Article November 26, 1979 Issue

No Achilles' heel

[Original in German]

CLAIRE ROSELIUS

Mythology tells how Achilles, the Greek hero, was held by the heel in the river Styx by his mother, the sea nymph Thetis, in order to make him invulnerable. But his heel remained vulnerable. This turned out to be fatal when he was hit by the arrow of Paris.

Paul, who understood the total invulnerability of spiritual man, gave us a beautiful proof of the power of this understanding (see Acts 28). When a viper fastened on his hand as he was making a fire on the island of Malta, he shook it off, undismayed. There were no aftereffects; he was unharmed. The people there, not yet acquainted with the power of Spirit as Principle, thought at first an evil power was operating in Paul. Then they swung to the other extreme and considered him to be a god. Doesn't this remind us that whatever demonstrates the real condition of man in his permanent relationship to God is either uncomprehended or considered miraculous by mortals?

Mrs. Eddy states in the Christian Science textbook: "In Science man is the offspring of Spirit. The beautiful, good, and pure constitute his ancestry."^{Science and Health, p. 63;} When we thoroughly understand the true origin of man, we will have the ability to ward off attacks of evil of all kinds—indeed to triumph over them. The Psalmist sang, "A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee."^{Ps. 91:7;}