From earliest childhood, perhaps, the words, "Thy kingdom come," have been familiar to all, and each for himself has conceived their meaning. To one, possibly, they merely speak for a hazy abstraction; another may interpret the coming of the kingdom as some magical, spectacular appearing from the sky, or so-called heaven, of a king on a golden throne; to yet another the words denote an undefined aspiration for the time when every one shall be good; and so on, through countless interpretations. Whatever the human conception, each bears an undertone of supplication, and not only so, but is the entreaty for something which it is right and possible to receive. All such interpretations undoubtedly are based upon a wrong concept of the King of the kingdom, which accounts for the ceaselessness and apparent unavailability of the appeals.
Christian Science has revolutionized the conception of these words and enabled the student to stand on the rock on which the Master stood when he gave to humanity the prayer of prayers which bears his name and which includes the words, "Thy kingdom come." Alert mental activity eliminates hazy abstractions, which indicate absent-mindedness. Superstition is but the offspring of mythology. All that is good in the aspirations must inevitably stand and bring forth fruit after its kind. Actual Christian Science, and there is none other, aspires only to that which is, not to that which may or will be; hence its certainty and intrinsic value. To supplicate indicates a wrong concept of prayer; for that which it is right and possible for us to receive must already be ours in Mind, and Mind is the only "King of kings, and Lord of lords." On page 2 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, we read. "The mere habit of pleading with the divine Mind, as one pleads with a human being, perpetuates the belief in God as humanly circumscribed.—an error which impedes spiritual growth."
The carnal mind even has placed its sense of heaven above the day, and lifts its eyes to the sky, as though to indicate an ascending conception. Having fixed the position of the kingdom, the carnal or mortal mind naturally concludes that the King is in His kingdom. For where could a finite, material sense of Deity be enthroned but in a material sense of heaven or sky? Mortal man knows that he himself is not in the sky; consequently he concludes that heaven must be a future state, or place, to be attained as a gift of the enemy death. What a parody on fact! And how does this view coincide with Jesus' statements, "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," and, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand"?
