Home is certainly the place where God should be known. How many times the student of Christian Science is called upon to prove this, is shown by the frequent questions asked as to how one can have more harmony in the home. It may be seen at the outset that if harmony is not apparent in the home, the reason must be that the occupants have not gained the true idea of God and man, and of what constitutes harmony in their relationship to one another. Our Master said, "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." Our Leader gives us in the Glossary of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 587), a very wonderful definition of heaven, which is correlative to the above quotation: "Heaven. Harmony; the reign of Spirit; government by divine Principle; spirituality; bliss; the atmosphere of Soul." But one may say, What has this to do with the subject—home? Let us consider.
There is great significance in the relationship of the three words, "harmony," "heaven," and "home." The world may scoff at the thought of using the words "home" and "heaven" together. But Christian Science spiritualizes thought; and in so doing gives much to mortals in the way of a correct apprehension of heaven. So, also, Christian Science is giving the truth which enlightens and uplifts to better, more helpful living. There is great need for better thought concerning home life. In supplying this need, the work of the student of Christian Science must be the correction of wrong thinking. If we have allowed selfishness to reign by indulging the belief that our home, if harmonious, was the result of our work, or if not harmonious, was some one else's fault, we need to obtain a clearer view of the situation, in order to realize harmony.
Heaven, harmony, and home are, all three, mental concepts. Just as surely as we hold a thing in thought, that is what it is to us; and just so surely our thinking affects the manifestation called our home. As we begin to realize the true sense of home, we find it to be a condition of thought produced as positively by divine Mind as is either harmony or heaven. The home where divine Mind governs is as infinite as this Mind. When Solomon reviewed the work which had been accomplished in the building of the temple, he caught a glimpse of infinity when he questioned, "But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded?" Solomon, surely, recognized in God's house "the reign of Spirit."
A false sense of possession—a few acres of land, a few square feet upon which to build, and the continued contemplation of such things to the exclusion of seeking "first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness"— gives one a very restricted view of how God may dwell with him or he with God. Mrs. Eddy tells us in Science and Health (p. 304), "Harmony is produced by its Principle, is controlled by it and abides with it." So it is evident that it is quite impossible to have true harmony unless we know something of divine Principle; that is, until we know something of God, for God is Principle. Home is not worthy the name of home without Principle, without God; and the apprehension of this grand truth— that home must rightly express "government by divine Principle"—is one of the messages of Christian Science to this age.
The attainment of a spiritual sense of home increases our sense of moral obligation to the home. In the process of attaining a more spiritual sense we do not escape at once out of matter into Spirit. We occasionally hear of those who wrongly argue that if they are denying the reality of matter they ought immediately to forsake all human obligations, even to literally pulling away from those obligations which they have in years past assumed, leaving behind them, as a result of these mistaken methods, offenses for others to criticize and wrongly attribute to Christian Science teaching. Christian Science never teaches one to neglect his duty to God or to his fellow-men; but, rather, it urges upon one the necessity of performing that duty in all diligence and love. We cannot run away from our difficulties. We must master them. And we find that this is not done by a change of environment. Constant changing from place to place does not mean a demonstration of the infinite sense of home; nor does the student thus find harmony. This state of thought is not essential to, indeed is not conducive to, spirituality.
Home is the most precious place on earth, when divine Love has become the governor. We all desire to be where good is; but we do not all wish to take the steps to arrive there. God dwells where Love is, for Love is God; so we can dwell with God only as we allow divine Love to govern at all times. Self-abnegation permits divine Love's ways to become very clear and plain to us, enables us to see how Love's ways are the most divinely natural ways, and that these, followed, lead to true bliss. When we start with the premise that home is where God is, the logical conclusion is reached that home is harmoniously existent in the divine Mind. If we would try to realize this more clearly, there would not seem to be so many fleeting, false beliefs trying to rend home asunder; and if there were temptations to believe in such, we could much more readily detect their delusion and, seeing their nothingness, destroy them. We would see that nothing could enter to defile; we would know that home, instead of being accepted as earthly, must be acknowledged as heavenly; and then we would find others enjoying freedom with us in this "atmosphere of Soul."
Mrs. Eddy has written a whole chapter on the subject of "Marriage" in Science and Health; and a most illuminating chapter it is. In her other writings, also, she has given space to the direction of how one's duties to the home must be recognized and performed, so that it may be a hallowed place, made so by pure thinking and pure living. In "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 287) she writes: "Be faithful over home relations; they lead to higher joys: obey the Golden Rule for human life, and it will spare you much bitterness." One is never helpful to others by or through a neglect of one's own duties, whatever they may be. We must prove for ourselves what the truth about home is, in order to help others by practice as well as by precept.
The writer is reminded of one who, having been asked if she was mindful of a certain beautiful thought given in the chapter on Marriage in Science and Health, answered that as she had never married she did not think this chapter applied to her, and she had never given it serious consideration. She had failed to see the spiritual meaning of home and its practical application at all times. In much the same way, those of us who have what we deem happy homes may think that there is no great need for a study of what the spiritual sense of home really is. Perhaps the argument may be that there is always a great deal to work for anyway, and that as long as things go fairly well there is no need to spend any special thought upon it. It is quite as necessary, however, that one should gain a right apprehension of home as of heaven; for we certainly need to be enlightened regarding these states of consciousness here and now. Although we may think that our sense of home is quite secure, we must reach, day by day, a higher sense of it, that we may help our brethren to see how they also may demonstrate harmony.
Nothing can possibly limit God in any direction. Erroneous beliefs or human opinions cannot alter the fact that God is infinite. We therefore see that to be at home with God, we must study to know God better. Then, having risen in our understanding of the infinite, we shall find that the true sense of home cannot be bound or bounded by selfish motives or purposes, but must ever embrace a loving, selfless sharing of good, and a passing of this good on to others. This brings with it the bountiful thought of hospitality—the hospitality which holds no taint of snobbishness, or selfishness, or any tinge of anything that is unlike good. In thus proving man's at-one-ment with God, good, we realize ever more fully what home really means. Jesus once remarked to one who expressed a desire to follow him wherever he went, "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head." Yet no one was ever more at home than Jesus of Nazareth.
We, too, can thus learn always to be at home by knowing how to live in God, divine Mind. What this means will be expressed in good being manifested all about us. This good will be apparent even to those who do not understand what has wrought the transformation, as well as to those who do. Home is a holy place. It is where infinite divine Mind is understood and obeyed; it is where divine Love is reflected, Truth is manifested, and God is glorified.
