GODWARD GRAVITATION

LOUISE EVANS HANSCHKE

A Student of Christian Science was accustomed to climb an extremely steep hill in order to reach a bus stop. As she climbed, she endeavored to lift her thought above the sense of toilsome exertion to the realization that man, as a spiritual idea of God, is never plodding heavily along anywhere at any time. This lifting of her thinking usually resulted in her reaching the top almost before she knew it, with less and less feeling of effort.

One day, however, as she pondered various statements of truth regarding ascent, ascension, heights, and the like, she became aware of the spiritual fact that as she ascended to a loftier level of thought, it was divinely natural that she should be expressing greater freedom, more buoyancy and dominion as evidence of her progress out of a material sense of things.

It then became clear to her that the mortal belief generally accepted by mankind as law regarding ascent is actually a complete reversal of spiritual truth as it is revealed in Christian Science. The material law of gravitation appears to be pulling all smaller moving objects down toward the center of the earth so that their efforts to go upward meet the resistance of this downward attraction.

Suddenly before her memory flashed the marginal heading "Godward gravitation," found on page 265 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy. "Why, of course," she reasoned joyfully, "to gravitate Godward most certainly implies an upward, not a downward, movement!"

On reaching home, the student pondered the passage referring to Godward gravitation, part of which reads as follows: "Mortals must gravitate Godward, their affections and aims grow spiritual,—they must near the broader interpretations of being, and gain some proper sense of the infinite,—in order that sin and mortality may be put off."

She then saw that every time one lifts his thought above and beyond the concept of a finite mortal, one is gaining a clearer sense of the infinite. And thus he is broadening his interpretation of being, and to that extent, he is laying off mortality.

The prophet Jeremiah presented the real drawing force of the universe when he recorded God as saying (Jer. 31:3), "With lovingkindness have I drawn thee." In Love's universe, all the gravitation that is ever going on is Love's drawing, which tends to lift mankind upward to higher and higher levels, toward a fuller revelation of God and of man's relation to Him.

We are constantly called upon to discard certain preconceived notions and to reverse material sense testimony concerning law, cause, and effect. Hence it should not be difficult to contradict the world's belief in material gravitation. The student saw the operation of the higher law of spiritual freedom in her own case when, after her recognition of true gravitation as upward, she experienced dominion over the steep ascent, although the hill itself remained unchanged.

Only through ascension of thought can the claim of material sense be nullified. In fact, Christ Jesus' demonstration of dominion over his body through his ascending thought is brought out a number of times in Science and Health. One of the significant passages is the following (p. 46): "The Master said plainly that physique was not Spirit, and after his resurrection he proved to the physical senses that his body was not changed until he himself ascended,—or, in other words, rose even higher in the understanding of Spirit, God."

Mrs. Eddy's discussion of animal magnetism analyzes and unmasks the downward pull of every evil force. The boasted force of evil represents the effort of the carnal mind, which the Apostle Paul said is "enmity against God" (Rom. 8: 7), to draw us from the spiritual plane of consciousness down to the material.

Once the spiritual fact concerning true gravitation is accepted, the explanation of animal magnetism in Christian Science will be seen to be of inestimable benefit to mankind.

The drawing power of lovingkindness found its culmination in the life of Christ Jesus. The Master's promise (John 12:32), "I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me," presents Godward gravitation of the highest order. This gravitation surely means a definite ascent above materiality in all its forms, a mental translation from matter to Spirit, gradual, perhaps, but consistently progressive.

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