Article June 7, 1919 Issue

The Right Place

GRACE E. ADAMSON

The declaration is often made by students of Christian Science, "I know that all God's ideas are in their right places;" but not infrequently this declaration is followed by a discouraged qualification, "But I can't see that I am in my right place all the same." The necessity therefore arises to gain a clearer understanding of what constitutes the "right place." On page 282 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy says, "Matter has no place in Spirit, and Spirit has no place in matter," and on page 468, "Man is not material; he is spiritual." Hence man's right and only place must be in Spirit or divine Mind, and his only environment the influences of Mind.

The student of Christian Science discovers that discord obtains in his own false sense of his surroundings rather than in the surroundings themselves, and that a realization of Love's harmonious government and control of every idea will restore harmony. This causes him to exclaim in the words of Jacob, "Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not." Yet there are times in human experience when one apparently finds himself in very unpleasant and discordant surroundings from which he longs to escape. What is he to do then? Is he to stifle every desire for a change of environment, try to be resigned, and declare he is in his right place?

Suppose one were to awaken from sleep one morning with such a sense of sickness that it seemed impossible to rise, would he give up the attempt, and declare he must be in his right place? Would he not rather strive to realize that his right place is no more a locality than is heaven, but that he lives, and moves, and has his being in divine Mind; therefore his right place is in the consciousness of the perfect, harmonious activity of Mind? The complete realization of this fact would destroy the sense of sickness, enabling him to rise from his bed and joyfully take his proper place in the world's activity. His effort to realize the truth of being would be the same in either case and would bring a similar result. It is impossible to be held in bondage if obedient to Principle, since the Christ declared that a knowledge of Truth would make free. Since God's plan is already perfect and man already harmonious, the mists of material sense have only to be pierced with the light of spiritual understanding to bring this fact into view—to witness externalized results.

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