"Seek ye first the kingdom of God"

ELFRIEDE EBBINGHAUS

In his understanding of helpful love, Christ Jesus said to hearts filled with anxiety: "Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?" Would not one like to bring these words to-day before all despairing ones, suffering from fear and doubt, lack and sorrow? But would they believe them? And if not, what would hold them back? Ignorance of the living and true God. Men blindly submit to the domination of dead idols created by human belief, and are ever according power to them.

The words which Christ Jesus uttered over nineteen centuries ago have lost nothing of their value. To-day, Christian Science comes and proffers its help to the weary and heavy-laden in order to lead them to the understanding of life eternal, so that they may become free from sorrow, tribulation, fear, and anxiety. It says, "Let there be light." It reveals true Being, the only real habitation of man, the child of God. It unfolds the truth about the one creator, God, and shows Him to be, not the manlike God of the children of this world, but the God whom Mrs. Eddy defines in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 465) as "incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love."

As a work of art expresses the thought of the artist, so the divine creation reflects the creator. Since God is Spirit, creation must be spiritual. As the expression of "incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite Mind," creation is incorporeal,—the infinite idea. Thus the so-called material world is not God's creation; it is but a counterfeit of the true. There is but one creative "I"—the divine Mind; and but one universe—Mind's divine universe, peopled by divine ideas. Mrs. Eddy tells us in Science and Health (p. 503), "These ideas range from the infinitesimal to infinity, and the highest ideas are the sons and daughters of God." They have their being in Mind. Nothing can extinguish or annihilate them, because there is no power other than Mind. The true man, the child of God, is "the compound idea of infinite Spirit; the spiritual image and likeness of God; the full representation of Mind" (Science and Health, p. 591). How wonderfully Mrs. Eddy expresses in these terse words the nature of man as the child of God!

As "the full representation of Mind," man cannot know lack of any kind. He reflects the perfection of God. God, Spirit, is his Life; and this Life is indestructible. This recognition of God, of His spiritual universe and the real man, Christian Science has revealed to mankind. In proportion as the light of spiritual understanding illumines consciousness, the false concepts of material sense dissolve, the false idols crumble away. Spiritual sense replaces mortal sense, and the Christ is revealed which saith, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." Spiritual sense now becomes the guide from sense to Soul.

It then becomes most important to stand porter at the door of consciousness; for again and again will mortal sense try to steal through with its false beliefs. Therefore, let us watch to see that our consciousness is kept bright and clear. This is our real business. We cannot be touched by mortal belief if we are watchful, obedient, and faithful. "Man shall not live by bread alone," Christ Jesus said, "but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." What we need are right thoughts—true ideas—in order to reject the suggestions of mortal mind. Therefore men should place themselves under the protection of divine law, that their problems may be solved according to this law. Divine Love has infinite channels through which to work. "Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."

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Man the Reflection of God

June 21, 1924

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