Our only need

Bill Badger

In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy wrote: “Human theories are helpless to make man harmonious or immortal, since he is so already, according to Christian Science. Our only need is to know this and reduce to practice the real man’s divine Principle, Love” (p. 490 ). “Our only need”? Seems impossible. Yet it underscores what Christian Science is all about, the fact that God has made man perfect and that nothing can be taken away from this eternal goodness and perfection—nothing can be, or needs to be, added to it.

As Mrs. Eddy’s spiritual translation of the 23rd Psalm puts it, “[Divine love] is my shepherd; I shall not want” (p. 578 ). With the shepherding care of divine Love, we have what we need. How we live our days, how we relate to others, what we accept as true must be based on this always sustainable truth of being—that God, Love, alone, reigns and is unopposed, even when matter looks so valid and real.

Several years ago, a small growth began to appear above my cheek, just under my eye. I was disturbed by it and afraid of it. I began to treat the situation in Christian Science. Science and Health says, “Christian scientific practice begins with Christ’s keynote of harmony, ‘Be not afraid!’ ” (p. 410 ). So my fear had to be addressed. I insisted that inharmony in any situation is not the reality of being, but a false picture with no validity or truth. Why should I fear what is unreal? I am God’s likeness (see Genesis 1:26, 27 ) and can only experience unchanging and harmonious good.

When I would think about the growth, or see it, or feel it, I would immediately assert that what is spiritually correct about me is the only truth; material sense presents a lie in every case, even when the picture is of “healthy matter.” The fact is, matter is never the source of health. Mrs. Eddy says, “Nothing we can say or believe regarding matter is immortal, for matter is temporal and is therefore a mortal phenomenon, a human concept, sometimes beautiful, always erroneous” (Science and Health, p. 277 ). So I consistently held to the truth that God, Love, the Principle of being, was the only reality.

One marginal heading in Science and Health is: “Insistence requisite” (p. 412 ). And that is what I did; I insisted that only Spirit, God, divine Principle, Love, was the creator of all that I am and can ever be, that this Love is God, and that I am the image of God unchangeably. With this prayerful focus, the facial growth finally vanished and never appeared again.

This is what we must do repeatedly, lovingly, gratefully: assert the reality of God, who is infinite Spirit, the only universal Truth. Knowing this truly is our only need.

Bill Badger
Henderson, Nevada, US

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