Article June 5, 1909 Issue

PERSONAL ATTACHMENT

M. G. KAINS, M.S.

The key-note of Christianity is that God is the sole cause and creator of all that really exists. Every advance in spiritual attainment is based upon the acceptance of this truth, first as a belief; then, as a result of cumulative evidence, as a fact. In other words. Christianity, reiterated in Christian Science, its present-day restatement, insists upon individual right thinking—the thinking of God's thoughts. It is emphatic and inexorable in its insistence upon obedience to the demand, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." This recognition of God as the originator and sustainer of the universe precludes the existence of any other independent thinker than God or infinite Mind, and just as positively it precludes the existence of any kind of man other than the spiritual man who is cognized in Science as the highest divine manifestor of God's thoughts. Based upon this statement, man—spiritual man—has dominion over all the earth,—over the falsity or belief that there is any real power, or creation, or existence, or experience apart from God.

In taking this radical and scientific stand, Christian Science recognizes the spiritual creation as real and wholly real; and conversely, it designates the suppositional material universe, including the suppositional material man, as unreal and wholly unreal. To be sure, in our day no one has actually gone so far as this in the presentation of complete or concrete proof; but just as a traveler consulting a map recognizes the landmarks on his chart when he reaches them in his journey, so the student in Christian Science recognizes the correctness of his thinking or growth in spirituality by signs of self-healing, and from these signs he gains confidence of the rightness of his course and is encouraged to press forward. What if he has not fed the thousands, walked on the water, and raised the dead, did not Jesus do these mighty works? And did not Jesus declare that greater works even than these should be presented by all who adhere strictly to his teaching? These works are landmarks on the chart, and they will be reached in due course.

The whole purport of Jesus ministry is individual reliance upon God, who must be constantly cognized as the ever-present help. In all his teachings Jesus constantly pointed away from himself to God as the sole cause, creator, and sustainer; in all his works he typified the work that each one of his followers must do,—the direction that each must take, the landmarks each must pass. Nothing so conspicuously characterizes Jesus' work as his utter reliance upon God as the All-sufficient. Nowhere in the imperfect record of his mission is there a hint that he ever looked to any other power, person, or thing for aid; on the contrary, the record teems with statement and proof that he knew God not only always had heard but always would hear his prayer, because he was praying according to God's law.

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit

PERSONAL ATTACHMENT

We'd love to hear from you!

Sign up for unlimited access