Article May 11, 1992 Issue

What and where is Spirit?

The strength, presence, and power of Spirit are ours to know and feel, because we are God's.

Jeanette Bernice Cowan

In my early years as a student of Christian Science I was trying to gain a better understanding of the name Spirit for God. What did it mean? Where was it? How could the understanding of Spirit as substance solve human problems and meet human needs?

In the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy writes: "There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. ... Spirit is the real and eternal ..." and "Spirit, the synonym of Mind, Soul, or God, is the only real substance." These statements were becoming clearer through my study and application of the teachings of Christian Science, but I still had only a vague understanding of what Spirit as substance meant. I wanted to know, see, and feel this presence— to live this understanding, the way Christ Jesus did. ...

During this time of searching, I was a student of music at a university in a large city. Though I was busy in school, the search for a better understanding of Spirit was uppermost in my thoughts. Shortly before summer vacation began, I started receiving letters from the First Reader at a Christian Science Society in a small town near a summer cottage my parents owned. The Reader wanted me to come and act as church musician during the summer months. However, jobs were scarce there, and it didn't seem practical or wise to leave the security of my family and a place where employment was plentiful to go to an unheated cottage, with no food, no money, and no prospects for work. What was I to do?

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

Doing the works that Jesus promised