Ultimatum

Violet Ker Seymer

Applied Christian Science liberates mortal thought from its puzzlements, its mental meanderings, its misery. It does this by directing thought aright. In place of submission to mental, moral, and physical discord, it reveals to mankind the way of healing and dominion. In place of a mortal, it presents man, God's likeness. How is the tangle of human life unraveled in Christian Science? By the scientific understanding of perfect spiritual causation and its persistent application to human imperfection.

Many times mortals are faced with some ultimatum of evil. It may appear as a verdict of so-called incurable disease, or of adamant sin, inescapable drudgery, domestic incompatibility, sorrow, or other mental torment. Accepting matter as their premise, deceived mortals are prone to bow to the sentence pronounced on them through the physical senses.

Contrariwise, the student of Christian Science accepts only the premise and conclusion of Spirit and its perfect creation. This is the ultimatum of God, and therefore of Christian Science. Primitive and ultimate are one in Truth, and man in God's likeness has no intermediate state. The indivisible God is constantly imparting His spiritual ideas impartially and without interruption.

God's ultimatum of perfect being is able to liberate mortals from every ignorant, merciless verdict of error; and the healing power of Christian Science is beyond calculation. The physical senses frequently insist upon some dismal ultimatum of their own conceiving. With invincible insistence God's ultimatum calls on us to take our courageous stand for Truth and its harmony. This involves the rejection of all adverse verdicts of the so-called carnal mind, these verdicts being the adversary with which the Master said we should agree quickly. In other words, Christian Scientists are called upon to agree to disagree with every presumptuous claim of error the very moment it presents itself to thought. The fresh weed is more easily uprooted than the older one.

In "Youth and Young Manhood" (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 273), Mrs. Eddy writes, "The ultimatum of life here and hereafter is utterly apart from a material or personal sense of pleasure, pain, joy, sorrow, life, and death." Not only hereafter, but here, omnipotence reigns supreme. Christian Science is as demonstrable now as in the hereafter, and there is nothing to be gained by inactive waiting. Not only hereafter, but here, we should therefore seek and find release from false pleasure and pain; from the vagaries and backslidings of mortal existence. Spiritual law impels progress, and God's ultimatum is invariably linked up with divine Principle, while discordant phenomena are not. This renders them inherently impotent.

Perhaps some verdict of error, filling us with dread, first led us to reach out to Christian Science, and we were freed from this difficulty. Has the ultimatum of perfection no further demand upon the liberated one? Yes, we should constantly take stock of our thoughts and purposes, our daily pursuits, lest sly little foxes slink in and deceive us into running counter to the demands of divine Principle. When problems confront us, whether of character or circumstance, we must resist mortal suggestion and respond only to divine Mind's verdict and to God's thoughts "of peace, and not of evil." This may entail constant overcoming, especially in relation to the unseen problem of character building.

As Christian Scientists we must renounce the faithless habit of arguing against man, our real individuality, for thereby sinful indulgencies are prolonged. Then again, if the claim be that of sickness, every sufferer must faithfully resist the tendency, sometimes savoring of self-importance, to regard his case as quite exceptionally intricate! The omnipotence of God is not pitted against a lesser power, either here or hereafter. To the silent taunt, "It is too late," comes the divine behest that now is the time to give credence and consent only to God and His ultimatum. The more menacing a problem appears, the farther removed is it from legitimacy, power, or Principle. The greater the apparent magnitude of the obstacle in our path, the greater our rise to imminent victory! The only magnitude is the summum bonum of God, good; and it is unopposed, supreme, serene.

Imperative as the call of angels in ancient days comes our Leader's utterance, "Christian Science shows that there is a way of escape from the latter-day ultimatum of evil, through scientific truth; so that all are without excuse" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 113). This call to demonstration, obeyed, silences evasion of His demands, and craven excuses. Divine Mind is imparting and renewing the spiritual strength we need in order to carry the day with Truth. However complex the situation, there can be but one line of inquiry for the Christian Scientist, namely, What is God's ultimatum in this situation?

Violet Ker Seymer

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