Article January 23, 1971 Issue

Finding Ourselves

WILLIAM ROBERT SUDDABY

Have you ever watched a star shining out of the enormous night and sensed the deep mystery of it—why it is there, what kindled its fires, what exquisite poise sets it among its numberless neighbors and the silent worlds we know not of? Yet the mystery of that distant star is no greater than a mystery that calls to us every hour— the mystery of our own true self. Christian Science sets one on the grand path of self-discovery, leading him into the conscious presence of Deity, the creator of stars as well as of man.

Perhaps we have begun to understand ourselves and our relation to God by glimpsing the ultimate reality of His perfect spiritual goodness and the consequent falsity of material existence with its pain, sorrow, and limitation. Maybe this basic understanding has healed us of some difficulty, because any mistaken belief, which all troubles are, ceases to exist even as the fabric of illusion when in its place our consciousness takes hold of Truth.

To continue to progress in our understanding of what we really are, we must reach out beyond just knowing about Truth. Christ Jesus said, "I and my Father are one"^{ John 10:30;} and "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father."^ 14:9; Centuries before that Moses had seen God as I am; Paul saw the same thing when he wrote, "I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me."^{ Gal. 2:20;} And Mrs. Eddy writes, "There is but one I, or Us, but one divine Principle, or Mind, governing all existence."^{ Science and Health, p. 588;} When we become actually conscious of our eternal self, we are conscious of God's presence, and a whole new dimension of being appears.