When Paul wrote, "Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind," he was no doubt aware that he was enunciating the operation of the law of divine Principle. The more human experience and human history are reviewed the more is it apparent that nothing short of transformation will suffice to establish a reign of harmony. Now harmony is the dominating concept that obtains in the human ideal of perfect existence called heaven. Jesus said, "The kingdom of God is within you." It is evident, of course, that the possibility of attaining perfect, harmony can only be in proportion as consciousness is freed from the sense of wrong and suffering of every sort, thereby bringing into demonstration the control and direction of divine Principle.
The great mistake of the ages has been that of seeking for happiness and improved conditions through advancement along material or humanly intellectual lines. Have these efforts proved successful? We have but to glance over the pages of the world's history for an answer. There we see the crumbling of the Egyptian dynasties, the fall of the mighty Babylon, the mystifying array of many gods with their variety of altars to which Paul referred in his Mars' Hill address, the corruption and degradation of triumphant Rome. Leaders who have been actuated by their lust for power, have risen and fallen. The names of Cyrus, Cresar, Alexander, Napoleon, and others have blazed for a moment, only to be extinguished.
On the other hand, a gleam of spiritual light borne to earth will awaken such a vitalizing power in the human thought that "the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.... And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water." The individual characters through whom the light has been revealed, have left behind them an influence and power for good to all mankind in all ages. The human consciousness has been brought nearer to the true source of being through such characters as Abraham, the father of the faithful, from whom sprang Jacob, the head of the great Israelitish family, which again produced Moses, the giver of the Decalogue, the basis of all civilized law. Moses was followed by the prophets and at last by Jesus, the anointed one, the chosen of the Father, the Founder of the Christianity that was to transform the world. These and many others, mighty in their meekness, have brightened the world and lifted it to a higher plane of righteousness and purity.
