Article June 12, 1920 Issue

One Government

JACOB A. REID

ON page 73 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," our revered Leader, Mrs. Eddy, states: "The belief that one man, as spirit, can control another man, as matter, upsets both the individuality and the Science of man, for man is image. God controls man, and God is the only Spirit. Any other control or attraction of so-called spirit is a mortal belief, which ought to be known by its fruit,—the repetition of evil." It is only reasonable to suppose that like must necessarily come from like; in fact, anything to the contrary could not appear reasonable, for it is against all that is intelligently known. The fact that one is alive and conscious proves that true living can come only from a source of like substance and that all must naturally come from the same source, the same Life or consciousness. This line of reasoning must of itself denote the fact that, coming from the one Mind, all must of necessity be governed and controlled by the one infinite source. This at once relieves us of any false responsibility in governing our fellow man. Jesus made this plain in many ways and has told us very plainly to deny ourselves and follow him. This means of course to deny the belief that human beings are of themselves an entity, since all true experience is governed, supported, and controlled by one loving Parent.

Both Science and Health and the Bible in many places continually remind us that God is Spirit and also that God is Love, and it naturally and necessarily follows that God's government or way of governing can be through only one method—that of love. Any attempt at governing, therefore, in our daily intercourse with our fellow man, upon any other basis than that of the law of Love, indicates a lack of understanding or disregard of both law and order, and must naturally result in discord and inharmony. Man, being God's expression, is under the divine law of Love—Love being the only creator.

Ever to think of man as a material being is to deny Truth, for mortal man was never really created, does not exist, and never can exist, for the simple reason that God, the first cause and creator, was and is All, and being purely Spirit, had nothing whatever to create from except Mind or Spirit. The false belief that there is such a thing as a material man comes from the general belief that there is such a thing as a mortal or carnal mind. God is the one and only Mind. Any deviation from this fact naturally shows to us plainly that the error is in seeming lack of understanding and not the fault of our brother man.

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