"The reign of Spirit"

Duncan Sinclair

On page 208 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy writes, "Let us learn of the real and eternal, and prepare for the reign of Spirit, the kingdom of heaven,—the reign and rule of universal harmony, which cannot be lost nor remain forever unseen." In these words Christian Science makes its appeal to the whole world.

Now what is "the real and eternal," knowledge of which is the necessary preparation to "the reign of Spirit"? In the Christian Science textbook—indeed, in every one of Mrs. Eddy's writings—the real and eternal is the outstanding topic; for the aim of Christian Science is to make God known to men, in order that they may learn how to escape from the materialism into which they have been born. Think on the condition of affairs to-day. On every hand men are fettered by the beliefs of the world, by those material beliefs which are the direct precursors of sin, sickness, and death. The belief that matter is real, that matter is causative and has power, is the sinister influence in human existence responsible for all unhappiness. Should any one wonder why Mrs. Eddy, she who made the great discovery of Spirit's allness and of the fact that matter, the seeming opposite of Spirit, is unreal, after her discovery devoted her life entirely to making the truth known to mankind?

The real and eternal, then, is God and His manifestation. God, Spirit, is infinite; and there is no other real presence. No system of religion teaches this but Christian Science. All other systems admit the reality of matter, and try to reconcile Spirit with matter. But this cannot be done. The attempt to do so must always result in detracting, in belief, from the allness of Spirit, and in giving power to so-called matter, which Christian Science maintains is entirely hypothetical, illusory, unreal. No doubt the teaching of Christian Science is spiritually radical,—no teaching could be more so, viewed from the standpoint of material sense; but there it is, confronting the thought unenlightened spiritually, denying and upsetting every theory ever propounded by men based on the belief that matter is real.

In taking up the position it does, Christian Science is in agreement with the teachings of Christ Jesus and his followers of the early Christian Church. The Master said, "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing." And Paul wrote: "For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." It was as if the Nazarene Prophet and his great disciple had declared that only through spiritual understanding, that is, through knowledge of Spirit, could righteousness and peace come to men; that men could not enter the kingdom of God through matter. Indulgence in material beliefs, pandering to material sense, cannot possibly advance any one a single step into the kingdom of heaven. On the contrary, every belief in matter's reality, disputing as it does the allness and supremacy of Spirit, prevents one's spiritual growth, one's advance towards "the reign of Spirit, ... the reign and rule of universal harmony."

How, then, may "the reign of Spirit" be established in the lives of individual men? The belief that it cannot be done in a day should not discourage any one in his effort to bring it about in his own experience. Our revered Leader speaks very pointedly on the question in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 257). "At this immortal hour," she says, "all human hate, pride, greed, lust should bow and declare Christ's power, and the reign of Truth and Life divine should make man's being pure and blest." Spirit reigns as the beliefs of the flesh or matter are destroyed. And what a difference it makes in the lives of men when they allow divine Truth to reign; that is to say, when they reflect the perfect ideas of divine Mind, those ideas which show themselves in such spiritual qualities as love, humility, and purity, happifying human existence and blessing mankind.

"God reigns, and will 'turn and overturn' until right is found supreme," Mrs. Eddy writes in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 80). One has only to search his own heart to learn how true the words are; for there is no one who has not found earth's material promises to be but empty baubles which burst the moment they seem to be within his grasp. Matter can never satisfy, because it is illusory, unreal. Spirit, Truth, Love, good, alone can do that; for God alone is real and eternal. But the effort has to be made by each one for himself, if he would secure the happiness of "the reign of Spirit," first, to expose to himself the errors of material sense which hold him in bondage, and, secondly, to replace these false beliefs by the eternal qualities of Spirit.

Duncan Sinclair

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