"THE ETERNAL BUILDER"

Helen Wood Bauman

In the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, Abraham's journey to the promised land is described in a few brief but important sentences. One of them reads (verse 10), "He looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." When we understand God to be a builder, or Maker, we realize that the action of divinity is always constructive, never destructive. When our thoughts reflect God, they express the constructiveness of their source, divine Mind, and there is no harmful element in them. Such constructive thinking blesses everyone concerned and demonstrates harmony and health, which are natural to man.

Mary Baker Eddy teaches her followers how to overcome the destructive action of sin and disease by ruling out ignorant and negative thoughts and replacing them with intelligent, ever-unfolding ideas derived from creative Mind. She says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 428), "We should consecrate existence, not 'to the unknown God' whom we 'ignorantly worship,' but to the eternal builder, the everlasting Father, to the Life which mortal sense cannot impair nor mortal belief destroy." The thoughts we entertain determine our happiness, our success, our health—our destiny. Our thoughts enter into every minute detail of our environment and of our physical condition. They represent either divine Mind, "the eternal builder," or the carnal mind, which Christ Jesus described as "a murderer from the beginning" (John 8:44) and which Christian Science defines as unreal and mortal, as the negation of all that is true.

Murderer implies destructive action; whereas creator implies constructive action. In this contrast we come upon one of the most valuable and enlightening contributions which the Scriptures make to Christian wisdom. To adopt this analysis and to apply it in practical ways call for constant watchfulness. Often a decided transformation of character is required, for negativeness claims to possess those who are not alert to its subtlety. No doubt every unpleasant human experience is the result of negativeness; and spiritual positiveness corrects these human errors.

Christian Science reveals the true, spiritual universe, in which every formation of God is good. In this creation there is no element of destruction, and so the concepts which comprise the kingdom of "the eternal builder" are immortal. The real man embodies only constructive laws and such upbuilding actions as involve love, truthfulness, justice, and wisdom. The more consistently one lets spiritual action rule his thinking, the more fully he demonstrates his harmonious and indestructible selfhood, and the more effectively he is able to rule out supposed mortal laws and their destructive and deteriorative effects.

In the measure that one realizes the infinitude of creative action he is empowered to stop the seeming action of the destroyer which would rob consciousness of peace and health, annihilate good morals, derange mind, cause poverty, and work havoc in general with mankind. It is intelligent to think and act in accord with the creator rather than with mortal mind.

The negative mental action, termed malpractice by Christian Science, is nullified when one recognizes it as the work of the suppositional "murderer" and as having no positive power. Mrs. Eddy says of mental malpractice (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 31), "To mentally argue in a manner that can disastrously affect the happiness of a fellow-being—harm him morally, physically, or spiritually—breaks the Golden Rule and subverts the scientific laws of being." Such mental argument is the antipode of Christian Science and has no justification. Even so-called righteous indignation is inadmissible, for it too is destructive. The better way is to realize that evil is unreal.

In order to protect oneself from the silent modes of mental malpractice, one must be sure that he himself is not an avenue for such condemnatory, destructive thinking. He is obscuring his true selfhood when he bears negative witness against a neighbor, even by belittling him or by believing him to be a wicked mortal. One also bears witness against himself when he argues for the disease and sin which seem to be his own and forgets that his only selfhood is spiritual. One does a real service to mankind when he sees every individual as, in reality, of God's construction—His perfect son.

Christ Jesus loved both friends and enemies, because his thinking was entirely in accord with constructive Mind. He reflected the Father, who, he said (Matt. 5 :45), "maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." And the Science of Christianity always calls for nobility, not vindictive meanness; for constructive healing, not destructive condemnation.

The Christian Scientist, understanding his creator and man's relation to Him, devotes his life to demonstrating the allness and oneness of God, whose positive action sustains the heavenly kingdom, the perfect and immutable universe of Spirit—"a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God."

Helen Wood Bauman

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