Article March 8, 1969 Issue

Reliance on Spirit, Not Matter

EDGAR ISAAC NEWGASS

It may be said that the mission of Christian Science, as of Christianity, is to help humanity here and now gain a spiritual basis of being, thus saving men from themselves, that is, from a false sense of themselves. The Founder of Christianity, Christ Jesus, affirmed, "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."^{John 4:24;}

The fulfillment of this requirement demands the relinquishment of faith in and dependence upon material objects and objectives. The Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, whose teachings are in accord with the Bible, writes in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, "Jesus demonstrated the inability of corporeality, as well as the infinite ability of Spirit, thus helping erring human sense to flee from its own convictions and seek safety in divine Science."^{Science and Health, p. 494;}

Such a standpoint is not won through a purely theoretical knowledge of the subject, however extensive, nor is the practice of Christian Science merely a matter of pat affirmation of divine law. Winning such a standpoint is a question of patient experience and spiritual growth gained through self-discipline, the relinquishment of such false qualities as self-will, sensualism, and animality in order that Spirit may assert itself in our lives.

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