Christian Science:

God's Government of Man and the Universe

 

Evelyn F. Heywood, C.S.B.

Member of the Board of Lectureship of The Mother Church,

The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts

 

In the first chapter of Genesis, we find set forth the universe of Spirit, where God spake and it was done; where blessings and fruitfulness were multiplied; where God saw everything He had made, and it was very good; where the dominion which was given to man was unchallenged and supreme.

If the question were asked, What is it that the world most needs today? might not this be the answer: The universal recognition of God's government, wherein mercy and justice reign; the assurance of God's impartial beneficence; the consciousness of the dominion which is man's as God's image and likeness?

Looking back over the history of the human race, we see that the miseries and disasters which have befallen mankind have been largely due to feeble, ignorant, or purposely evil governments. How did they arise? Because of the acceptance of a world separate from God, from good, the belief that man possesses intelligence and power apart from his Maker. Both aggressors and victims have found themselves involved in the theory that states and empires can be securely built on violence and greed, that laws can be promulgated and exercised apart from righteousness, that sovereignty is mortal and therefore men can either be endowed with or deprived of it. Such fundamental errors the truth alone can dispel, the truth which Christian Science reveals.

The True Source of Power

The question often uppermost in the heart of the earnest, intelligent thinker is, How can God's government be brought to bear upon the affairs of men, so that in the place of lawlessness, corruption, and conflict there may be order, integrity, and peace? In this connection, a present-day statesman has declared that to find a solution to the world's problems demands the highest genius of man. From such genius, however, there will be required much more than the framing and execution of human laws and policies, the promise of freedom and expansion, the assurance of individual preservation and protection. If lasting satisfaction and certain co-operation among the nations of the world are to be established, men must be enabled to express the dignity, the authority, the liberty, and well-being which are their rightful heritage. This can only be ensured as character and government are based upon the understanding of those spiritual capacities which belong to divine Mind, and are reflected impartially by God's ideas. Once the one true source of power is understood and accepted, fear of the forces seemingly controlled by mortal will, or impelled by mortal desire, is overcome, and the real genius of man is free to function as the expression of the divine Mind.

When in the judgment hall Pontius Pilate said to Jesus, "Knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee?" Jesus answered him, "Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above."

Christ Jesus recognized that power belongs to God alone. This understanding of the true nature of power preserved, directed, sustained him in every phase of his human experience. It brought final victory over death and the grave. But besides being thus aware of his own individual spiritual dominion, he knew that the power of God would be exercised by all who recognized the one and only universe to be the universe of God's creating, maintained and governed by divine Principle.

The sovereignty Jesus exercised before Pilate is the sovereignty which Mind bestows upon its idea, man. No one who has observed the vast human happenings of recent years with any degree of discernment can have failed to be aware that the forces of evil, however organized and seemingly indomitable, have again and again proved powerless in the face of moral strength. In the presence of the courage and steadfastness born of righteousness, they have yielded. In these events, so profoundly illuminating to those who experience or witness them, spiritual power has prevailed to "turn the battle to the gate" and finally bring the assurance of victory.

Spiritual Law Humanly Applied

When it is learned that no supposititious mortal laws claiming to deny the supremacy of good, which would rob men of health, of peace, of spiritual well-being, have any mandate or ability to enforce themselves in the presence of Christ, Truth, we lose our fear of them. We then begin to grasp the meaning of a universe which is wholly under the suzerainty of Mind.

Through the understanding and application of spiritual law, will each one prove his God-given power to overcome fear of evil, however aggressive it may appear to be, regardless of whether it claims to attack from within or from without.

A young child had been held under what was believed to be the law of total blindness since birth. She had no knowledge of what even a glimmer of light was like. One day a friend came to visit the family. This friend spoke of a book she had been reading, written with great authority, which stated that the real universe is not made up of right and wrong, of light and darkness, of happiness and suffering, but that all power is vested in God, supreme good. She said that there were remarkable words in this book — the title of which was "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy — words such as "omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence," "immortal Truth," and "spiritual Love." Presently the little girl, who had been silently listening, slipped away from the room, and went and sat alone where she could repeat to herself over and over again some of the words she had just heard.

When, after a time, she rose to return to her family, she was suddenly aware that light was streaming towards her from a window. She was no longer in darkness; there was color, there were shapes all about her. God's law, presenting and preserving that which is true, had replaced a false belief of a mortal law, holding her in bondage. The long night of separation from the vision of form, of color, of movement was over. In Christian Science she was to learn that there is no causation apart from God, and that everything He has made is good. Her sight was to be perfectly restored.

Man Self-Governed

In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy writes (p. 125), "Reflecting God's government, man is self-governed." In true self-government, men reflect the government of God, with all its authority and infinity of opportunity. So long as we believe that our thought, our present, our future can be interfered with or controlled by others; so long as we suppose that there are in operation known or unknown forces able to rob us of our peace, our health, our precious right to freedom — we do not know God, and we have not found man. Indeed we have not begun to understand the meaning of Jesus' words, "The kingdom of God is within you."

This kingdom of heaven, this consciousness of spiritual dominion, is ours only as we claim and maintain the government of God. "Mind is the master of the corporeal senses, and can conquer sickness, sin, and death. Exercise this God-given authority. Take possession of your body," Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health (p. 393), "and govern its feeling and action." How much do we take possession of our bodies in the assurance of power, of dominion? Just so much as we take possession of our thoughts. Mortals believe that the government of their bodies is outside their control; that forces over which they have no jurisdiction are able to rob them of health and render them diseased. When it is learned that the reins of government are in God's hands, and are made manifest in man, not as the result of human action, but because of spiritual knowledge, men will, even as Jesus did, exercise authority over every lawless claim of power. "Disease," writes Mrs. Eddy in Science and Health (p. 378), "is not an intelligence to dispute the empire of Mind or to dethrone Mind and take the government into its own hands."

Christ Jesus did with his body what he chose. He fasted for forty days in the wilderness; he passed through the angry crowd unharmed; he walked on the water; he rose from the dead, and later ascended above the sight of his disciples. Being God-governed, he knew that matter could not interfere with the government of God.

"Lawful wonders"

What Christ Jesus did has appeared as miraculous to the human mind, fettered and blinded by its beliefs in material sensation and evidence. But with the advent of Christian Science, men are learning to understand the spiritual, eternal law which lay back of the work performed by Jesus, enabling him to heal sickness and destroy sin. "The miracle," writes Mrs. Eddy in the textbook (p. 135), "introduces no disorder, but unfolds the primal order, establishing the Science of God's unchangeable law." And in the margin are these words: "Lawful wonders."

Everywhere, and for each one, however fiercely the lawlessness of disease, of sorrow, and of sin may assert itself, the "lawful wonders" of God's love are available today as they were in Jesus' time. Thus it is that, in the understanding of God's true government, men and women have found, and are finding, health and freedom where before they knew only suffering and fear.

In the early days of Christian Science an American woman, strongly established in the orthodox church, had lain for many months in bed, unable to put her feet to the ground. Everything that medical aid and devoted nursing could do had been done, but without avail, and the verdict of "only six months to live" had been pronounced upon the patient by the doctors. The family were then informed that a Christian Scientist was in the town where they lived, and might be able to bring them help. They dismissed the suggestion with some heat. They would have nothing to do with this new-fangled religion. A second time the invitation was given and refused. They were then assured that the Christian Science practitioner would not demand that they should do anything peculiar. They need only listen to what she had to say, and accept or reject it as they chose.

Desiring to avail himself of even the least opportunity to benefit her, the husband of the invalid decided that while he could not bring himself to invite a Christian Scientist into his home, he would take his wife to the hotel where the practitioner was staying. She was therefore wrapped in blankets, taken down the stairs to the carriage, to be carried into the hotel to the practitioner's apartment.

When the interview was over she was driven back to her own house, where she was once more placed in bed. But that evening as she lay there gazing out at the sky, she meditated on what the practitioner had said. She pondered the thought of God's government of man and the universe, of His laws, ever-present, preserving, directing, maintaining, upholding everything, everywhere, that He had made. In God's universe, because His will was the only will, His power and presence infinite, and therefore undisputed, uninterrupted, all was perfect; everything was in its rightful place, performing its rightful function. And as she thought of these things she knew that they were divine laws and were included in her experience.

The next morning when her nurse entered the room, she was told she was not to hold herself responsible for anything her patient might do, but to be assured that the patient herself was fully aware of the action she was taking. She had decided that God must be all to her that day or nothing.

Every medical packing and bandage was taken off and the patient removed from the bed to the couch. Towards the end of the day, all suffering had ceased. She rose, and for the first time in many months, walked out of her room and proceeded down the stairs. As she did so, her husband and her mother came out of the library where they had been sitting, and looking up were speechless with astonishment. She came on calmly and easily down the stairs, and when she got to the last two steps, she jumped them.

Within a week she was walking many miles. The months of inactivity and invalidism were over; she was permanently healed. From henceforth in healing and in teaching she was to bring to many the blessed truth of God's beneficent government of man and the universe.

In every experience, in every temptation, small or great, there is available the divine assurance that the only power that is power, that which is from God, is ours without measure.

In the consciousness of their at-one-ment with God, men learn the true practical meaning of omnipotence. They learn that no conspiracy of evil, no combination of circumstances, no medical verdict, no seeming penalty, whether of sickness or sin, can prevail to victimize him who knows and is determined to be faithful to divine Principle, the cause and origin of his being.

Ego-God and Ego-Man

In Science and Health (p. 281) Mrs. Eddy asks the question, "What is the Ego, whence its origin and what its destiny?" And she answers, "The Ego-man is the reflection of the Ego-God." In this brief summary is stated the true nature of origin, of cause, and of effect. The Ego-man, what authority is his, in dignity and quietness, in the wisdom and discernment which Love bestows; what assurance of care and direction in all that he undertakes! This we see set forth in the life and works of the man Christ Jesus. Of him Mrs. Eddy has written (Science and Health, p. 332), "Jesus demonstrated Christ; he proved that Christ is the divine idea of God — the Holy Ghost, or Comforter, revealing the divine Principle, Love, and leading into all truth."

In the unity of God and man is divine government expressed. In this inseparability, and this alone, is the Ego-God reflected by the Ego-man. Abandoning the mortal concept of ourselves, holding before our thought the ideal of true manhood and womanhood, we shall determine to indulge neither the folly of pride nor the weakness of discouragement and self-condemnation; we shall repudiate the countless arguments which would tell us that sorrow, sickness, and sin are real conditions, disputing the jurisdiction of the divine will.

Worthiness Belongs to Man

How constantly the thought of unworthiness separates men from God and leads them to accept it as the reason for their suffering and misfortunes. Yet worthiness belongs to man. Because he is the work of an infinitely worthy God, man is the expression of God's worthiness. My friends, let us stop thinking of ourselves or others as either worthy or unworthy mortals, and learn to express the infinite worthiness of our divine Principle.

John, in the fourth chapter of Revelation, declared, "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created" (Rev. 4:11). Immediately after this exalted vision of the infinite nature of God the writer of the Apocalypse beheld a closed book, sealed with seven seals. And when he learned that no man was found worthy to open the book and loose the seals, or even to look thereon, he was profoundly distressed. But words of comfort came to him. Someone had been found worthy to behold the book and to open the seals. And then John heard a new song sung to the Lamb — surely a song of spiritual enlightenment and sovereignty — which declared, "Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof" (Rev. 5:9). Mr. Eddy, in the Glossary of Science and Health (p. 590), defines in part the "Lamb of God" as "the spiritual idea of Love."

It is in this "spiritual idea of Love" that the worthiness of God and the worthiness of man are revealed. The spiritual idea is the Christ; this is the Truth bringing to human consciousness the comprehension of divine Principle, and of the law and rule of Christian Science.

As the individual recognizes his God-given ability to be worthy, as he awakens to the consciousness of his responsibility to show forth the true meaning of Love, he finds himself not burdened and afraid, but inspired, serene, and confident. "Kings and priests unto God" — what an assurance of power and spiritual enlightenment! Governed by Principle, men's sense of life is no longer fraught with condemnation and coercion, with restriction and dependence on others. On the contrary, they enter into the realm of initiative and freedom which God bestows.

Intelligence Always Available

Divine intelligence is available in the least detail as well as in the widest field of endeavor. The following experience is a concrete evidence of this. An audit staff in a city in England was busy on a set of books belonging to a firm consisting of many branches. It was reported to one of their staff who was a Christian Scientist that the books did not balance. He looked in the obvious places for the errors, but without success.

It seemed that the only course would be to recheck the whole of the books, and this would take the staff about a week of steady work. This Christian Scientist, however, was confident that the error could be simply uncovered and corrected through divine Mind's guidance.

It was a Saturday when this occurred, and as the office would be closed at noon that day, he decided to return after lunch, when he would be alone and so could quietly ponder the truth of being and apply it to the situation. That afternoon, as he had planned, he sat at his desk, seeking to shut out of his thought all that was unlike God, to realize clearly the truth of this statement concerning man, by Mrs. Eddy in the textbook (p. 475), "that which has no separate mind from God." This being true, he knew that he was not at the mercy of non-intelligence and that in spiritual knowing, which is the Mind of man, no error could withstand the infinite light of Truth.

He then acted on the thoughts which came to him, knowing that he was being divinely guided. Turning over the pages of first one book and then another, he noticed various errors. When he listed all these errors, he found that they covered exactly the amount of discrepancy in the entire account.

He was soon able to leave the office and go home rejoicing, not only because the books were now balanced and ready for the staff on its return to the office on Monday morning, but because he had proved once again the truth as revealed in Christian Science — the ever-presence and availability of the divine Mind.

The Responsibility of Individual Self-Government

A distinguished British statesman has written: "The correlative to freedom is responsibility. Without responsibility freedom falls. Individual self-government which begins with fidelity to Principle is the only lasting freedom." If this is so, what then is the individual's responsibility to himself, to others, to the world? Surely it is to know that his freedom, and therefore his words and his actions, are consciously under the control of the Mind which is divine Love. Thus will he maintain the fact of man's worthiness; he will not accept as real the claims of a heritage other than that which comes of God. Fidelity to Principle demands alertness, self-discipline, unselfed motive and purpose; it calls for service at the behest of Mind, on behalf of humanity. He who accepts this as his standard and goal has embarked upon the only way to salvation both for himself and the race.

In the awareness of their true ego, men enter into the consciousness of their divinely reflected sovereignty; this humanly manifest is the establishment of righteous government in the world. This is the evidence of Christ Truth, bringing mercy and justice, peace and prosperity, even the kingdom of heaven to mankind.

In "The People's Idea of God" by Mrs. Eddy (p. 1), there is a profoundly significant statement, each sentence of which will help us as we gain its spiritual meaning, in the construction and reconstruction of character, of environment, of our relations with the world: "Every step of progress is a step more spiritual. The great element of reform is not born of human wisdom; it draws not its life from human organizations; rather is it the crumbling away of material elements from reason, the translation of law back to its original language, — Mind, and the final unity between man and God." Here is set forth what must be the basis of all spiritual teaching. In the oneness of Mind and idea is law manifest; in this oneness of God and man do we comprehend and express the only real universe and government.

Let none believe that within the narrow exclusiveness of his own personal affairs can responsibility be justifiably confined. Surely in Jesus' injunction, "Go ye into all the world," we see the call to include all mankind in our consciousness of God's government. How far did Mrs. Eddy's thought range in beneficent interest, in compassionate understanding of the problems which beset humanity everywhere? Here is a statement of hers in this connection (The First Church of Christ, Scientist and Miscellany, p. 147): "I have a work to do that, in the words of our Master, 'ye know not of.' From the interior of Africa to the utmost parts of the earth, the sick and the heavenly homesick or hungry hearts are calling on me for help, and I am helping them." How infinite is the operation of the divine law of Mind; how boundless the power of Love to bless all who come under its care!

"Progress," writes Mrs. Eddy (Miscellany, p. 181), "is spiritual. Progress is the maturing conception of divine Love." How do we learn to differentiate between spiritual progress and a belief of human progress, based so often on competition, on rivalry or aggression, on mortal ways and means, confined within the limits of its own mortal ability, liable, as must every merely human effort be, to the possibility of failure and disappointment? In one way only, and that is by consecrating our wills, our motives, our purposes to God. "Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always," said Jesus. This indeed is the divine model for progress — gratitude for the certainty of present communion, and complete confidence in the forever unity between God and man. In this practical, confiding exercise of prayer, or spiritual communion, are men directed and governed by God.

The Fundamental Nature of Prayer

So important a position has prayer in the Science of Christianity, that Mrs. Eddy, devoting many pages to its spiritual value, has placed the chapter with the title "Prayer" first in the textbook of Christian Science. As the result of reading this chapter alone, numbers have been healed of disease, of sorrow, of disbelief. Herein is explained the true nature of prayer, and its application to individual and universal needs. Jesus was conscious of man's oneness with the Father; and so he prayed not alone for himself and his disciples, but for all whom the Father had given him. And for what did he pray? To use his own words, he prayed, "That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me." In the answer to this prayer, will God's law express itself in progress, in wisdom, in unity. The evidence that this prayer is prayed understandingly today will be seen in human justice, in a sense of more abundant mercy, in a universal recognition of brotherhood.

Is it sometimes thought that in withdrawal, in a seeming intellectual or spiritual exclusiveness and detachment men can best express themselves and so progress? How liable is the individual, when misunderstandings, disagreements, and difficulties occur, to feel justified in retreating from the scene, and maintaining an attitude of aloofness from the efforts which others, with whom he may not agree, are making on behalf of mankind! Thus men and women will actually put themselves out of useful, progressive, constructive action, because variance over minor policies and methods has arisen which sensitiveness and egotism are inclined to balloon. My friends, in unity with God and man we shall refuse to surrender to the causeless insignificance of mortal disagreements. Our responsibility is to overcome every obstacle and disaffection, and to prove the deliverance which Truth offers from all ills. Our great task is to go forth in obedience to the command of Jesus, bringing the healing, redeeming Christ-gospel to mankind, in the way that Christian Science appoints.

The Revelation of Christian Science

To Mary Baker Eddy there was revealed, towards the end of the century, the Science of Christianity, bringing with it health and salvation. Of herself she has written, "From my very childhood I was impelled, by a hunger and thirst after divine things, — a desire for something higher and better than matter, and apart from it, — to seek diligently for the knowledge of God as the one great and ever-present relief from human woe" (Retrospection and Introspection, p. 31). This seeking was to culminate in victory. During the years of loss, of suffering, of invalidism, her faith and hope may sometimes have waxed dim, but they were never extinguished. When healing came, it was swift and complete. She was suffering from an injury which had been pronounced incurable and fatal. As a result of reading a passage from the New Testament — one of the miracles of Jesus — she was instantly well. She perceived in that moment, that her healing was the evidence of God's power, the operation of divine law.

After her own healing, and the revelation of Christ-power which had come to her, Mrs. Eddy sought the rules which she perceived must underlie her remarkable experience. She writes in Science and Health (p. 109), "I knew the Principle of all harmonious Mind-action to be God, and that cures were produced in primitive Christian healing by holy, uplifting faith; but I must know the Science of this healing, and I won my way to absolute conclusions through divine revelation, reason, and demonstration." These "absolute conclusions," my friends, are set forth in her writings. They are exact, scientific, based upon that which is eternal and unerring, inseparable from Mind, and today made practical, therefore continuously available to every earnest seeker for truth. Christian Scientists are profoundly grateful to Mrs. Eddy because she has revealed to them a universe not at the mercy of evil, but governed by Principle, which is also Love.

The Assurance of Victory

Let not men feel appalled at the tasks which today call for their aid, at the responsibilities which lie ahead of them; but rather let them rejoice that the opportunity is theirs to prove the knowledge of God and His laws. Had Christ Jesus turned back from that which he knew awaited him at the hands of his enemies, had he believed that in fact, Pilate had power to give or to take away life, would there have been the resurrection, the meeting on the Galilean shore? Would there have been the restoring of allegiance and consecration to weak disciples? Had Mrs. Eddy allowed the greatness of the task, the weight of responsibility, the fierceness of the opposition, to dishearten or discourage her — in a word, had personal rather than spiritual sense guided her — would the world have the knowledge of Christian Science which today, leavening the materiality of the age, uplifts standards of thought and action, brings to multitudes healing and regeneration? In steadfast courage and assurance of the power to resist and overcome evil whatever its nature, victory will continue to come to others as it came to her, as they press forward in this line of light. Truly Paul knew whereof he spoke when he declared, "Thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ."

The power which Jesus exercised was to be found in his inseparability from his divine Principle, God. In the measure that men, accepting him as their Way-shower, follow his example and obey his precepts, will their characters be ennobled and their lives illumined; will the Christ be made manifest in their homes, in their country, and in the world.

At his trials before Pilate and Herod, Jesus did not attempt to influence, to threaten, to coerce, to appease. It was sufficient for him that he knew the one and only source of power and stated it with implacable calm. In this consciousness of power, men will unerringly know themselves to be under the government of God.

The Demonstration of Righteous Government

"What," Mrs. Eddy asks us in Miscellany (p. 292), "cannot love and righteousness achieve for the race?" And she answers, "All that can be accomplished, and more than history has yet recorded." And she continues, "Through divine Love the right government is assimilated, the way pointed out, the process shortened, and the joy of acquiescence consummated."

Shortly before the present war in Europe, a Christian Science practitioner, a citizen in a country where the rights of the individual were liable to be ruthlessly disregarded, where even human lives were in jeopardy, under the false name of law and order, was sent for by those in authority and after a peremptory cross-examination told to give names and to describe the symptoms of her patients. This she refused to do. With a greater show of violence than before, the order was repeated. She stood her ground. She was threatened with punishment, but without effect. She was then asked her reason for refusal. She replied that according to the rules in the Manual of The Mother Church, which governed her actions in all that pertained to her work as a Christian Scientist, it was forbidden to divulge the information which comes to a practitioner from her patient. Knowing that even as Principle had directed the establishing of this rule in the Manual for the guidance and protection of practitioner and patient, so Principle would direct and protect her, she alone of those concerned in that courtroom remained calm. She knew that the power which had delivered Daniel from the lions' den, and had rolled back the stone from the sepulcher, would also deliver her.

The authority of divine Principle prevailed. Violence and despotism were forced to withdraw before it. She was permitted to leave the courtroom without further threats. And there was no reprisal. It was as though the whole incident had never taken place. Not long after, in a way no less humanly remarkable, another "lawful wonder" took place. Openly and without interference, this woman was able to leave her own country, and to go where freedom to practice Christian Science without menace, without restriction, was afforded her.

"Dominion, not subjection"

My friends, control is not something outside ourselves to which we have to submit — whether it is the control of our bodies by disease, weakness, weariness, or the control of our lives by influences sometimes pleasant, often the reverse. Men believe that other men or forces over which they have no control can take from them their liberty, defeat their dearest desires, rob them of what they most love and to which they believe themselves rightly entitled. Yet from the first chapter of Genesis to the last chapter of Revelation, and throughout the writings of Mrs. Eddy, it is made plain that the power with which we are endowed is from God and that it is all power. Jesus exercised this power, but he assured those who listened to him that it belonged to them also. Of man, Mrs. Eddy writes in the Christian Science textbook (p. 518): "His birthright is dominion, not subjection. He is lord of the belief in earth and heaven, — himself subordinate alone to his Maker." Neither mortal love nor hate, fear, false appetite nor desire can take control of him who knows that "reflecting God's government" he "is self-governed."

The experience that came to John in Revelation was of "a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away." In this new heaven and earth, men find themselves lords of the belief in a merely mortal sense of earth and heaven; they find themselves exercising spiritual dominion because inspired of Love and governed by divine Principle.

The new heaven and the new earth came to John as the false sense was relinquished, as spiritual sense took its place. For "behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away" (Rev. 21:3,4).

Are we waiting for this to happen individually, universally? Assuredly it is here. In referring to the experience of the Revelator, of his vision of no more pain, of all tears wiped away, Mrs. Eddy has written (Science and Health, pp. 573, 574), "When you read this, remember Jesus' words, 'The kingdom of God is within you.'" And she adds, "This spiritual consciousness is therefore a present possibility."

My friends, in the assurance of this "present possibility," in the awareness of the spiritual dominion which Mind bestows, may we, inspired, enlightened, upheld, continually prove in our own lives, and so in the world at large, that the new heaven and the new earth are here, revealed in Christian Science, as the manifestation of God's government of man and the universe.

 

[Delivered at First Church of Christ, Scientist, Syracuse, New York, Dec. 7, 1945, and published in The Gazette & Farmer's Journal of Baldwinsville, New York, Dec. 13, 1945.]

 

 

HOME PAGE                  INDEX OF LECTURES