OUR Leader, Mrs. Eddy, says in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 295), "The mortal mind through which Truth appears most vividly is that one which has lost much materiality—much error—in order to become a better transparency for Truth."
To become a transparency for Truth, thought must of necessity be freed from the material tendencies, beliefs, and inclinations which have seemed so largely to make up human personality. Only in this way can we so purify our thinking that the divine ideas and attributes shine through consciousness. These divine ideas are always present, awaiting only individual perception and reception of them. Is it not evident that the clearness of our spiritual vision depends upon our concept of God, Soul, Truth, and of the ideas which constitute His creation? On the other hand, history has shown that the character, customs, and morals of peoples, in short, their civilization, has largely been according to their concept of Deity.
For instance, as long as God was believed to be afar off, accessible only to a privileged priesthood, men were harassed and unhappy, their allegiance divided between the supposedly distant Deity and the gods of superstition and idolatry surrounding them. Later, as the popular concept of God presented Him as a jealous potentate whose favor was to be gained only through the suffering of His children, the customs of the people became rigid and strict, based on fear of punishment from a wrathful ruler. Little joy shone through such an atmosphere of false belief, and any evidence of joy was often suppressed as being contrary to God's will. How different our views through Christian Science, which reveals God to us as Love, the ever present Father-Mother! In the light of this true understanding of Him we now know that God's will for man is good, and that happiness and harmony are the natural results of an intelligent love for Him.
