Article November 27, 1995 Issue

A standard we can live up to

Isabella Alice Marshall

In the industrial city where we once lived, a brass tablet on the entrance of a business usually announced the name of the owner and the nature of the goods manufactured there. The tablet, burnished each day, was a sign of a respect for the business and of a quiet confidence that it was active and prosperous. There was also a tablet outside many homes, each inscribed with the name of the occupant. A well-kept tablet indicated a home that was loved and cared for. If a tablet got stained, the alert homeowner saw that it was restored to its original pristine condition.

What restores us when we feel the tablet of our being has been stained or even defaced? A rousing answer is found in these words of Mary Baker Eddy's: "Christian Science raises the standard of liberty and cries: 'Follow me! Escape from the bondage of sickness, sin, and death!' Jesus marked out the way. Citizens of the world, accept the 'glorious liberty of the children of God,' and be free! This is your divine right. The illusion of material sense, not divine law, has bound you, entangled your free limbs, crippled your capacities, enfeebled your body, and defaced the tablet of your being" (Science and Health, p. 227).

Christian Science explains that the mental and bodily constitution are one, that the outward presentation expresses the nature of the thoughts we entertain in consciousness. A Godlike, loving thought is increasingly manifest in a bright, healthy presentation, while thoughts of the opposite nature would dull the tablet of our being. To live according to the spiritual standards in the Bible is to give the best care to the tablet, the outward expression or body.

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