God's Eternal Purpose

KATE E. ANDREAE

From the time the student of Christian Science recognizes something of man's real being as God's idea, an open highway stretches out before him; and as he steps forth he quickly realizes that infinite possibilities lie ahead, and that already some of the many limitations and restrictions of mortal thought are beginning to drop away. Furthermore, he realizes with ever-growing conviction that God's eternal purpose for His sons is irrevocably fixed throughout eternity.

There are times, however, when one may not clearly see the way to go. Circumstances may necessitate a change in his ordinarily uneventful life. Perhaps two ways are open to him, and a decision has to be made. What shall he do? He has the sincere desire to follow the divine leading, implicitly to obey the Father's will and yield to the divine plan. Yet, at the crossroads no voice is heard to direct, no indication of a guiding hand is seen.

Here it is well to remember that to one who is rightly or divinely directed there is no wrong way. Whichever way one is led to go, it is not primarily the outward activity, the profession or locality, that counts. God is not concerned with the mortal concept of place and position. Looked at from the highest standpoint there is only one way. Mrs. Eddy writes in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 359), "The way is absolute divine Science: walk ye in it; but remember that Science is demonstrated by degrees, and our demonstration rises only as we rise in the scale of being."

The way, then, is so to live one's life that every thought, word, and deed shall be to the glory of God; to have but one aim, one desire—to understand Him better, and through every trial and temptation to "rise in the scale of being."

Wherever we are, whatever our work, we have the spiritual assurance in Christian Science that God's purpose is expressed here and everywhere. How impossible, then, to swerve from the eternally divine will! From the human standpoint, the hemisphere we are in and the work we are doing may seem all-important. But are they? Far more important is it to ask oneself the questions: Am I following the pathe of righteousness? Am I overcoming a false sense of self?

The vastness of the deific vision and comprehension embraces the length, depth, breadth, and height of God's glorious plan for His ideas. Therefore our great necessity is to recognize man's place, our place, in Mind. We need to pray for that Mind which was in Christ Jesus, for that pure thought which penetrates the mists of the seeming—the mortal concept—and through every trial and difficulty focuses reality. We need to pray to be lifted up that we may perceive God's unalterable plan for His child. The acknowledgment that God's purpose is always manifested will compel us to keep our feet on the way upward. What if the so-called powers of evil have seemed to lure us for a time? What if the suggestion often presents itself that we are at work in a wrong direction? Our Leader writes in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 154), "It is the purpose of divine Love to resurrect the understanding, and the kingdom of God, the reign of harmony already within us."

Whatever occupation we are engaged in, whichever of the two ways we may have chosen, we are always at that point in our experience where more of the divine purpose is coming to light. Webster gives us a definition of the word "experience" as follows: "The ultimate, nonanalyzed data of all happenings that may be apprehended." The real happening for the student of Christian Science are the ascending footsteps out of darkness into light. The so-called happenings of material existence, the impulses of mortal mind and their outcome, even the taking of what seems a wrong road for a time, can in no way impede the mighty compulsion of the divine purpose; for "who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commanded it not?" The effort of evil to hinder one's course upward must fall before the irresistible force of the one divine will.

We are now at the point of fulfillment. What seems, humanly speaking, a far-off possibility to us, is now and forever a perfect fact in Mind. That which seems in his present stage of growth a dawning possibility to the Christian Scientist is an established reality in Mind's infinite plan. Relatively, we take the ascending path; we climb up towards the ultimate. Actually, God's complete and finished work comes daily into the focus of our increased faith and understanding.

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