The spiritual universe and man of God's creating are the forever expression of invariable divine Principle. The so-called material universe, however, is in a state of constant flux. Nothing in it can be regarded as fixed or stable. It is full of variations, of ups and downs, comings and goings. It includes nothing upon which utter reliance can be placed. Even mortals that people this universe are often undependable, inconstant, and the laws which govern them are subject to amendment and annulment. These mutations belong solely to the material, or counterfeit, sense of existence, as is confirmed by these words from "Unity of Good" by Mary Baker Eddy (p. 61): "Coming and going belong to mortal consciousness. God is 'the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever.'"

When faced with evidences of fluctuation and mutability, we should therefore refuse to accept them as inevitable necessities or as any part of true being and should replace them with the spiritual, scientific facts of Life and man. Man is not a frail creature, healthy one moment, but sick the next; sometimes weak, sometimes strong; happy one day, but heavy-laden another; prosperous one year, but impoverished the next; loving on some occasions, but irritable on others. God, good, is invariable, and man is the eternal expression of invariable good; therefore he is always healthy, strong, happy, prosperous, and loving. He can be only prosperous, and loving. He can be only what God, his creative Mind, empowers him to be, since he does not exist as a separate entity, but as the reflection of the Divine Being.

Man is at all times Godlike because he is incapable of being anything else. The reflection cannot be different from its original. For instance, man cannot be sick when God, whom he reflects, is whole. To yield to the temptation of disease or any other form of discord or suffering is to believe that we have temporarily ceased to be Life's harmonious expression. This, however, is an utter impossibility. The conceiving Mind remaining perfect, Mind's spiritual conception, man, remains perfect.

Our task is vigorously to deny the testimony of the deceitful senses, which continually present pictures of sickness, sorrow, disease, and lack, and to contend for invariable perfection, the divine law of being. Spirit and all things spiritual are immutable and immortal, whereas matter and all things material are mutable and mortal. In order to prove more of the changelessness of good in our lives we must therefore draw nearer to Spirit, the source of all good, and reject the mutations of finite sense.

Health is one of the things which seem elusive and which mankind is ceaselessly striving either to gain or to maintain. Great gratitude fills the heart of the Christian Scientist for the wonderful light on this subject which is revealed through the teachings of Mrs. Eddy, who so clearly points out the stability of health, or wholeness, as a condition or quality of Spirit, God, divine Mind. Since the qualities of Mind are not subject to interruption, impairment, suspension, loss, or destruction, health is a fixed fact of real being, which cannot be invaded by the incursions of the carnal or mortal mind. Health is as invariable as Principle, as substantial as Spirit, as unalterable as Truth, as indestructible as Life, as harmonious as Soul.

In reality there is no such thing as bad health. Health must be good because it is an emanation of infinite good, or God. Once we comprehend and acknowledge the wholly spiritual, incorporeal nature of all the constituents of true being, we lose our fear that our health will become depleted with passing years or affected by fortuitous circumstances. Understanding the inclusion of health or any other God-bestowed quality or attribute in the deific Mind and man's indissoluble unity with this Mind, we are assured of their permanence.

There is a brief sentence on page 521 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," which brings comfort and release to many struggling with evil suggestions of discord and disease. Mrs. Eddy states with finality, "The harmony and immortality of man are intact." She then goes on to say, "We should look away from the opposite supposition that man is created materially, and turn our gaze to the spiritual record of creation, to that which should be engraved on the understanding and heart 'with the point of a diamond' and the pen of an angel."

We demonstrate harmony and immortality in proportion to our understanding of and steadfast adherence to the spiritual facts of being and the consequent dismissal, as wholly illusory, of the material concept of creation with its ceaseless mutations and lapses from harmony. Confirmation of the changelessness of God's creation is found in the Psalmist's declaration (Ps. 33:9), "He spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast."

The divine Mind, the only Mind of man, being forevermore the same, is not fickle; it has no moods, no "off days." How unthinkable it would be for Mind to exclaim, "I am not quite up to the mark today!" And yet, forgetting our dependence on this Mind alone for health, happiness, and success, are we not sometimes tempted to believe, although we may not actually voice it, that the harmony of our being has been interrupted—that we have lost our customary peace and poise? How liberating and potent, when accepted into consciousness, is the truth of man's immutable perfection as the child of God, the offspring of Spirit, who never needs to wait for the return of harmony because he is forever at the standpoint of harmony.

After a seemingly serious illness, a bad accident, or some grievous blow, one sometimes hears the remark, "He (or she) will never be the same again." How grateful are those who have gained some knowledge of the Science of Life for the spiritual enlightenment which enables them instantly to recognize such a remark for the lie that it is, and for the God-derived ability which enables them to replace such a falsity with the truth of man's changeless wholeness as the idea of divine Principle, the son of God.

In reality man's status is no different at one time than at another, since he is never other than what God has made him, the glorified expression of His own being. This is doubtless what Paul must have known to have healed Eutychus when he "fell down from the third loft, and was taken up dead" (Acts 20:9). Instead of accepting the evidence of the corporeal senses, testifying to a fall and its consequent ill effects, Paul realized without doubt that man is forever safe in the Father, Mind, and his steadfast reliance on this spiritual fact enabled him to prove that nothing evil could happen to man.

Similarly, when untoward occurrences seem to invade our human experience, we must mentally adhere to man's immutable perfection, his changeless wholeness as Mind's idea, and see that what mortal mind would have us believe has happened, has never really taken place at all. God's child has never been in tragic circumstances, has never suffered from a dread disease or been on the brink of death. Never for a single instant has he been separated from divine Love, his Father-Mother.

On page 261 of our textbook, under the marginal heading "Immutable identity of man," appear these reassuring words: "Breaking away from the mutations of time and sense, you will neither lose the solid objects and ends of life nor your own identity. Fixing your gaze on the realities supernal, you will rise to the spiritual consciousness of being, even as the bird which has burst from the egg and preens its wings for a skyward flight."