WHEN speaking of little children, Jesus said, "Their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven;" and Mrs. Eddy, in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 236), says that "Jesus loved little children because of their freedom from wrong and their receptiveness of right."
What greater ambition can there be than always to behold the face of our Father "which is in heaven" —to be at-one with divine Love, to have no other consciousness but good? The realization of this high ambition requires much self-abnegation and purification of thought.
It is recorded in the Gospel of Matthew that after Jesus had gone up into a high mountain—an exalted state of spiritual thinking—he was transfigured before three of his disciples whom he had taken with him. They, too, then saw the spiritual identity as a son of God, whose face shone as the sun with his exalted understanding of Life and Love, and whose purity was as a white raiment about him.
This spotless purity, into which no shadow of animality had ever entered, enabled Jesus to come into radiant communion with his Father. He was so conscious of divine Love's omnipotence, perfection, and nearness that he, as it were, saw God "face to face," and reflected in his countenance the matchless holiness, purity, and love which dwell forever in the divine Mind, and which had always been his as a son of God.
In his transfiguration, as in his ministry, our Master proved his spiritual identity as a son of God. By reason of his purity and innocence from all belief in evil as real Jesus was able to hear his Father's voice telling him that he was begotten of Him; that he was His beloved Son, His own pure reflection.
An interesting fact to note in the account of the transfiguration is that Moses was also present—Moses, to whom many centuries previously God had also spoken "face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend." Elijah, too, was there, and he also had heard the voice of God ages before the birth of Jesus. These facts show clearly that in every age the voice of God is heard by all who are ready for its message.
On page 152 of "Miscellaneous Writings" Mrs. Eddy writes, "'As in water face answereth to face,' and in love continents clasp hands, so the oneness of God includes also His presence with those whose hearts unite in the purposes of goodness." God's presence is here, just where we are now; but to see Him "face to face" and always to behold His face, what are the requirements? First and foremost the need is to deny the false sense of material existence which hides the ever-presence of God. Our faces must be turned towards Spirit, and Spirit alone, to behold spiritual things. Then in the clear mirror of purity, purification of thought and deed, we shall indeed see the Father "face to face," for Spirit is symbolized by "holy thoughts, winged with Love"(Science and Health, p. 512).
Jesus told Philip that if he had seen him he had seen the Father. How could this be when our Master seemed to be walking with his disciples? Not in his material body did our dear Master tell his disciples to see his Father's face, but in the Christ, the emanation of God. In his true status as a son of God was the Father's face, expression, to be sought. The power of Spirit was to be recognized in the Master's mighty works.
God is seen in His own spiritual ideas, and these must be understood and demonstrated. The utilization and demonstration of these ideas bring the kingdom of heaven on earth.
The enemy to be met on the way to heaven, harmony, is the enmity of the so-called carnal mind, which is ever at war with the Christ-idea. But this enemy is unreal; it has no presence, no past, no future, no power or reality. From beginning to end of its history it was, what it has been from the beginning, a lie about that which is true.
The reason of all sorrow, lack, and suffering is that, human happiness and supply being sought in matter, disappointments are apt to follow with great rapidity. Perhaps our friends may have failed us in our hour of greatest need, as the disciples failed our Master. Human pleasures, too, may have become tasteless. Unsatisfied, we learn that no happiness is to be found when thought is dwelling in matter, in habitations of clay, in material thinking, where spiritual ideas, angels of God, can never be found.
Perhaps one of the most unconsciously subtle errors of the carnal mind, which may attack, unperceived, those who are earnestly striving for greater understanding of the truth of being, is that some other person, as known in some close friendship perhaps, or even clung to as a loved practitioner, is necessary to them ere they can gain the desired progress in Christian Science.
Envy, the great red dragon, may subtly suggest that we are lonely, incomplete, lacking in some quality. But how joyfully we recognize these suggestions for what they are, and repudiate them with the knowledge gained in the Christian Science textbook, that God's idea is ever complete, because all God's children reflect His oneness. No part, no quality, can be lacking, for not to one more than to all is every quality of God reflected and available. No personal presence is necessary for enjoyment such as this, for man as God's reflection is wholly spiritual, perfect, and satisfied.
No longer need we envy another. By earnest desire and purification one and all can come face to face with the Father in holy thoughts— thoughts of innocence, joy, tenderness, purity, happiness, and abundance. These belong not to persons, to give or to take away, but to the divine Mind, and they are reflected from God to His likeness, man. Give Him the glory! The Psalmist says, "As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness."
In the park of a great city was a pool of clear water, its banks bordered with azaleas blooming in glorious colors of rose and flame and orange. In the stillness of the water was reflected all the beauty, color, and form of the flowers, even the tiniest leaf showing in the motionless water its delicate perfection. Every time this spot was passed a Christian Science student was filled with renewed gratitude for the understanding she had gained in even a small degree, from the writings of our Leader, of the meaning of reflection—gratitude that in the clear mirror of purity every child may learn to see, to-day, the face of the Father-Mother God, and with thankfulness and humility know himself to be God's reflection. Only in still waters can the perfect reflection appear. Turbidity prevents reflection; but as this is destroyed, we see that "face answereth to face."
When Jacob overcame his belief of fear and enmity, he must have been able in some degree to see that both he and his brother were sons of God, spiritual. Seeing this, he knew that his brother loved him, and he was able to say, "For therefore I have seen thy face, as though I had seen the face of God, and thou wast pleased with me." Jacob had seen God's reflection, in whom is no evil, and this vision changed—transformed—him.
Let us watch and pray, therefore, that we ever see the face of our brother as the reflection of the face of God, for the face of God is always the face of Love. "And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads."
Do not only contend with evil thoughts or inclinations of the will but get thyself earnestly engaged with a good thought or purpose, until those evil thoughts vanish.—
