Article August 24, 1912 Issue

THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN

EDWARD H. CARMAN.

The Master once asked, "Whereunto shall I liken the kingdom of God?" and himself gave this answer: "It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened." When Christ Jesus gave utterance to this statement, there was voiced a potent prophecy and its fulfilment; in other words, the full development of the Science of Christianity.

Isaiah foresaw and forestated that God should in the course of time give His people a sign, namely, "A virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good." Subsequent history, nearly eight hundred years after this prophecy was made, saw its actual fulfilment. Christ Jesus was born of a virgin, and he did know to refuse (deny or reject) evil, and to choose the good. The knowledge of man's true selfhood as the son of God gave him power to heal the sick, raise the dead, and open the way for others. He recognized the prophecy—accepted his divine possibilities and demonstrated over the universal belief in death and the grave. He said of the faithful follower, "The works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do."

Jesus' realization that in him was the fulfilment of Isaiah's prophecy enabled him to see also that the divine Mind was the one source from which comes all revelation, and that the foreseeing and foretelling sense of the seers and prophets was derived from the one Mind; hence his vision was clear to foresee and foretell the coming of Christian Science through a woman, as intimated in the parable of the leaven. The coming of Christian Science was also included in Isaiah's prophecy, for its fundamental teaching shows that we must at every step of the way know enough to refuse evil and choose good. Christian Science overcomes evil by denying its reality and affirming the allness of God, good.

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