Editorial December 28, 1957 Issue

"SOUL-EXISTENCE"

Helen Wood Bauman

The instruction and the example of Christ Jesus pointed to the goal which he expected all of his followers eventually to attain, namely the demonstration of life in God, Soul. The Master had difficulty in convincing those he taught that there is a spiritual kingdom, of which he was clearly conscious, and that mankind must forsake earthliness in order to recognize the ever present realm of God. He said to Nicodemus (John 3:11), "We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness."

Mary Baker Eddy glimpsed man's real life in Soul when she discovered Christian Science; and she eagerly sought to bring the vision of existence apart from material sense to the perception of those who were ready to accept her witness. She says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 167): "If we rise no higher than blind faith, the Science of healing is not attained, and Soul-existence, in the place of sense-existence, is not comprehended. We apprehend Life in divine Science only as we live above corporeal sense and correct it."

In Christian Science, Soul is a synonym for God, and it is Soul sense, or sense derived from Soul, instead of corporeal sense that one must exercise in order to become conscious of God and of the spiritual kingdom, which exists as His expression. As long as the physical senses and their conceptions are real to us, we live in an earth-bound state of spiritual blindness that prevents the discernment of real existence in Soul. A mere faith in God and His kingdom should not satisfy us; we must rise above sense-existence and participate in life as Soul creates it.

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