God is not the author of material changes. The changing scenes of human life, the rise and fall of mortal man, are outside the cosmos and Science of Soul, in which man dwells. Mary Baker Eddy writes in "Unity of Good" (p. 56), "The chaos of mortal mind is made the stepping-stone to the cosmos of immortal Mind." Through the Science of Christianity we step out of chaos into cosmos.

The word cosmos means "the universe conceived as an orderly and harmonious system." The false reasoning that argues for changeable conditions, fluctuating health, faulty functions, or failing strength must be refuted by an understanding of the cosmos of Mind, the kingdom of heaven in man.

The Apostle Paul discerned this great truth concerning the cosmos of Mind when he wrote to the Romans (8:28), "We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."

Since divine Mind's cosmos is "an orderly and harmonious system," it can contain nothing which is not under the complete jurisdiction of spiritual law, the law of God. There are no rebels or uncontrolled conditions in God's heaven, which by reflection is man's kingdom. Mrs. Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 151): "Every function of the real man is governed by the divine Mind. The human mind has no power to kill or to cure, and it has no control over God's man. The divine Mind that made man maintains His own image and likeness."

In human government insubordinate citizens are brought into subjection by law and compelled to conform to it, or receive punishment in consequence. The law is not there to punish, but to keep order. The insubordinate citizen, by his disobedience to law, punishes himself. God does not punish His creation, but those who forget they are His children and allow themselves to become the instruments of material belief, which mortal mind misnames law, punish themselves because they ignorantly or willfully absent themselves from the divine cosmos.

Man's unity with God is unbroken and unbreakable. Man exists in the cosmos of Mind. His relationship to God and to God's creation is intact. Let us cling to this unity firmly and with conviction. Mrs. Eddy discerned this cosmos or Science of man. Her human reason was uplifted by the spiritual meaning of the Scriptures. The revelation of man's oneness with God and its accompanying power flooded her consciousness. At that moment she was raised from what appeared to be a deathbed. This healing brought about her discovery of Christian Science.

The cosmos of Mind has always existed. It has always been available to mortals. But no one had fully discerned it since the time of Christ Jesus until one spiritually-minded enough was found able to break through the fluctuations of mortal belief. Mrs. Eddy did this, and from the moment she rose from her bed on that February morning in 1866, the cosmos of Mind, the orderly and harmonious kingdom of God, was opened for her and for all of us.

"Is God with the sick people in the hospitals?" asked a little lad in a Christian Science Sunday School.

"Yes," replied the teacher.

"And is He with the wicked people in the prisons?" insisted the inquiring child.

"Yes," answered the teacher; "God is everywhere." There was a moment's silence.

"Oh, I see," said the child. "God is with those people, but those people don't know that they are with God."

If we knew always that God is everywhere we should then look out upon the universe of His creating, where chaos is absent but where cosmos reigns. Brotherhood, justice, love, and goodness are in truth as natural as the air we breathe. This happy state is ours today if we will seek and find our at-one-ment with God through the Christ. This goal is attainable by all who are hungering and thirsting, mourning and longing, to know God aright.

Does there seem to be a gnawing fear in mortal mind claiming to consume its own false sense of life and substance? Remember, substance is not material, but spiritual and inconsumable. There is no fear of depletion in the cosmos of Soul, because Spirit, God, is the only substance and Love liberates us from fear.

We dwell in the cosmos of Mind. We are citizens of the kingdom, sons and daughters of God, heirs with Christ, and inheritors of every treasure to be found in the heavenly kingdom. Let us rejoice in this sonship. Let us discard false law and its threatened fatalities and accept true law, the law of God, and its divine cosmos. Is not the Master's teaching filled with blessings? Blessings for the meek, the merciful, the peacemakers, the pure in heart, the sorely tried, the persecuted. Man lives in God, in the immortal cosmos of Soul. Here everything is working together for good, and all is under the control of infinite Mind. This Mind is expressed in perfect law, order, and love, operating here and everywhere in infinite manifestation.

Robert Ellis Key