Editorial March 24, 1962 Issue

"Present your bodies a living sacrifice"

Ralph E. Wagers

The Apostle Paul had some important things to say about body. In his letter to the Romans he spoke of those who have the firstfruits of the Spirit—those who are becoming spiritually minded—as "waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body" (8:23). He admonished, "Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service" (12:1). And he continued, "Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."

Christian Science enables us to prove, by degrees at least, that our bodies are totally subordinate to our thought and cannot act without it or contrary to it. But if we bow down to them as though they were our masters, we do not control them; they control us.

To be subordinate to our bodies would be to surrender ourselves to the blind, unmoral forces of mortal mind, which are falsely assigned to nature and natural processes, to entertain a wholly material sense of ourselves. We would have no relationship to Spirit, God, and to the spiritual laws that maintain the harmony of being. And this materialism is the premise from which every erroneous conclusion about ourselves has been drawn, conclusions that subject us to conditions that are wholly unrelated to God's perfect government.

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March 24, 1962
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