When taking a course in astronomy at a university, I couldn't get away from the dimensions of our earth in order to grasp a vaster scene. I found myself challenged by the enlarged concepts of the universe. One morning before class began, I opened Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, and read: "Mind alone possesses all faculties, perception, and comprehension." ^{Science and Health, p. 488;}

"That's it!" I thought. "I'm trying to understand this vast subject with a limited, finite sense of mind instead of opening my thought to the intelligence with which God, divine Mind, already knows the universe, and letting His infinitude transform my viewpoint." This realization gave me dominion in studying astronomy. In class that day I suddenly gained a whole new perspective. It was as though I were standing somewhere out in space looking upon the universe, and I could see clearly the relationship of stars, planets, and galaxies. From then on the course was a joy. Just so, mortals need to break away from a limited, finite perception of themselves and a self-centered outlook in order to see God, Soul, and His universe correctly.

Note that astronomy does not reverse the movement of the solar system but only the human perception of it. The sun still seems to rise and set, the moon to come and go, but physical science has given us a different perspective so that we can see all this in a more accurate context. Now Christian Science has come to show us that the only real cosmos is spiritual, not material, thus further changing not the reality of things but our perception of it.

God's man and the spiritual universe are perfect at this moment just as they always have been and always will be; and they are in perfect harmony with each other, moving in complete accord with the law of God, good, and in obedience to His will. It is our limited, material perception of this reality that needs to be changed, so that we see things as they really are. We do this by gaining a truer sense of God and man and of their relationship to one another.

Each of us has a certain opinion of himself and of others, determined in part by material heredity, environment, education, and so forth. And there are almost as many different concepts of marriage, home, church, government, as there are individuals. The important question is, What is God's concept? Because what God knows of anything constitutes its true nature, that's what we must learn to understand, and that's what will give us dominion in present living.

Beside the marginal note "Higher hope" on page 531 of Science and Health we read: "...The human mind will sometime rise above all material and physical sense, exchanging it for spiritual perception, and exchanging human concepts for the divine consciousness. Then man will recognize his God-given dominion and being."

In the Bible there is a story of a man who suffered for many years from what he thought he was, from a material nature that included duplicity, sensuality, dishonesty, and probably a feeling of guilt. Despite this unhappy perception of himself, he also had a deep love of God and an underlying desire to do right. He spent many years alienated from his native land, as experience helped him to overcome somewhat the errors of false, mortal selfhood.

Finally, God told him to go back to his old home. In obedience he started out. But the night before he was to meet his brother, whom he had wronged, he was beset by the fear of retaliation. He spent the entire night in prayer, battling with his frightened sense of things. When he had gained some spiritual light, the thought came, "What is thy name?" And he replied, "Jacob." ^{Gen. 32:27;} We might paraphrase this question and answer to read: "How do you perceive yourself?" "As Jacob."

The story of Jacob has meant many things to many people, but as I see it, here was the moment of self-revelation. Jacob perceived that he was still identifying himself as a mortal even after the failings had been corrected, and that so long as that was the way he saw himself, he couldn't very well expect his brother, Esau, to see him differently. This illumination lifted him right out of self-centered, earth-oriented, matter-based concepts to glimpse the true, God-centered universe. He aligned his thought with spiritual reality and lost the fear. He resolved not to let go of this clearer view, with the result that the reassuring words came, "Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed." ^{v. 28;}

Jacob caught an inspired view of God, of man's relationship to Him and to all creation. Not only fear was dissipated but also regret, self-condemnation, and self-recrimination. He was newborn! The next day he could say to Esau out of a full heart, "I have seen thy face, as though I had seen the face of God, and thou wast pleased with me." ^33:10; He had glimpsed the Christ, the ideal man, whom Jesus later exemplified, and this perception transformed his life, giving him dominion.

Mrs. Eddy begins her definition of the word "believing" in the Glossary of Science and Health thus: "Firmness and constancy; not a faltering nor a blind faith, but the perception of spiritual Truth." ^{Science and Health p. 582;}

The truth of all things is—right now—forever. It never alters. As our perceptions of God and man change and come into closer agreement with the truth, we see more distinctly what already is and what we already are. We gain a firmer sense of the spiritual nature and substance of all things. This insight manifests itself in the healing of sickness as well as of false traits of character. Purifying our thoughts and desires, we prove the truth of Christ Jesus' teaching, "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." ^{Mark 11:24.}

Years ago people looked at the full moon with foreboding, and some felt that its eerie light had an evil effect on mankind. Today's more enlightened thought gazes at the glow of a full harvest moon and recognizes that from this earth island in space what we see shining squarely on the lunar surface is the light from our own sun; that is, from earth at night we see a moon bathed in sunlight. What dominion comes from even such a fact, as it clarifies misconceptions. But the truth of God and of man's relationship to Him brings an infinitely greater dominion, manifested in lives regenerated, health restored, and hope renewed.