Looking ahead

Infinite knowledge is infinite protection. It describes the environment of generic man, or the full reflection of divine Mind, an environment from which all evil is entirely excluded, since God, as infinite good, cannot reflect evil. Now generic man is necessarily the sum of all divine ideas, whether greater or smaller, and so in himself includes the universe, for, as Mrs. Eddy writes, on page 32 of “Unity of Good,” “Spirit is the only creator, and man, including the universe, is His spiritual concept.” Generic man, then, is a synonym for the spiritual universe, which universe itself includes man when man is understood as an individual man, or one of those greater ideas which make up in their entirety the compound idea known as generic man. So that, since Mind must control all its ideas, which cannot exist without it, Mrs. Eddy writes, on page 468 of Science and Health, “The spiritual universe, including individual man, is a compound idea, reflecting the divine substance of Spirit.”

This very fact of the existence of God, or divine Mind, and His idea, the universe or generic man, predicates the supposititious existence of a counterfeit known as the devil, or mortal mind, and his idea, the material universe. This universe, according to the teaching of philosophic idealism, is the mortal or human mind, for, according to this idealism, all material phenomena are the subjective condition, or ideas, of this mind. Thus the generic man of philosophic idealism is nothing but the universe of supposititious ideas, made up of all the men, women, and children comprised in the phrase mankind.

Just, however, as spiritually generic man is compounded of those greater ideas, or sons and daughters of God, which are counterfeited in the men and women of the material universe, so each of these sons and daughters of God is in turn compounded of certain lesser ideas, which are counterfeited by the ideas which throng the individual mortal or human mind. These lesser ideas, whether spiritual or material, can, it is obvious, be reflected in varying quantity, though in unvarying quality, as Mrs. Eddy points out on page 12 of the Message for 1902 to The Mother Church: “This declaration of Christ, understood, conflicts not at all with another of his sayings: ‘I and my Father are one,’—that is, one in quality, not in quantity.” It is plain, of course, that absolute good, or divine Mind, cannot be reflected in anything but absolute good, no matter how much or how little of that good may be reflected, whether the infinitesimal or infinity. And, in precisely the same way, it is clear that absolute evil, or the mortal human mind, cannot be reflected in anything but absolute evil, that is to say whenever the evil becomes apparently less pronounced, it is not that the quality of the evil has been in any way dissipated, but that some part of the quantity has been destroyed, and its place occupied by a manifestation of eternal good. Good and evil never mingle.

It will be seen, then, that mortal mind is reflected in mortal man; and that mortal man is consequently governed by mortal mind in the exact ratio in which the reflection holds intact. But inasmuch as mortal mind is a lie about divine Mind, and mortal man a lie about spiritual man, the indestructible existence of the truth perpetually threatens the lie with destruction, and must one day accomplish this destruction. This was exactly what Jesus meant when he said, “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free,” free from the lie which is deceiving you. This truth is Christ, “the true Light,” in the words of John, “which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” The Christ-man, then, is the true man, and the Christian is this Christ-man, or true man, to the exact extent in which he accepts the freedom available to him through a knowledge of the truth.

This freedom is, however, no mere academic claim, it is a scientific fact to be demonstrated, as Jesus demanded that it should be demonstrated when he said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.” Now every one knows that demonstration is the result of knowledge. Therefore the demonstrations of Jesus the Christ were the result of that knowledge of the Christ, Truth, which made Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus the Christ, the only man, that is to say, who ever grasped the Christ, Truth, and demonstrated the Christ, Truth, sufficiently to be entitled to the name of the Christ. This, of course, was the goal to which Jesus was urging his followers by his command to preach the Christ, Truth, and to heal through their knowledge of the Christ, Truth, and it was what Paul also was urging upon the church in Philippi when he wrote, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.”

One thing, then, is obvious beyond all question, that a lie is never converted into a truth, but is always destroyed by the recognition of Truth. This is what Paul was saying to the Ephesians when, in that eastern phraseology which is today somewhat involved, he bade them put off the old man, the mentality of the lusts of the flesh, and put on the new man, the knowledge of the Christ, Truth, or, as he summed it up exactly, “Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.” For, in other words, we are in reality all sons and daughters of God, included in that spiritual universe which is generic man: all ideas in divine Mind, making up the one infinite idea, generic man, and having, as Jesus said, one Father, divine Mind.

The understanding of all this does not come to a man in a day: it comes slowly as the carnal mortal mind vanishes before the light of the Christ, Truth. It is demonstrated as the carnal human mind is destroyed by the knowledge of the Christ, Truth. But in a dim, yearning way the Christian, having once seen the light, looks ahead and struggles toward it, though through a very Slough of Despond. In this lies his protection, that, struggle as he may, the light of the world, the Christ, is always ahead, leading him and guiding him forward. And in this, too, lies his protection, that he cannot rouse more opposition to Truth than the truth he knows and speaks will rouse. Thus he enjoys the peace of God that passeth all understanding.