Editorial March 5, 1960 Issue

THE SUPREMACY OF SPIRIT

Helen Wood Bauman

To the great characters portrayed in the Bible, the supremacy of God, invisible Spirit, was a powerful, living truth. The Bible records many instances in which these God-fearing individuals proved this truth, so vital to humanity's freedom and peace. These instances have long been considered miracles, the setting aside of the natural order of life. But Christian Science designates them as demonstrations of divine law and of God's power over all that would contradict His goodness.

Miracles, if they were possible, would imply only a spasmodic or temporary beneficence on the part of Deity. But demonstrations of Science prove that God's law is perpetually available to overcome every material law, heal every disease, break down every limitation, destroy sin and death. In order to prove Spirit's supremacy consistently, one must have some knowledge of scientific or true being. One must realize that Spirit is the only cause and that effect is a spiritual creation, tangible to spiritual sense but unseen by the physical senses. Then the material creation will be understood as illusory because temporal, unreal because possessing no quality or element of Spirit. Furthermore, one must live such spiritual qualities as love and truthfulness, wisdom, purity, and justice if he is to partake of divine power and utilize it mercifully. He must express the fundamental order of real life by obeying the commands stressed by Christ Jesus: love God supremely and one's neighbor as oneself.

Mary Baker Eddy says in "Retrospection and Introspection" (p. 28), "For Spirit to be supreme in demonstration, it must be supreme in our affections, and we must be clad with divine power." Jesus loved Spirit and taught men to treasure the things of Spirit. His many works were proofs of the supremacy of Spirit over the insubstantial illusions of matter, which changes as mortal thinking changes.

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