Editorial September 9, 1911 Issue

"THE KINGDOM OF GOD"

Annie M. Knott

Among the many sage and sacred utterances of the great Teacher, none is of more importance than this, "The kingdom of God is within you." A study of this subject as presented in the four gospels, also in the epistles, richly repays one for the time devoted to it. Christ Jesus and several of his immediate followers tell us practically everything that is to be known respecting the nature of God's kingdom. Paul says that it is not "meat and drink;" that none who are unrighteous can enter into it, neither the extortioners nor the impure,—and he adds that "flesh and blood cannot inherit" it. Luke impressively tells us that Jesus discoursed on this subject to the people who followed him to a "desert place," and there he "healed them that had need of healing."

In our own day, no less than at that time, the greatest need of each one is not merely to be healed of distressing mental and physical conditions, a far greater need being to discern the kingdom within, to know that its government is vested in divine Principle and that its laws are spiritual and absolutely just. So long as we believe that the kingdom is far from us, either in a localized heaven or in some more favored place than that in which we dwell, we are selflimited and so fail to grasp our God-given opportunities for good until the mistake is seen and corrected. We shall never be in any place where God is nearer to us than He is where we are every moment, since, as the Bible declares, He fills heaven and earth; and until we recognize the absolute reign of divine Principle within our own consciousness we shall in vain look for it without.

He who questions divine justice does not see that he himself must enthrone justice within, as that before which every petty consideration of self-interest must bow down. As he begins to do this, he will get a firmer grasp of the power of right doing and right thinking, and he will know that as "God is not mocked," so the God-idea which he loves and lives cannot be mocked by any arrogancy of boastful mortal belief. He may have to wait for a complete demonstration, but this is really because the kingdom is not fully established within. Of old the psalmist said, "The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice." For this good reason we may rejoice exceedingly every day, for if God reigns within us, no foe can harm us, nor can we be subject to sin, disease, or death. No, for we are then subject to the Mind that governs the universe, the One who calls the stars by their name, and who says to the proud wave of oppression, "Thus far and no farther" (Science and Health, p. 124).

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