Article May 15, 1937 Issue

The Goal

WILLIAM E. BROWN

In all activities of merit, leading to a reward for endeavor, one has before him a goal of some kind; and to have a clear comprehension of the nature and character of the goal is of vital importance to one's progress. Of this matter Mrs. Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 426), "The discoverer of Christian Science finds the path less difficult when she has the high goal always before her thoughts, than when she counts her footsteps in endeavoring to reach it."

Here it will be profitable to consider what constitutes "the high goal" to which our Leader refers. Is it not the ability to perceive the divine universe which God eternally beholds? Where is this universe? Since the divine universe is the expression of God, infinite Mind, it is everywhere, filling all space. Here again a question may be asked: If the divine universe is everywhere, what prevents one from being conscious of it? In answer to this question our Leader writes (ibid., p. 513): "Advancing spiritual steps in the teeming universe of Mind lead on to spiritual spheres and exalted beings. To material sense, this divine universe is dim and distant, gray in the sombre hues of twilight; but anon the veil is lifted, and the scene shifts into light." In this illuminating statement she shows what is blinding mortals and what must be overcome—namely, "material sense." She also states (ibid., p. 489), "Outside the material sense of things, all is harmony." This simplifies the question. One does not have to go anywhere, does not have to die, to see the divine universe. One has only to dispel material sense.

How this simplifies all our activities, focusing them upon the spiritual goal, making burdens light, and bringing the understanding of the Master's words, "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light"! Since "outside the material sense of things, all is harmony," it is plain that our chief business is to dispel material sense and replace it with the spiritual sense of being. Here the eager question is asked, How is this accomplished? Through the teaching of Christian Science one learns that, while material sense is constantly claiming that God is not the only power, and that there exists another power called evil, and that while God is spiritual, man is material, these claims of material sense are not divine facts. Here one stands at the crossroads of thought and must choose the path which leads to spiritual understanding and to demonstration.

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