Editorial October 2, 1978 Issue

What sustains us

Geoffrey J. Barratt

We too easily buy the false bill of goods that man lives in a material universe and is sustained by material conditions. Christian Science presents a quite different viewpoint. It shows that man is the work of Spirit, is spiritual, and is sustained by Spirit. Spirit is God, and in sustaining itself Spirit sustains man, who lives in Spirit as the idea of Spirit.

Such facts have many healing applications. To know that man is sustained by Spirit helps to disarm the various fears that afflict people. What may seem to be happening to a physical body and making us anxious—decline, deterioration, or paralysis—is not happening to us, as Spirit's outcome. It is happening to a misconception of us, to a mortal. We can halt and turn back deterioration by realizing that what seems to be affecting us is, scientifically speaking, afflicting a picture painted by mortal thought. The deterioration is as unlawful as mortal thought itself.

Our real identity is not sustained in a body of bones and nerves, or sustained by a body of bones and nerves. It is not derived from a physical body because it is inseparable from Spirit. The results of realizing this are less fatigue, better hearing and digestion, more immunity to contagion—whatever contributes to better health. Physical problems express the almost universal belief that man is finite, flesh and blood. Science denies this belief, declaring that man is the infinite idea of infinite Spirit.

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