Editorial July 21, 1962 Issue

Abundant Life

Helen Wood Bauman

Today one hears much about the abundant life. This generally refers to material prosperity, to freedom from want, and to the opportunity to enjoy the fruits of the earth. The religious theory of virtue in poverty is no longer popular among most Christians. Men are seeing that it is right to overcome material limitations of every kind.

Christ Jesus explained in his precepts and exhibited in his works the abundant life that concerns Spirit, not matter. He said of his followers (John 10:10), "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly."

Plainly, the Master's ministry showed that the Christ-spirit he expressed destroys mortality, which is the essence of limitation and the opposite of real life. He wiped out fear and sin that lead to death, and he destroyed the evidence of death when it had claimed to have its way. To the Master the only true life is the expression of the one Life, God, the creator of all. Mortality, the murderer, or death-dealer, was to him unreal, untrue. He said (John 17:3), "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent."

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