"In heavenly Love abiding"

DAISY D. IAMS

These words from a familiar hymn in the Christian Science Hymnal,

"In heavenly Love abiding,
No change my heart shall fear,"

have brought peace and assurance to many a troubled heart. Therefore, if a change is contemplated, it can be carried out with confidence and joy, when the truth as taught in Christian Science is realized.

A student of Christian Science, who found herself in the depths of self-pity, turned her thought to God for the angel message which would release her from this would-be destroyer of health and happiness. She had had to give up much that seemed dear to her—a comfortable home, parents, and friends—and had moved to a strange city, where it seemed almost impossible to adjust herself to the new environment. Pondering over the narration of the plight of Lot's wife in Genesis, she saw how closely this test of obedience resembled the experiences through which she seemed to be passing. Before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, angels had warned Lot and his wife to flee to the mountain, admonishing them not to look back. The wife, reluctant to leave her home and material possessions, disobeyed, and was punished.

Are we, too, looking back on former associations, surroundings, and material pleasures, to the extent that our spiritual progress and attainment of higher mental altitudes are being impeded? To reach this goal, we must look straight ahead, "forgetting those things which are behind." The journey is safe when peace and confidence accompany us, and divine Love guides us. The successes or failures, the joys or sorrows, of the past count as naught in this journey from sense to Soul; and material pleasures, and even personal friends, may become stumbling blocks in our way.

Mary Baker Eddy writes (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 264): "Mortals must look beyond fading, finite forms, if they would gain the true sense of things. Where shall the gaze rest but in the unsearchable realm of Mind? We must look where we would walk, and we must act aspossessing all power from Him in whom we have our being." Is this "unsearchable realm" one of unhappiness and discord? No! it is heaven, our home; and the instant we turn toward this spiritual haven, through right thinking and acting, we begin to experience in our daily life all that the word "haven" implies. Here we find rest and security.

Any experience, if it arouses us from a false sense of ease in matter and promotes in us a desire for a better understanding of God, Spirit, brings with it rich spiritual blessings. We can therefore go on our way rejoicing, knowing that spiritually progressive thought ultimates in the outward manifestation of good.

No change which we are called upon to make, can be the means of bringing dissatisfaction and discord into our lives if accompanied by an abiding conviction of the ever-presence of divine Love. Our Leader writes (ibid., p. 574), "The very circumstance, which your suffering sense deems wrathful and afflictive, Love can make an angel entertained unawares." Thus, we emerge triumphant and victorious over the aggresive claims of matter or evil.

Why should we long for a material home which we have had to leave? Why become despondent over separation from familiar associations? We take our real home with us; but it is not a material habitation. It is the consciousness of Love; and where we happen to be at the moment, we can possess this home and nothing can deprive us of it. To bring the true sense of home into our experience, we must cultivate the spiritual qualities of love, joy, gratitude, compassion, humility, and consideration of others. Confusion may seem to surround us; but if we retire into this true home, we at once become conscious of peace and order. Those around us will feel the influence of our uplifted thought, and all that is good in human relationship will be manifested. Here injustice and intolerance have no place. Here we entertain the angel thoughts from divine Love.

A young woman living in a shabby neighborhood resented the situation, until a friend, who was also a student of Christian Science, lovingly pointed out to her that there is nothing unsighly or unlovely in Mind, her real home. This friend asked, "Who are your neighbors?" The other answered, thinking of Jesus' words, "It is they who do the will of the Father." Soon after this awakening, a decided improvement was noticed in the young woman's surroundings. She had gratefully pondered what her friend had shared with her, remembering that "the loveliness of Love is all around" (Christian Science Hymnal, No. 64). As she contemplated the divine quality of beauty, unsightliness was blotted out; and her neighbors were blessed as well as herself.

Every right thought we entertain, every word of truth we utter, carries with it the power of God, good. Thus we flee to our mountain, the refuge of divine Love, where there is neither chance nor change.

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Supply Understood and Demonstrated

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