Article September 17, 1979 Issue

God's allness dispels misery

HELEN W. ENGLISH

A woman driver passed a large billboard that read, "You are in allergy country" and suggested a medicine for relief.

If I accepted allergy as something real, she thought, I would indeed need relief, because I would be bowing down to the idolatry of matter! She knew that arming herself against the suggestion of being allergic to certain substances meant knowing the nothingness of matter as a necessary corollary of the allness of God. It meant seeing what is true of God and His spiritual idea, man. So she restated the first words of the advertisement: "You are in God's country."

God instructed Moses, "Turn ye not unto idols, nor make to yourselves molten gods: I am the Lord your God." ^{ Lev. 19:4;} We should take heed not to accept materialistic suggestions. Mrs. Eddy states in Science and Health, "The idols of civilization are far more fatal to health and longevity than are the idols of barbarism." ^{ Science and Health, p. 173;} If we give consent to a false belief, we cannot complain if the lie appears to develop. We must refuse our consent.