Article April 25, 1908 Issue

AT ONE WITH GOD

CLARENCE W. CHADWICK.

How to get "out with the sinner and in with the saint" is a perplexing problem prior to the advent of Christian Science in individual consciousness, but this Science begins at once to unfold to humanity the spiritual unity existing between God and man, and through such unfolding the unreal nature of so-called mortal life is brought to light. Former things pass away, and "behold, all things are become new." The new heaven and the new earth begin to dawn upon human consciousness and humanity is no longer in darkness as to the accurate and scientific understanding which must precede the full coming of the kingdom of heaven on earth.

What a blessing to every human being to know positively how he can conquer everything which seems to stand between himself and God! There may have been a time, and doubtless was, when he did not know that he had to work out his own salvation. He may have accepted the theory that Jesus had atoned for all his sins, and that he was a free moral agent to think as he pleased, a theory which leaves the problem of evil unsolved for the mortal who believes it. He now knows that another's goodness, however great it may be, cannot remove the personal responsibility resting upon him who commits sin, but that as he sows, so must he reap. To follow in the footsteps of the Master now means something tangible and practical to him. He sees that he must learn to do as Jesus did, but first of all to think as he thought.

Right here begins the work of every true follower of the Christ; he must begin to purify his own mentality. Christian Science presents Christ Jesus to the world as the exponent of right thinking, and proportionally as the individual learns to think and to do as he did, will he be found at one with God, in harmony with the Principle of his being. The student of Christian Science soon discovers that Jesus' words and works were expressed and wrought through a spiritual or metaphysical understanding of God. His view-point was above the grasp of the so-called physical senses, hence the need of correcting the thinking that is in full sympathy with sense testimony. Thought cannot be in accord with the evidence before the physical senses and at the same time in accord with the supersensible and eternal. Material belief must be sacrificed before any scientific unification or reconciliation can be realized.

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