Article September 27, 1975 Issue

Patchwork Won't Work

JULIE CAMPBELL TATHAM

If you look in the mirror and see you have a dirty face, do you wash the mirror? No, you wash your face. If you look at your body and see that it's too fat or too thin, do you embark on a diet-and-exercise routine? Possibly. But it could be as futile as trying to cleanse your face by washing the mirror.

Bodily conditions objectify one's state of consciousness. Healthful thinking promotes good bodily health. Such thinking involves replacing self-indulgence with self-restraint. But, most important, right thinking means thinking in terms of true being, one's spiritual identity, instead of fretting about the physical body. Thought that is centered on corporeality instead of spirituality is material thinking.

Christian Science teaches that man is not a spiritual identity trapped inside a material body. Because God created him, man is wholly spiritual. God is Soul, or Spirit; therefore His offspring must be spiritual, for like produces like. Our bodies will naturally become more beautiful as we daily strive to get a clearer concept of God and of His image and likeness, man. Mrs. Eddy says, "The body improves under the same regimen which spiritualizes the thought."^{Science and Health, p. 370;}