JESUS said, "He that humbleth himself shall be exalted." If the spiritual meaning of these words could be realized, it would assuredly enable the student to rise into a closer walk with God. Few people know what it means to humble self, or understand the necessity for doing so, until years of human experience have brought their lessons. The Bible has been read more or less perfunctorily in the past; the words have sounded well, the teaching has seemed wise and good, but there was no literal scientific application of its message until Mary Baker Eddy saw that the word of Truth was as applicable to modern needs as to the needs of those living in the days of the Galilean Prophet. She proved this to be true by using the methods of Jesus with ever increasing fruitage, as her own understanding of the Christ grew. Then she gave to the world the results of her study and consecration. An ever increasing number of grateful seekers for Truth, as well as for a working knowledge of it, pay tribute to the spiritual insight and faith of this earnest woman, who taught a literal application here and now of the teachings of the Master.
All who study the Scriptures with sincere desire to know and comprehend, are sure to attain; but there is much to sacrifice before one becomes truly conscious of the presence of God and reflects it in one's own thought and life. The way of the Christ is the way of self-renunciation. Jesus knew and taught that of himself he could do nothing: he constantly asserted that the Father, who was greater than he, did the works. It is true that we have nothing of our own; that we cannot claim anything apart from God, who is the only "I." Since God is All, then all reality belongs to God. The real and only man is God's man. The real universe is God's universe. These being eternal facts, and God being Spirit, it is easy to see that the spiritual universe, including spiritual man, as the manifestation of Spirit, God, is the one and only creation, obediently reflecting its creator.
To admit the allness of God is to admit at the same time the impossibility of anything else. This destroys the thought of man as something of himself, and finds him in the divine Mind as its highest idea, yet dependent upon that Mind for all life and activity. The principal thing to get rid of, then, in our search for operative Truth is the sense of a physical or mortal selfhood. As we strive to cast aside this false sense through a righteous desire to let God alone be true, we shall certainly see many familiar conditions and beliefs totter and fall. Among them will be found self-love, self-will, self-seeking, self-justification, and egotism, of which we may be to a great extent unconscious. Only as we put God first, eagerly seeking to let His will be done, can we really be taught of Him. Pride renders one unteachable because of self-satisfaction, which seemingly creates a wall through which the pure light of Truth cannot shine. A complacent thought, sunken in the darkened belief of being humanly complete and good, is material and stupid. Those who are humble—those who are ready to admit that Soul is the only governor —can perceive the truth. The God-power alone is at work through man and the universe, and it is His supreme right to govern.
