Article January 23, 1909 Issue

AT HAND

ETTA L. CHAPMAN.

In Matthew's Gospel we read that Jesus, after his temptation in the wilderness, "began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." When knowledge is at hand, ignorance disappears; as truth makes its appearance, the lie nears its vanishing-point; with the coming of the morning light we feel sure that we shall be in darkness no longer; as good begins to come into our thought, evil, its opposite, takes its departure. If the kingdom of heaven, "the reign of Spirit" (Science and Health, p. 587), is at hand, it follows in like manner that "the end of all [material] things is at hand," as Peter writes in his first epistle.

It has been truly said that knowledge is power; hence ignorance, its opposite, is powerless. The child at school bends his efforts to the acquiring of knowledge. His teacher hands him a picture with instructions to count the objects represented, name their color, tell their shape, etc. She does not say to the child, "Think how little you know about number, color, and shape, and tell me what you see." She and her pupil utterly disregard ignorance as a factor in the working of the problem, for it is powerless—no thing. Those who have learned that the kingdom of heaven is truly at hand, should bend all their energies to the task of grasping, realizing, the presence of this kingdom; and in proportion as this realization comes into our consciousness, the end of material things follows.

The child never looks to ignorance as a means of gaining knowledge, neither should we use the material in gaining the spiritual. A friend said to me not long ago, "I do not wish to think there is no matter." What would be her reply if her child should say, "I do not wish to think that two and two do not make five"? Would that be a good and sufficient reason for his holding to the wrong thought? Just as knowing that two and two are four fits us for knowing other truths about numbers and for arithmetical calculations, giving us that mathematical knowledge which is power, thus putting an end to ignorance, so the knowledge that man is spiritual and not material fits us for further spiritual progress and for working out the problems of life; and this means the end of material belief for us.

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