A Saner Sense

John B. Willis

To grow more spiritually wise is to grow more discriminating, more scientific in our thought, and one of the most fundamentally corrective and broadly illuminating contributions made by Christian Science to the truth seeker is its new and provably true definition of nature, of God's universe, and of life.

A very large body of Christian believers include in their thought of the natural world that which is regarded as of God, and yet which is condemned by their moral sense, and which as they aver is to be escaped from through faith in Christ, plus the experience of death. They even identify themselves with that which is unspiritual, unlike God, so that their thought of the first step in the ascent of the Christian life, viz., conviction of sin, is to be thoroughly ashamed of one's self. Surely the admixture of good and evil so generally consented to as legitimate if not necessary, never assumed a more grotesque figure. Even the Greek philosophers were the more consistent, in that they frankly declared the unideality of their gods, whose envyings, immortalities, and strifes not only supply the background and explanation of what has been named "the romance of mythology," but explain by way of sufficient reason all the contradictions, contentions, and tragedies of the world life which was subject to them and in which they were wont to take a very active part. This renders the splendid ethics of an Aurelius and an Epictetus the more remarkable, and their loyalty thereto the more heroic and wonderful.

Today the fruit of "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" which comes to its ripening in the asserted Christian theology that stands for the divinity of the material order, lacks some of the pagan virtues, since it dishonors the ideal to which its representatives professedly adhere. Nothing can be more discreditable or self-stultifying than to believe that God, the infinite good, maintains and, by consent if not by purpose, is responsible for a world order which is instantly pronounced upon by the moral sense of the believer, and which, as asserted, must be gotten away from through the further divine provision of death in order to reach the ideal life.

The teaching of Christian Science is ever in unison with the thought that both in nature and in manifestation God is absolutely and eternally consistent. It declares that His world, the only natural world, is now present and may be brought into immediate demonstration, so that St. John's declaration, "Now are we the sons of God," no longer remains a transcendental vision, but becomes an irresistibly victorious actuality of present-day experience, the realization of that sovereign rule of man which is declared and rejoiced over in the eighth psalm. Nature thus takes on an entirely new meaning in the light of St. Paul's scientific statement that "the invisible things of him [God] from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made," or as Mrs. Eddy has phrased the perception, "His manifold wisdom shines through the visible world in glimpses of the eternal verities. Even through the mists of mortality is seen the brightness of His coming" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 363).

This is the new world into which they have entered who through apprehension of Christian Science have learned to discriminate between the realities of Truth and the seemings of false sense. The basis of a true democracy and of a redemptive humanitarianism has thus been gained. Every unideal human state or condition now prompts only to compassionate, freedom-bringing ministry. To think right about God and man is the one remedial thing which all believers are privileged to do all the time.

This Christ-idea enthroned in human consciousness and radiated through all the channels of human experience is the panacea for all ills. It is the Word of God, and able to save "to the uttermost." This is the new vision, the new life, and the new joy to which we are called, and its goal and consummation were named when the "great voices in heaven" were heard saying, "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ."

John B. Willis.

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Lecture in The Mother Church

January 22, 1916

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