Firmament

IN the first chapter of Genesis we read, "And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters." In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, in the Glossary, we have a spiritual definition of the word "Firmament" (p. 586), "Spiritual understanding; the scientific line of demarcation between Truth and error, between Spirit and so-called matter." The Christian Scientist is ever seeking for that discernment of spiritual good which clearly reveals the unreality of matter or evil, and this line of demarcation can rightly be called spiritual understanding, because it gives us full power to separate the chaff from the wheat and distinctly ascertain the truth about whatever the material senses behold. The question of how this scientific discernment can be attained is asked by each one. Of course success is to be obtained only to the extent or measure that one abandons the false beliefs of life and intelligence in matter. The false hypothesis of substance and intelligence in matter, which can only bring suffering, has to be eliminated, for all reasoning from a material basis is antagonistic to metaphysics, is perverted and speculative.

Only as each seeker beholds man as the reflection of God can he possibly prove the truth of immortality and find Life to be eternal. He then finds that perfect God and perfect man equal perfect harmony, that man is without the slightest sense of limitation imposed by the carnal mind. This true knowledge enables him to discern between the real and the unreal. Then, from this basis of true reasoning, scientific discernment elevates him to the perception of spiritual understanding, which he proves by actual demonstration. He thus proves that God is the only source of activity and reality, and the result will be encouragement and inspiration for further demonstration. The standpoint of man's immortality reveals this clear and definite point of reasoning, in which we accept that only which man is conscious of, spiritual living or being which is revealed to us through the senses of Soul.

On the other hand, mortal man, believing the false testimony of Life and intelligence in matter, shows suffering to be inevitable, and he has no point from which he can reason correctly. The truth we know and demonstrate is spiritual living, in fact, is all we know of man in the image and likeness of God. As good unfolds to our thought, we find that the line of demarcation has to be drawn very definitely and decidedly if we are to divide "the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament." If we are absorbed in materiality we can but discern faintly, if at all, man's true sonship with God, and only as we come to the recognition of the nothingness of materiality and that all we can have from materiality is evil continually, we are turned away form these discordant conditions, perhaps through extremity which ofttimes becomes God's opportunity.