CHRIST JESUS at one time declared that "the kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you." At another time he said, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." By parable he illustrated how small was the beginning of the human consciousness thereof, yet how sturdy its growth and how vast its maturity, like leaven that spread until it had leavened the whole meal, like a grain of mustard-seed that grew and spread as a tree, in whose branches the birds of the air found shelter. Unmistakably he pointed out the fact that as God is Spirit, Mind, His kingdom must be spiritual, mental, a state of consciousness which individual man may attain. Paul emphasized this fact when he admonished the Corinthians that "flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God." Many centuries later Mrs. Eddy defined heaven, the kingdom of God, as "harmony; the reign of Spirit; government by divine Principle; spirituality; bliss; the atmosphere of Soul" (Science and Health, p. 587).
How intelligible and consistent these Truth-inspired utterances all appear when it is apprehended that man is self-conscious idea in Mind, like unto Mind,—the reflection, expression, and manifestation of Mind! The ideal man is a perfect spiritual consciousness of divine Life, Truth, Love, and reflects every attribute of God, to the exclusion of everything unlike God. In such consciousness there is no sense or cognizance of evil; good alone reigns; the atmosphere is that of Soul; the government belongs to divine Principle; "flesh and blood" are strangers in that realm, for it is "the kingdom of God."
Speaking now of mortal man as to human sense, we find him at the moment when the truth of being first dawns upon him; he appears to be a state of consciousness involving error or false knowledge. We find him filled, not with Truth, but with "the wisdom of this world," which the Scriptures repeatedly declare to be foolishness before God, but which he has accepted as true. His mental consciousness, or so-called knowledge, is his present selfhood. Being false, it is unreal; and as it is not man's true self, it is subject to elimination and destruction. Being false, it simulates resistance by hiding behind a barrier called prejudice; but being unreal, it is without power of resistance. As the light of Truth advances, its falsity is exposed, and it ceases to be, even in seeming. Truth has displaced it with its own consciousness. The man has been "born again." True knowledge, or consciousness of Truth, is now his selfhood, and he dwells in the realm of Truth, in the kingdom of God.
