Article January 16, 1971 Issue

Don't Open That Box

EDNA MAY EVANS WHITE

According to Greek mythology, a woman named Pandora once opened a box containing all sorts of diseases and other evils and let them loose to plague mankind. In the textbook, Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy refers to this mythical box. She writes, "The description of man as purely physical, or as both material and spiritual,—but in either case dependent upon his physical organization,—is the Pandora box, from which all ills have gone forth, especially despair."^{Science and Health, p. 170;}

Christian Science reveals that the true nature of God is omnipotent good. It reveals that man is not a physical body but an individual spiritual consciousness emanating from God, or divine Mind, the source of all consciousness, intelligence, wisdom, and understanding. Since man is not physique, he is not subject to the multitude of beliefs, or false laws, pertaining to matter—laws of medicine, biology, physiology, heredity. He is not made up of cells or atoms but of qualities and ideas of God, which are purely spiritual in nature and not subject to impairment. For instance, joy cannot be diseased, fearlessness cannot be infected; intelligence could never be bruised, integrity could not malfunction.

Matter, which is the opposite or counterfeit of true substance, is the manifestation of the carnal, or mortal, mind. This deceptive mortal mind is constantly promoting its erroneous conclusions through the five physical senses. In fact, the physical body may be termed mortal mind's propaganda machine, which produces false evidence and claims of pain, lack, and inharmony. Such evidence, never reliable or acceptable, is pure illusion.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

Command and Promise