"BEAUTY IS A THING OF LIFE"

MARY FRANCES TUSSEY

"Beauty is a thing of life, which dwells forever in the eternal Mind and reflects the charms of His goodness in expression, form, outline, and color." If we accept Mary Baker Eddy's statement in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 247), we see that "beauty is a thing of life," ever in divine Mind, and that man, in God's image and likeness, has always been its expression. The beauty of man's eternal perfection can never be hidden.

If we look for beauty in the body, we find that which is temporal and subject to age and decay. Mrs. Eddy writes on the same page of Science and Health, "The embellishments of the person are poor substitutes for the charms of being, shining resplendent and eternal over age and decay." When we look for beauty in Spirit, we find eternal loveliness.

Since Life is God, and God is holy, including all beauty, then beauty is holy and forever eternal. As we keep close to God by expressing such qualities as gentleness, meekness, kindness, honesty, love, the expression of our faces is transfigured in proportion to the good that occupies our thinking.

In Exodus we read that Moses communed with the Lord forty days and forty nights and that when he came down from the mount, "the skin of his face shone" (Ex. 34:30). In Matthew we read that after his communion with God on a high mountain, Jesus was transfigured before his disciples. In Acts we read that Stephen spoke with so much wisdom and spirit that his face was as "the face of an angel" (6:15). These passages from the Bible show plainly that the thoughts of these men were transfigured through prayer. The beauty of the illumined thought and the wonderful effect of holy meditation were visibly expressed on their faces.

Everyone wants to be beautiful, and everyone can become beautiful through prayer and communion with God. When one comes to Christian Science, he soon learns that beauty, which comes from Spirit, is the result of spiritualizing one's own thinking. He learns that beauty lies in wholesome ideals.

As one continues to live Christian Science by conforming his thinking to its Principle and teachings, his countenance also is transformed and expresses more beauty and tranquillity. As he begins to comprehend and understand that beauty is a quality of Mind, independent of time and age, independent of a seeming physical body, he loses the foreboding fears of age and decay that would rob him of his health and peace. He also loses the pinched expression of uncertainty as he becomes better acquainted with God, good. Gradually he gains a larger sense of well-being, and he is able to express more confidence, surety, and love. As his mental horizon expands and as he occupies himself entirely with wholesome ideas, spiritual harmony and beauty are manifested.

Beauty enters into every phase of a spiritually inspired life; it belongs to good works. We must be grateful for the good works and be content in the security that they bring. When the writer was a small girl and there was any mention of one's being pretty, her mother would always say, "Pretty is as pretty does." And so it is. We are known by our works, good or bad.

The Bible says of a virtuous woman (Prov. 31:31), "Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates." God gives to man infinite power and ability to do right, and man cannot be deprived of his Godgiven ability and the beauty that it brings to him.

Surely every Christian Scientist has seen himself grow in grace because of the study of Christian Science. He has watched his own undisciplined thought gradually give way to the charms of that discipline which reflects God's goodness. Through his understanding of the need of self-discipline he has seen his disposition become more gracious and loving, his life gain in dignity and purpose, and his actions express greater beauty.

A hymn in the Christian Science Hymnal (No. 109) points out the way to true beauty in these lines:

Reverent lives unveil Thy beauty,
Faithful witness bear of Thee;
Binding up the brokenhearted,
We reflect Thy radiancy.
So may deeper consecration
show Thee forth in healing's sign,
Till through joyful self-surrender
We in Love's pure likeness shine.

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