Article October 7, 1916 Issue

Heaven Realized

JUNE WINONA SNYDER

WHEN Christian Science is first brought to the notice of an individual, its religious teachings strongly appeal to the idealistic side of his nature. His innate yearning for that beautiful experience called heaven is kindled and to a great extent temporarily satisfied when the thought catches the strain of those beautiful words, God is Love. Perhaps some troublesome disease which has been sapping his vitality for months, even years, yields to that activity known as Christian Science treatment; or perchance he has even been lifted out of the "valley of the shadow" itself, and the heart wells forth in true gratitude for these kindly ministrations. He begins to feel that life has a new meaning for him,—the sunshine seems so much brighter, friends so much dearer,—and he believes that he is actually tasting of that bliss which a few weeks ago seemed so far away.

To the earnest seeker after Truth this experience is but the gateway to the outer courtyard of heaven. The word heaven implies harmony, perfection, spiritual purity. True harmony does not include fear, doubt, anxiety, sorrow. Perfection does not include anger, hatred, malice, and their concomitants. Spiritual purity is not acquainted with lust, passion, dishonesty. Ah, how far away, after all, from mortal sense is that outward gate from heaven itself! But the consciousness once awakened to the realization that God is pure Mind and that man is the image and likeness of this Mind, will if honest set to work to purify sense and self, as by no other method could it make the least claim to be like God. The struggles and trials through which one is carried while undergoing this process of purification are indeed many, and the degree of their severity depends upon the amount of error in the human consciousness, or where material sense is most in evidence.

With very little study one soon learns that physical disease is but the externalized manifestation of erroneous or unspiritual thinking, and that as one becomes more genuinely honest in thought, more truly loving and generous, in short, as one's thought changes from a material to a spiritual basis, his body, which is but the subjective condition of his thought, becomes more and more harmonious. The scientific understanding of health being mentally established, finds visible expression in what we call a healthy body. The beginner also learns that mental anguish is but lacerated thought, due to clinging so tenaciously to material hopes, plans, desires, and tendencies, and that this also will subside as he learns something of that humility which says, "Thy will be done," and forfeits his own cherished will, knowing that God's will is divine law, and that this law must be obeyed and enforced or else no permanent harmony can ensue.

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