Editorial March 26, 1966 Issue

The Advantages of Repentance

Helen Wood Bauman

The first words Jesus uttered when he appeared publicly as the Saviour of humanity were, "Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matt. 4:17). Jesus had a way of going straight to the heart of a matter, and his whole ministry illustrated this directness of approach. We can gather some sense of the importance of repentance when we see how he associated it with heaven.

To understand repentance and to work out its advantages, we need to grasp certain basic spiritual facts revealed by Christian Science. The adequacy of Deity to make man spiritual, in His likeness, and the demonstrability of that likeness on the part of mankind; the fact that man is an individual, spiritual consciousness, which remains intact regardless of human meandering in sinful ways —these truths are logical, and they are undeniable once we acknowledge that there is one infinite Mind, one source of life, which is altogether good.

In order to repent and thus attain the divinely harmonious mental state called heaven, one needs to know himself. He needs to know his temporal, human self and what its faults are; and he needs to know his eternal, real self, the Christly ideal, which Mind's knowing creates and controls.

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