"Allness is the measure of the infinite, and nothing less can express God." In this sentence, found on page 336 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mrs. Eddy clearly states the indivisibility of the infinite. Again on page 267 we find the distinct declaration: "God is one. The allness of Deity is His oneness. Generically man is one, and specifically man means all men." Turning to the Scriptures, we find the above utterances of to-day are but the confirmation of the teachings of Christ Jesus. On the occasion when Jesus was intimating his coming crucifixion, death, and resurrection, he said: "Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world."
At a former opportunity he declared his divine authority in the statement, "I and my Father are one." This he proved to be true by his works. In precise terms he pointed out the difference between his positive knowledge of the one Father and the judgment commonly accepted by his hearers from sense testimony: "Ye judge after the flesh; I judge no man. And yet if I judge, my judgment is true: for I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me." In reviewing and studying these statements, the student of Christian Science at once, in his earnestness of desire, apprehends the wonderful simplicity of their truth. What genuine joy gladdens one in the happy recognition that he is alone to work out things with God.
In the many vicissitudes of human experience, even during times of busy occupation, one may appear to be overwhelmed by the complexities of a situation. The swirls and eddies of human thought would appear to submerge, and the maelstrom of passions and beliefs to completely engulf one. Per contra, the environment may be ever so pleasurable and there may be no apparent cause for a feeling of loneliness, yet physical sense may testify to depression, solitude, and their somber, dismal tones. Whether then in dance, dirge, or what not, the vagaries of human thought ever indicate the futility of attempting to find satisfaction in sequestration, for in the final analysis the inevitable conclusion is found in the Master's statement, "Ye judge after the flesh." What else could be the result of the premise of a mind resident in matter, limiting itself to its beliefs and classifying them as both good and evil? The chaos of such beliefs is well termed "mortal mind."
Is there any escape from such a dilemma? Yes, for at this juncture Christian Science intervenes and presents the remedy. Pointing away from sense testimony to the infinite nature of divine Principle, the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," defines the way in no equivocal terms. Mrs. Eddy exactly determines this fact on page 114 of the textbook, where she states, "In Science, Mind is one, including noumenon and phenomenon, God and His thoughts." Here, then, in concise terminology, true cause and effect are explained. As effect is inseparable from cause, it is plainly evident that God is Mind, and includes man as His idea. The keynote of action is intelligible, and the individual, in beginning to be a Christian Scientist, is learning the true nature of God and man, for he is basing his thinking and action upon the fact that the one Mind alone governs. Thus he finds the truth about himself to be generic man, the idea or Christ, expressing the allness of infinite consciousness.
This surely is the unfoldment of the truth as promised by Christ Jesus and reiterated to-day in Christian Science, the freedom for humanity from belief in the isolation of false estimates of life, the crucifixion of those beliefs and resurrection therefrom, yea, the ability to enjoy "the glorious liberty of the children of God." Through the letting go of matter in belief, the individual demonstrates the only right way of living, actually recognizing, through understanding, the infinite All of good and its infinite expression. Christian Science, therefore, presents the joyous privilege of improving moments. It teaches the ever presence of Mind and Mind's idea, God and His Christ, the "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."
The wonder that creation even now is appearing and the darkness vanishing is revealed. The healing truth dawns upon thought and replaces the misconceptions of creation, which had been claiming reality through false estimates of cause. Traveling through the wilderness and mazes of human conjectures, the assurance that the government is "upon his shoulder" comes almost with startling force; yet its recognition is the Comforter, which says to all, "Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." The light of creator and creation has dawned, form has appeared, the Christ-idea is borne to earth, and this marvelous revelation establishes the governor to be Mind as All, or infinite consciousness. How true, then, the revelation of the resurrection, consequent to the crucifixion of fleshly beliefs. Each individual finds himself alone in working out his salvation, but always with the assurance of God's idea ever present. This "God with us" declaring the omnipresence of Being, is the reflection of the one Mind, the Mind "which was also in Christ Jesus." The individual realizes that he has lost nothing in his acceptance of the truth; on the contrary, the healing truth has given him the true idea in place of its counterfeit. He is rightly valuing Paul's admonition to the Colossians, "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.... For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God."
Jacob's vision at Mahanaim, and his subsequent experience at Peniel, proved his understanding of the allness of God and His manifestation. In his tremendous struggle, wrestling alone "until the breaking of the day," he prevailed. The meeting he had feared with his brother Esau was made the joyful occasion of expressing a right appreciation of what spiritual activity had accomplished. In urging Esau's acceptance of his gift, Jacob exclaimed, "For therefore I have seen thy face, as though I had seen the face of God, and thou wast pleased." Duplicity, deceit, stratagem, based on hatred, envy, jealousy, had all disappeared, driven out and exchanged for the "perfect love" that had cast out fear and, indeed, all sense of isolation and banishment. In other words, life preserved, and a true estimate of its reality, was found in seeing his brother as the image and likeness of God.
What will not divine Love do, as understood in Christian Science, and made so amply and abundantly clear, as on pages 249 and 250 of "Miscellaneous Writings" in the article entitled "Love," in which Mrs. Eddy says: "What a word! I am in awe before it. Over what worlds on worlds it hath range and is sovereign! the underived, the incomparable, the infinite All of good, the alone God, is Love." The individual who is relying on this Love for guidance in daily activities is leaning less and less on the solitude of mortal frailty and more and more on the oneness of spiritual strength and blessedness. In daily contemplation of the immeasurable largeness of Love he is broadening his vision. Widening his horizon, he is learning the comprehensive inclusiveness as well as the exclusiveness of divine Mind. It is his daily delight to express the infinity of the divine creation, realizing in a larger measure the agreement between cause and effect, or all that "the alone God," includes and knows. Thus the dawning of the reality, replacing the unreal mortal thought, reveals creation mentally unfolding the successive evenings and mornings of each day of sequential development. Walking in this light, his whole life is transformed. With steadfast step he advances, his progress is sure, his gratitude full. In place of the wilderness of hopelessness and despair, while struggling under the mesmeric belief of evil and its phenomena, the manifestation of faith and trust in "the alone God" has completely wiped out the false sense of something apart from God. The true healing from all that the dream of life in matter claims, whether in joy or sorrow, in victory or defeat, is perceived, understood, and rejoiced in, because the eternal source of all true healing is infinite Love.
The way is plain to all, "the way of holiness" or allness, in which "the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err." The gratitude of all who have experienced this unfoldment and are attaining it daily, goes out today to Mrs. Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, for the lucid explanation of divine Principle and its expression in Christian Science. Seeking and finding the understanding of divine Principle, all who are sincere and honest in their application of its rules, are dispelling the dark dreams of mortal thought, and replacing them with the healing realities of Spirit. In this they are demonstrating their mental ability to prove the truth of Mrs. Eddy's statement in her Message to The Mother Church for 1901 (p. 20), "The Christian Scientist is alone with his own being and with the reality of things."
This reality and the joy of its experience is not alone for the individual himself, but also for others. Unswerving in his adherence to Principle, resolute in his understanding, the Christian Scientist with clearer vision apprehends the import of the Master's prayer: "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." "That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us." The world, then, is to be saved through the message of Christian Science, which to-day is proclaiming and confirming through works the oneness and the allness of God and His Christ.
The individuals who find that "life is hid with Christ in God" apprehend and understand the eternal source of all reality, in their acknowledgment and recognition of the all-inclusiveness of infinite Mind, which embraces the universe and man in the one infinite reflection, Christ. What says Paul, in his comprehensive letter to the Corinthians? "For all things are your's ... and ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's." Here, then, is true oneness, and true allness, the true freedom of each and every individual in "the alone God," who is Love.
