Seeking First the Kingdom of God

BERTA TRACHSLER

ONCE, when the solution of a problem seemed to be very difficult, a student of Christian Science pondered whether, in overcoming human discord, be it called sin, sickness, lack, or death, our object primarily is to prove the allness of God, good, in order to extol our Father's glory and His love for all His children, or whether it is simply to make things easier for ourselves. Christ Jesus taught mankind to seek "first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness;" and Christian Science also teaches this as our foremost duty. Again and again Mrs. Eddy calls our attention to spiritual man, created in God's likeness, untouched by human belief, and reflecting the perfection of Deity. If we wish to obey our Leader and prove God's goodness, which Christ Jesus revealed, there can be no reservation in our thinking, for there is but one way of carrying out the spirit of her statement on page 3 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures": "The Divine Being must be reflected by man,—else man is not the image and likeness of the patient, tender, and true, the One 'altogether lovely;' but to understand God is the work of eternity, and demands absolute consecration of thought, energy, and desire."

When raising Lazarus from the belief in death, Christ Jesus said to those around him, "Loose him, and let him go." This indicates that we should give up all belief of mortality in our concept of man, and see him as reflecting God, everlasting Life. The father of the prodigal knew that for the son to lose the false sense of pleasure in the mutable, unsatisfactory, limited, and sinning beliefs of the Adam-dream demanded sincere desire, energy, and thought. He knew that man in the divine likeness was not lost, nor touched by the belief of sin. He looked upon the prodigal's momentary condition as an unreal dream, and knew that the dreamer must prolong his experience until he was thoroughly dissatisfied with sin and the punishment it inflicts.

When the prodigal returned home repentant, with the earnest desire to leave behind him forever the dream of sin with its husks,—to forget it as a bad dream,—the loving father was ready to bestow upon the awakened one his birthright and to rejoice with him in his willingness to recognize and utilize the good which was his by divine inheritance. All the good coming from father to son had always been his, and had remained his even during his absence from home.

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