Home

MAUDE WOODWARD

A Thought common to all mortals is that a home is something to be desired, whether it be one of pleasant location or a tent in a wilderness. To all it should mean a place of retreat in the midst of the cares and duties of everyday life, a sweet resting place for quiet confidence and friendly associations. But this material home, the home visible, dear as it may seem, must not be taken for the reality. Mrs. Eddy tells us in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 277), "Nothing we can say or believe regarding matter is immortal, for matter is temporal and is therefore a mortal phenomenon, a human concept, sometimes beautiful, always erroneous." Nothing that is temporal or finite can ever be real, for reality is that which suffers no change or loss.

Through the acceptance and understanding of this teaching thousands of Christian Scientists are learning to look beyond the human concept of home to the true concept, and to dwell mentally in the real home, the spiritual home, the home not built with hands. This understanding of home as essentially spiritual makes possible the harmonious manifestation of home in human experience. In order to understand home in its fullness, completeness, harmony, and beauty each must realize in his individual consciousness a building process or unfolding of the qualities which characterize the true habitation.

The Psalmist sang, "Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations;" and on page 254 of Science and Health we are told, "Pilgrim on earth, thy home is heaven." Now what is heaven but a divine state of thought? So the mental builder's work is that of establishing in his consciousness the spiritual sense of existence. Sometimes the building may go on slowly; obstacles in the way may incur much excavating of deeply intrenched material beliefs that the divine abiding place may appear. It may mean much surrendering of selfish motives and purposes before even the foundation can be laid, for perfect building can rest only on the basis of honesty, humility, and unselfed love.

Oftentimes discouragement and impatience try to enter and delay our progress; but at such a time the alert mental worker turns all the more definitely to his model and guide, which he finds through study of the Bible and the writings of our Leader. If he is consistently obedient to the directions given there, he will see each day something gained in the way of maintaining thoughts of peace where peace had seemed absent; thoughts of love where hate is struggling for admittance; thoughts of faith and trust when doubt and suspicion knock for entrance; thoughts of progress and prosperity while all about appear loss and stagnation. And so the work of building goes on, "precept upon precept" accepted, "line upon line" proved, so that in time the outgrown shell of wrong thinking is laid off, and one of those mansions the Master spoke of is envisaged. "The peace of God, which passeth all understanding," is thus attained, peace which only the consciousness of home in Mind can give.

This true home is not subject to mortgage or indebtedness; nor can it be broken up, disrupted, or interfered with. No thief can break into it; nothing can destroy it. It cannot be lost, for it is everywhere present. Man cannot be separated from his home, for it is coexistent with him. The true home is where man is. It exists because of divine decree and is subject only to the law of Love.

Thanks be to God and to divine Science through which the truth is unfolded, we find that home is not confined to a localized material spot! It is infinite, immortal, everlasting, and belongs to all alike. Take courage, all who are laboring under a sorrowful sense of depression, deprivations! Loss is but the false sense of things, which flees when "Truth dawns on the sight." Our true home is intact. Its door is open now to all, and nothing can shut it. Let us enter with thanksgiving, and enjoy the good prepared for all by the Father, "with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning."

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