"The divine demand"
Christian Science, contradicting the false evidence before the physical senses, and positing its sublime statements of Truth upon spiritual law, reveals to us the immortal fact that the real man forever lives in accord with and in obedience to his perfect Principle, God. Christian Science elucidates and amplifies the fact that because God is omnipresent Spirit, infinite Mind, man, His reflection, is wholly spiritual.
Thus, while material so-called law says that man is finite and mortal, subject to suffering, disease, and death, spiritual law, reversing this material declaration, proclaims the forever fact that man is the immortal idea of God. He expresses eternal Life, possesses immortal status and dominion, and remains forever in the likeness of Spirit, coexistent with his perfect Principle, God. Mary Baker Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 243 ): "Truth has no consciousness of error. Love has no sense of hatred. Life has no partnership with death. Truth, Life, and Love are a law of annihilation to everything unlike themselves because they declare nothing except God."
When, with hostile intent, the Egyptians pursued the children of Israel in the wilderness, Moses, the Hebrew leader, said to his people: "Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will shew to you to day.
...The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace." Moses trusted in God, and the children of Israel escaped from the threatened disaster. In this incident we may see the working of Science. The Israelites feared destruction. With his clear understanding of God's presence and power, Moses set at nought this fear, and through divine guidance led the people to safety.
The student of Christian Science today learns to look away from material evidences to Spirit, God. Holding steadfastly to the scientific view of God and man, as revealed in Christian Science, he is undisturbed by the excitement, emotionalism, or mystification of the times. He knows that fear, ignorance, hatred, sin, disease, and death are unreal, while faith, understanding, love, and all the spiritual qualities which reflect Mind are always present to help. His daily work is to make his thinking and his living more serene, even as the spiritual expression of Mind. This demand met, glorious results will surely follow. As one gives heed to the divine requirements, love displaces enmity, humility displaces egotism, reliance upon God casts out fear, true values are discerned and approximated. In this way of spiritual understanding, human consciousness is uplifted to constant communion with the one perfect Mind. Then, through this spiritualization of thought, we are enabled to prove the nothingness of evil and the allness of God.
As our obligation to express the divine nature is fulfilled through the practical application of Christian Science, we gain a larger appreciation of Mrs. Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of this Science, and of her unselfish work for humanity. We possess a more complete and grateful recognition of her unswerving loyalty to divine Principle, which enabled her, in the face of opposition, to bestow upon humanity this blessing of Christian Science, and to make it available to all mankind through the manifold activities included in The Mother Church. How well Mrs. Eddy knew that the solution of all the problems confronting humanity was to be found in the true understanding of God! On page 467 of Science and Health she asks the question, "What are the demands of the Science of Soul?" In answering it she says in part: "The first demand of this Science is, 'Thou shalt have no other gods before me.' This me is Spirit. Therefore the command means this: Thou shalt have no intelligence, no life, no substance, no truth, no love, but that which is spiritual. The second is like unto it, 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.'" These "demands of the Science of Soul" require of us that we shall know God aright and know our true selfhood as spiritual, reflecting God, and that we shall truly love our neighbor by seeing the perfect spiritual selfhood as alone real.
The Scriptures record the fact that Christ Jesus spoke "as one having authority." His imperative commands to the sick were the demands of Truth, and the sick were healed by his recognition of the divine fact that man is the constant reflection of Love.
Today in Christian Science the same healing follows the clear realization of the truth which dispels the illusions of physical sense. A student of this Science awakened one night in sudden fear. For several minutes he fought this condition "as one that beateth the air," but no relief came. Then he changed his methods and commenced to lean wholly upon God. Relief came through the abiding sense that there was nothing to fear, because the one perfect Mind was present, and therefore its perfect manifestation must also be present. Healing resulted from the blessed recognition of the fact revealed in Christian Science, that in accordance with divine Life, Truth, and Love, the real man cannot become God's unlikeness, nor can he lapse from perfection.
Under the marginal heading "Patience and final perfection," Mrs. Eddy writes (ibid., pp. 253, 254), "The divine demand, 'Be ye therefore perfect,' is scientific, and the human footsteps leading to perfection are indispensable."
Copyright, 1941, by The Christian Science Publishing Society, One, Norway Street, Boston, Massachusetts. Entered at Boston post office as second-class matter. Acceptance for mailing at a special rate of postage provided for in section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized on July 11, 1918. Published every Saturday.
