The Supremacy of Spirit

GORDON WILLIAM FLOWER

On page 369 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mrs. Eddy writes, "In proportion as matter loses to human sense all entity as man, in that proportion does man become its master."

Like the Hebrews of old in Egypt, mortals ofttimes find themselves in bondage to hard taskmasters, such as sin, sorrow, fear, hopelessness, hatred, revenge, and disease. But when one is willing to accept and to put into practice the teachings of Christian Science, he is enabled to break these bonds of materiality, because he begins to discern the fact that man lives in Spirit, not in matter. He is then better able to understand the significance of the Apostle Paul's statement, "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death."

We have been wrongly educated to believe that man is a corporeal being, at the mercy of matter, with its concomitants of sin, sorrow, sickness, and death. When conversing with the woman at the well, Jesus emphasized the fact that "God is a Spirit." We read in Genesis that "God created man in his own image." Therefore man must of necessity be wholly spiritual—the perfect expression of his Maker—upright, healthy, whole, and free, always enjoying the liberty which belongs to the sons of God.

Jesus plainly told his hearers that the kingdom of God was within them; and Christian Science declares, in line with the Master's assertion, that the kingdom of God—the kingdom of Love—is already established. Our need, then, is to know this, and to put into practice the simple truths which were exemplified by the Master, whose teaching and healing ministry brought forth potent proofs of the oneness of God and man.

For many years the writer suffered from a so-called incurable disease. Like the man who lay impotent by the pool of Bethesda, he had been looking to material aids instead of to spiritual means for healing; and instead of getting better, he grew worse. But when he began to study the Christian Science textbook, the truth dawned upon him, and he recognized the Christ. Then he, too, like the impotent man, was entirely healed.

What joy and freedom we experience when we are willing to come out of the pool of the "five porches," and recognize our real selfhood as perfect, created in the image and likeness of our loving Father-Mother God!

If one wished to wipe out a discordant picture which was being shown on a screen, what would one do? Obviously, any attempt to rub it out with a duster would prove futile. Surely the only efficacious way would be to deal with the projector, and so get the screen clear. Similarly, there is only one way effectively to eradicate erroneous pictures of thought, and that is by dealing with the supposititious source of error, namely, mortal mind. Mrs. Eddy says (Science and Health, p. 404), "Lust, malice, and all sorts of evil are diseased beliefs, and you can destroy them only by destroying the wicked motives which produce them."

We are told in John's Gospel that "Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping: and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre." But when she heard the Master say, "Mary," we read that "she turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master." How radiantly joyous must have been her countenance when she beheld him!

What phantoms of sorrow, hopelessness, and fear will vanish away, and what a glorious vista of joy will open out, when we too, like Mary, are willing to turn away from the sepulchral beliefs of substance-matter, with its myriad illusions of sin, sorrow, sickness, and death! Then we shall gain the clear recognition of our true spiritual, eternal selfhood, forever untouched by any phase of materiality. "Then shall man be found, in His likeness," as our Leader says (Science and Health, p. 325), "perfect as the Father, indestructible in Life, 'hid with Christ in God,'—with Truth in divine Love, where human sense hath not seen man."

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