Article August 27, 1910 Issue

"WHAT THINGS SOEVER YE DESIRE."

MARY L. HENLEY.

What wonderful reassurance of our faith is contained in that far-reaching promise of the Master, "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." True substance cannot be acquired nor accumulated; it is reflected when absolute faith and spiritual understanding unite in realization. Only the spiritual understanding of man's inseparable unity with God, divine Mind, can produce the faith necessary for the fulfilment of this promise,—the understanding that only immortal thought and not the desire of mortal mind can claim the inheritance of the divine kingdom. Could the manifestation of the desires of mortal mind be insured, the universe would be chaos, without Principle or law, and men would be without hope. To believe that the desires of mortal mind can be rewarded, is to deny that all power belongs to God.

Unwittingly we often look for the realization of certain desires which spiritual sense shows us are but counterfeits of true desire, mortal concepts of good; therefore we must learn to distinguish "the line of demarcation between the real and unreal" (Science and Health, p. 505). Error must be detected and Truth be recognized; desire or preference for a specific object or course of action must give way to desire for what is right; and dread, dislike, prejudice, must vanish not only in willingness, but in love and joy. In short, only as we reflect the divine consciousness, in which impersonal, impartial desire for universal good predominates, can we claim this promise of Love. Nor can human will-power aid in this destruction of the mortal, but spiritual understanding. Constant recognition of the coincidence of divine Principle and the spiritual idea leaves no channel through which mortal desires can be expressed. As this fact becomes manifested in various human activities and relations, we realize to a greater extent the infinitude of spiritual creation and our individual sphere of action is enlarged.

To entertain, consciously or unconsciously, a belief that there can be any good desire other than that which emanates from divine consciousness, obstructs one's vision, impedes progress, and narrows his sphere of human experience and action. To eliminate material personality in the realm of desire, as in all other fields of thought, is but to forsake matter for Spirit and prove by demonstration the truth of Mrs. Eddy's statement: "This scientific sense of being forsaking matter for Spirit, by no means suggests man's absorption into Deity and the loss of his identity, but confers upon man enlarged individuality, a wider sphere of thought and action, a more expansive love, a higher and more permanent peace" (Ibid., p. 265).

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