Unity with God

EVELYN F. HEYWOOD

The call to the Christian Scientist is always a practical one. He is not merely asked to believe that God's promises are true; he is taught how to understand and so to manifest the truth of them in his daily life. He is not told that salvation comes through worshiping a far-off, omnipotent being, but rather through unity with an ever-present, ever-loving Father. Christian Science does not say to the sad and weary that the power wielded by Jesus in the overcoming of sin, sickness, and death is no longer available; it brings to him the blessed assurance that divine Love blesses all impartially, and it shows him how he may prove the truth here and now by the recognition of his sonship with God, even as the Master proved it.

It is noteworthy how, in losing sight of so much of the present availability of the gospel teaching, scholastic theology has obscured the true meaning of the word atonement, giving to it a ritualistic and sacramental office, thus separating it from the hearts and understanding of those seeking to draw nigh to God. Down through the centuries the Christian has thought of the atonement with awe not untinged with remorse, and for him it has called up the picture of an agonized figure upon the cross, symbolizing the greatest tragedy, the cruelest injustice, in all the world's history; while only too frequently the word atonement in its vital, its eternal significance, has been forgotten.

On page 18 of Science and Health we find atonement defined as "the exemplification of man's unity with God, whereby man reflects divine Truth, Life, and Love." As the student reads and ponders this definition, as he considers it in the light of Jesus' words and works, it must surely dawn upon him that herein lies the whole mission of him who called himself the Wayshower,—to give to the world the true understanding whereby men might realize their at-one-ment with the Father, whereby they might overcome even as he overcame. "I and my Father are one," said Jesus; but even after his resurrection, when he had overcome "the last enemy," and knew himself ready to rise above all sense of corporeal selfhood, he claimed nothing for himself that he did not claim equally for those who were his disciples. To them he sent this message by Mary: "I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God."

In all that he said, in all that he did, during those years of his ministry, the Master sought to impress upon his followers that all real substance and power is in and of God, and that apart from God men can do nothing. As unity with the Father was the basis of all Jesus' teachings, so also must it be of him who seeks humbly and faithfully to walk in his footsteps. "You have simply to preserve a scientific, positive sense of unity with your divine source, and daily demonstrate this" (Pulpit and Press, p. 4), Mrs. Eddy reminds us, and the student quickly learns how positive and consistent that unity must be, if he is to overcome evil and hold fast to that which is good. The inevitable results of the ignorance and apathy which tend to alienate men from their Maker, are fear, disaster, sickness, sin. When it dawns upon one that each time he attempts to do anything in his own strength, according to his own will and wisdom, he is in that moment annulling for himself the whole mission of the Christ, "the exemplification of man's unity with God," and at the same time bearing false witness to his sonship with the Father, he will seek to dwell more and more consciously in at-one-ment with God; he will realize that therein, and therein alone, are safety and peace.

Only in so far as one is awake to man's unity with Love can he cast out his own fears and the fears of others; only in so far as he is awake to his unity with Truth can he see the lie of sin and sickness to be nothing and thus set men free; only in so far as he realizes his unity with God, who is the Life of man, can he rise above the false sense of life in matter and recognize man's likeness to the Father, who is perfect, thus giving practical testimony to the words of Jesus, "The kingdom of God is within you."

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Seeking and Finding

October 31, 1914

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