The brief summary of the divinely inspired record of creation, recorded in the latter part of the first, and first three verses of the second chapters of Genesis, furnish a declaration upon which must be established the relation which man holds to the lesser ideas of God, the relation of man to God, and of God's purpose to man.
In this Scientific account of creation we find a definite declaration of the qualities of all God had made, an affirmation of completeness, continuity, and order. From the infinite Mind has emanated the universe and all its identities, from the least to the greatest.
The Universe Complete In Man.
To man, the crowning work of His creation,—His own likeness,—He gave power of comprehension, to know both the Creator and the creation, to comprehend the laws of being and to execute those laws, to reflect or make manifest to all the universe His—God's—power. The declaration of completeness, the perfection of quality, the perfect harmony and continuity of the divine order, the complete wholeness and unity of purpose, all things working together for good; a place for everything, and everything in its place. Infinite Wisdom has made no mistake, but has finished His work, and is satisfied therewith, and put thereon the seal of perfection—for "God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good."
Human Experience.
But we turn from this inspired record to the human concept; to what we term our own experiences, the history of mortal man, and we find therein this record contradicted. The evidences all around us are of discord and decay; instead of continuity and order, we find throughout the entire round of nature the apparent work of destruction going on, every form of life subsisting on the destruction of life, one element destroying another element, the life of one creature taken to prolong the life of another, the evidences of death everywhere present and of equal certainty with the evidences of life, life limited and finite, death the inevitable ultimate. Such is the picture presented to the personal senses, and borne out by every human experience. Life is conceded to be in the object which manifests it, and is said to die when the object is destroyed. Thus matter is virtually crowned as supreme, and to all intents and purposes is worshiped as such; its conditions and supposed laws are consulted to find what are the probabilities of life, its elements are sought out and appealed to as remedial agents, to adjust and counteract the deranged functions of matter, to the end that life may be prolonged; thus we might multiply and compute indefinitely the conceded supremacy of matter in all human knowledge, and in all cases find a denial of the order established in the account of creation as recorded in the first chapter of Genesis. And it is practically in full accord with this personal sense of existence that we find ourselves when the light of Science breaks in upon our thought, and affirms the accuracy of the inspired record, of the spiritual integrity of the universe, and what seems still more astounding, to contend for its present and perpetual truth.
God's Universe Unchanged.
That the universe is as perfect as when God saw it and pronounced it very good, is the contention of Christian Science.
"Against the accredited evidence of the senses" (Science and Health), Science, in accord with Genesis, begins the elucidation of the problem of being with God as the ultimate source of all things. Hence, to determine the nature and character of the derivative, a knowledge of the primitive must first be obtained.
Human systems have reasoned from effect to cause, accepting as valid the evidences before the senses as correctly interpreting effect.
From this basis, the Creator is made to appear the author of all the evil and discord to which the visible universe is subjected. This logic renders it impossible to conceive of a perfect God, however much the desire is to convince one's self of such a Being. While God is admitted to be the only Creator and evil is seen in His creation, no amount of sentiment or reasoning can escape the logic of cause and effect, and find the evil which obtains in effect must of necessity inhere in the Cause.
If the evil which appears in the visible universe is real, and a constituent part thereof, then a good and perfect God is inconceivable. But "the Science of Christianity comes with fan in hand, to separate the chaff from the wheat" (Science and Health), to declare God aright, and to bring to light the universe of His creating, under His government and support.
The personal sense of man as humanly circumscribed leads to a personal and limited sense of God, whose government is contingent, and whose ways are past finding out, having no fixed principle or infallible order.
But Science disavows the validity of personal sense, and finds in God the Infinite Principle of all being so far transcending the sense of personality as humanly applied, as to render the term "person" inappropriate to designate Deity, declaring the nature and character of the Divine Mind to be of vastly greater importance than His personality. Here reason and revelation coincide to reveal God as Life, Truth, and Love,—as Mind, Soul, Spirit,—and man as His likeness, reflecting the attributes of his Creator.
Christian Science, in perfect accord with the divine will and purpose as made manifest in Jesus, reasoning from the standpoint of one God or infinite creative power, in whom and of whom no evil can be,—follows in logical order the deductions of this premise. Acknowledging the absolute control of this one and only power, running through the entire range of creation from man down the entire scale to the least or remotest identity, each in its own sphere and order, in absolute obedience to the mandate of the creative and controlling Mind, "causes them to multiply, to manifest His power" (Science and Health, p. 511), wherein the rhythm of one unbroken strain goes on undisturbed through the ceaseless cycles of eternity.
But while human thought still clings to the material and finite, the mortal dream of life as humanly circumscribed, as dependent on physical organization for its manifestation,—this great verity of being will be unseen and unacknowledged. A higher order of identity than the five personal senses can perceive, must be acknowledged, and the league which mortal sense has made with death, under the false promise to bring this ideal to light, must be annulled.
If man is to be a spiritual being after what is termed death overtakes the body, he must be a spiritual being now. Spirituality cannot be contingent upon death, but overcomes death. Spirituality must emanate from Spirit, God (see I John, 5:4,5); and constitutes the only real identity of man, and has been known of God from all eternity.
The old man with his deeds—the false concept of man as originating in matter, and consequently not of God—must be put off. This false sense must yield to the spiritual sense before the God-governed universe can be seen. (1 Corinthians, 2:14.) Until we break the fetters of the false belief that life and sensation are in the body, and learn that God is the only life, the facts of creation will appear to be matter, and subject to its limitations. But at best we can at present but faintly comprehend the generic term man, and the infinite range of his thought. Mortal limitations hedge us about, only to be removed as mortal concepts are changed with the dawning of spiritual truth. "For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away." (1 Corinthians, 13:9, 10; Science and Health, p. 512.)
But the divine record declares, "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them" (Genesis, 2:1). The completeness of God's work is here affirmed, and this completeness forever expressed in spiritual man, endowed with the divine power, for "God, without the image and likeness of Himself, would be a non-entity, or Mind unexpressed. God would be without a witness or proof of His own nature. Spiritual man is the idea of God, an idea which cannot be lost, or separated from its divine Principle" (Science and Health, p. 199).
Human capacity, limited by the false sense of what constitutes man, is slow to appropriate the spiritual robe, or advance from its finite and material sense of things, to grasp man's God-given dominion over the whole earth—over the human will, which constitutes mortal's supposed selfhood. The old man must first be put off; the dominion which it seeks to gain is but its greater enslavement—the gratification of sensuous passions and appetites only luring to self-destruction.
Referring to this false sense, Jesus said, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me" (Matthew, 16:24). While we retain the corporeal, material concept of man as his real identity, we can gain no adequate conception of the Infinite, or His likeness. Eternal order and action is established. In the contemplation of the universe, Deity was satisfied. Discerning this rest, this magnitude of vision or understanding to be reflected in the image and likeness of God, the Psalmist declared, "I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness."
Into this rest, this satisfying action impelled by the divine impulse, we enter step by step, as the human will yields to the divine, and this must continue until "we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ" (Ephesians, 4:13).
In individual consciousness the work of creation goes on, and the errors of personal sense yield to the spiritual sense, until this measure of fulness, this perfect mental likeness, is attained, and the infinite idea, man, is seen and comprehended, and mortality is swallowed up of immortality, revealing eternity, the completeness and eternal continuity of the spiritual universe which dwells forever in the Infinite Mind, unimpaired and unobstructed, and in perpetual action expressing the eternal unfoldments of divine Wisdom and Love.
Into this rest, wherein human effort and material creation ceases, where God is found to be the only Creator, creating through Mind, the Word of God, all things for His glory, individual consciousness must finally enter, where Jesus, our "Elder Brother" has gone before us.
Following in his footsteps marking out the way before us, bearing the cross of self-denial up the hill of divine revelation, through sore trials and temptations if need be, but always with the comforting assurance that our Saviour is ever with us to direct each faltering footstep to rise above the besetments of self and sense, there lies before us the goal and the crown of rejoicing, and we shall finally exclaim, "It is finished"—and we shall know that "all that is made is the work of God, and Good has created all, and all is Good" (Science and Health, p. 514).
Nothing with God can be accidental—.
