Article September 20, 1913 Issue

Our Highest Concept

MYRTLE B. S. JACKSON

Science and Health speaks of Jesus as "the highest human corporeal concept of the divine idea" (p. 589). Jesus knew himself, and knew that humanity cannot come into the presence of the all-knowing, all-loving Father except by way of its highest concept of divinity, and that there is positively no other means of receiving more of the knowledge and presence of God; hence the Master repeatedly invited mankind to come unto him, saying, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest;" "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out;" "I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger." It is significant that Jesus did not say in the first instance, Come unto God, but "Come unto me," and in this surely is shown his loving-kindness and tender mercy toward imperfect, struggling mortal thought, so fearful because so ignorant of the deep things of man's infinite Principle.

The Saviour knew that he stood at that point of experience and demonstration where he represented as much of the Christ, or divine idea, as the world could perceive and understand. When men and women did answer the call, and did come unto him, he had more beauty and blessedness to unfold, even the teaching contained in the words, "I can of mine own self do nothing;" "the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works." And today, and through all ages, we shall gain the true spirit and knowledge of divine healing, the true understanding of our Father-Mother God, only as we study our Lord's life and example. But though we are not among those privileged thousands who came into his personal presence, have we therefore lost any of that which we so much need to steady and strengthen our footsteps? No, for our highest human concept of a divine idea is always with us, in our most individual and peculiar problems. We may still arise and follow this path to the sure acquisition of the spiritual consciousness which is our actual need.

Often in our every-day life we want certain things for ourselves and those dear to us, and we fret ourselves and are troubled with fear because we feel that our most sincere desires may be unworthy or unwise, or that in some way the good we long for may not be good for us to have. We struggle to get an idea of God's will toward us, which may seem so far away and intangible that we cannot lay hold of it with any sense of relief and comfort; whereas, if we would only rejoice in such spiritual concepts of the true, beautiful, and good things as we are able to perceive, if we would trustfully come unto our highest human concept of good, would accept it, and know that we do in very deed experience the Christ-coming because we welcome the best and purest ideals that we can grasp, such confidence would remove our ignorance and uncertainty, and we should then be able to perceive those still better things "which God hath prepared for them that love him." It may be only the desire for better health, more happiness, or the success of some legitimate undertaking, but if it represents our present highest sense of good, we have a right to know that it is already ours, since divine perfection must at least include all that is good in our faint picture of goodness, and nothing less than perfection and the abundance of love is ever God's will toward man.

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