Editorial July 18, 1970 Issue

The Marriage Ceremony

Carl J. Welz

The chapter on Marriage in the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, begins with a reference to Jesus' baptism and to the fact that John the Baptist was astounded that the Master would come to him for that purpose. Then it says, "Jesus' concessions (in certain cases) to material methods were for the advancement of spiritual good." And Mrs. Eddy follows this with, "Marriage is the legal and moral provision for generation among human kind."^{Science and Health, p. 56;}

As human beings begin to glimpse something of the spiritual reality taught in Christian Science—that Spirit, God, is All and that man is God's perfect, spiritual idea—they often become impatient and want to claim immediately the complete blessing of Spirit on all their human acts. To admit that something we are doing in an honest effort to be and do right is less than spiritual seems difficult. Yet this is required of us if we are to continue to grow toward spiritual reality.

The immortal, spiritual man of God's creating is the complete idea of the divine Mind. Each individual, in reality, reflects the completeness of the Father-Mother Mind, including male and female qualities. But the human being approximates this complete individuality only insofar as his consciousness of being is spiritual. Whatever mortal, material qualities remain in thought separate the human individual from his true identity as a divine idea. Through Christian Science he can learn of his spiritual identity and recognize the power God has given him to reject whatever is unlike his true self. But while we may wish the rejection were already the fact humanly, it actually is not, for our human existence is not our real existence but an approximation of it.

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