Article July 8, 1911 Issue

DOMINION

IGERNA B. J. SOLLAS.

THE second of the new sayings of Jesus has been interpreted thus: "Jesus saith (Ye ask who are those) that draw us to the kingdom, if the kingdom is in heaven? . . . The fowls of the air, and all beasts that are under the earth or upon the earth, and the fishes of the sea (these are they which draw) you, and the kingdom of heaven is within you: and whoever shall know himself shall find it. (Strive therefore?) to know yourselves, and ye shall be aware that ye are the sons of the (almighty) Father: (and?) ye shall know that ye are in the (city of God?), and ye are (the city)."

The text is scanty and the meaning doubtful, but the association of the allusion to the animal kingdom with the command to discover the divine sonship of man, that is, to see in man the divine image, is suggestive that this saying is a quotation from Genesis i. 26: "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." If this saying is a free quotation of the Scriptures, as many of the sayings of Jesus were, then in putting it in this form Jesus was spiritually interpreting it. What he understood by dominion over the beasts he showed when he said, "Behold, I give you power to tread on serpents and scorpions;" "They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them." This dominion is found only by him who strives to know himself the son of God, who "waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God," and it is one with the dominion over the carnal self.

Daniel's dominion over the lions in the den consisted in his knowledge of himself as a son of God, free from all thoughts of fear or of resentment against the king who had put him in a place of seeming danger, and "understanding the control which Love held over all" (Science and Health, p. 514). So Paul in his fearlessness was able to prove that the viper instead of hurting him could become a means to convince the people of his divine mission. He was drawn to the kingdom by the overcoming of false beliefs and by the vision of true being. Mrs. Eddy tells us that "the serpent of God's creating is neither subtle nor poisonous, but is a wise idea, charming in its adroitness, for Love's ideas are subject to the Mind which forms them,—the power which changeth the serpent into a staff" (Ibid., p. 515).

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