Carlyle says somewhere that if we look deep enough we shall always find harmony. That is what Christian Science is doing: it is teaching us to look deep enough. It is in this direction also that Jesus' teaching is distinguished. It plunges far enough beneath the surface of all contradictions—of good and evil, Spirit and matter, Soul and sense, Principle and person—to reach the permanent foundation of absolute Truth as the basis of its system of ethics.
Christian Science, in its insistence on the all-sufficiency and all-inclusiveness of Spirit, on the oneness and indivisibility of divine Life,—Life in no way linked with or modified by any seeming modes of evil,—is slowly, but surely, revolutionizing all our thinking. After Jesus' time, confusion as to his teaching seemed to spring up; and it was not till Mrs. Eddy's pure spiritual vision was brought to bear on the Scriptures that the attempts of the so-called human mind at the fusion of materiality with spiritual truths was completely uncovered. She has shown in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" how Jesus' words and works point conclusively to the fact that Spirit and matter are opposites. She says, on page 279, that they "can neither coexist nor cooperate, and one can no more create the other than Truth can create error, or vice versa." She also gives this point very significant expression when she says (p. 113): "Life, God, omnipotent good, deny death, evil, sin, disease.— Disease, sin, evil, death, deny good, omnipotent God, Life."
As Christian Science teaches, there can be no possible compromise between these opposites. We see that the beliefs of matter and the truth about Spirit are mutually exclusive; that just to the extent we hold to the one, we drive the other out of consciousness. And we are following Jesus' example only as we keep them entirely separate, holding firmly to the truth of the reality of Spirit and seeing the unreality of matter. Sometimes this is no easy task, either. Time and again in our thought the line of distinction and differentiation becomes indistinct; and when, after repeated attempts to rid ourselves of some evil belief, the problem seems only to grow more burdensome it is well to call a halt to see if it is not some effort of mortal mind to mingle these opposites, which is causing the delay. The chances are that we have been working superficially, and have not struck deep enough. To fail to turn completely in the direction of Spirit is to cast our net on the wrong side, and like the disciples of old we shall then toil all night and catch nothing. Jesus' advice at that time, it will be remembered, was to ''launch out into the deep."
Only careful thinking will win for us our goal. We cannot accept Jesus' assertion of evil as a lie, and at the same time see it operating as person, place, or thing. We cannot expect to prove that Mind is supreme, while looking daily to matter as the source of our joy or well-being. We cannot accept as true that God is the only cause, and hold to physical force as a creator or destroyer of life. It is impossible to accept the premises of Christian Science without being forced to the conclusion that it is Spirit alone which has presence and is the source of all good.
Probably the thing that most frequently causes us to pause on some middle ground of compromise is the tendency to outline in thought the specific form of the good we desire. This must cripple our thinking at the very beginning. If we are not watchful, we shall find ourselves trying to refashion that which is "not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." We must remember, when starting our work for the unfoldment of the health and abundance which we know to be rightfully ours, that good never has been, and never can be, materialized; that a material sense of life is not the true sense of Life at all, but that which, being mortal, apparently changes and limits and distorts the ideas of God's creating. To grant any presence at all to material concepts, to suppose that Spirit, the universal Mind, could be held for an instant within their mortal grasp, is the evil we are trying to rise out of, in our work in Christian Science. In proportion as material concepts are held to consciously, in that degree is our thinking blocked in its effort to know the truth.
If we accept the premise that God and His ideas are the whole of reality, our concern must not be with the human senses but with the attainment of perfect spiritual consciousness. In fact, it is only as the cords that would bind us in any way to a false sense of a finite self, with limited human needs, are snapped that the understanding frees itself and reaches a resting place in the spiritual ideas of divine Mind. And such is the omnipresence of God, good, that to break through the imprisoning beliefs of a personal sense of self is to open the gates of consciousness to the healing tide of divine Love, whose every touch is one of strength and benediction.
To be anxious about results is to misunderstand the workings of divine Principle, in the Science that Jesus taught. We take true thoughts into consciousness; and it is the activity of these which destroys the falsities that make up material sense. These spiritual ideas belong to God, and partake of His infinite power. No supposititious law can arrest the activity of a true idea. When we have faithfully recognized and affirmed its unfailing presence, our part in the work is done, and the "Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly." We have only to know the truth about that which really has presence and power, about that which constitutes Life and law, and then rest in the assurance that by so knowing we have brought ourselves under the power of God, the only real healing power in existence.
So let us not think of results merely, as we go about our mental work. Let us look straight past the need that calls itself material, into Spirit, knowing it is there, and there alone, that we are to find our supply. What rest from struggle there is in the assurance, "Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him"! In the very place where the supposition of evil claims to be, is the perfect life which is the reflection of Spirit, wherein is no sense of lack. In Spirit is supply for every need, be it intelligence, vigor, activity, opportunity, or love. But we must remember that it is to the all-knowing Mind we are turning for help and guidance, and that can, and must, be trusted to form its own pure concept. Enough, that with its unfolding we shall find we are satisfied!
"Let go and let God" is the way some one once expressed it. To let go of the material concept is not to lose aught of good: it is to come into fuller possession of all that we should prize. It is to see that Spirit and its spiritual creation can never be changed. It is to learn that it is material sense alone that obscures good from us. It is to find ourselves rejoicing in the forces of infinite Mind, holding in unchanging law its "immortal forms of beauty and goodness" (Science and Health, p. 503). Christ Jesus said, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." There is nothing to fear under the Father's care, and there is nothing outside of His infinite realm. If we are looking deep enough, we shall never get discouraged when our progress seems slow. If evil is but ignorance of the facts of Spirit, knowledge must win in the end. We need never give up the battle, "because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world," as John says; and "whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world."
What if the trouble may seem to grow greater? Then thought is not yet fully prepared to relinquish its false belief; and only continued and persistent effort to cling to the truth can bring about the healing. Much sorting and sifting may still be required, and much consecrated resting in spiritual truth. Work on, and thought will be molded after the right pattern; the discordant images will fade; and the divine order will at last stand revealed "in earth, as it is in heaven." If we continue in Truth, we shall find we are building better than perhaps we know; and all spiritual work means progress. And we have finally looked deep enough when it has become quite clear to our thought that there is nothing to desire but the life, and intelligence, and relationships of Spirit. Jesus did not teach that by turning from matter we were taking in its place some shadowy and far-off good. He said that by looking to Spirit we were turning to the very fountain-head of all beauty and freedom and joy. He promised that by knowing good as Spirit, we would find our understanding of good increased "an hundredfold"—here and "now in this time." To become conscious of the presence of God's ideas is to know that we have none but spiritual needs, and that these are already supplied. There is no future salvation to wait for. We can always rejoice in the presence of spiritual ideas; and it is in them that our life, our completeness, lies. Let us fearlessly maintain their presence in thought, independent of all human beliefs in time, organization, or structure. There is no other way to free ourselves from the so-called mesmerism of mortal sense.
