be transferred to a perception of and dependence on spiritual things. For Spirit to be supreme in demonstration, it must be supreme in our affections, and we must be clad with divine power." We see on every hand evidence of the futility of attempting through material means to obtain lasting peace, joy, and prosperity. The only lasting good is that which is a reflection of the divine, the good gift, which cometh from above.

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