IN her explanation of the Biblical account of the creation of man, made "after our likeness," as found in the first chapter of Genesis, Mrs. Eddy states in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 515) that the ancient Hebrew name for God, Elohim, is used here in the plural, but in the sense of plurality of Spirit rather than of person, and that "it relates to the oneness, the tri-unity of Life, Truth, and Love. 'Let them have dominion.'" The emphasis which Mrs. Eddy places upon the word "them" indicates that man has full and complete dominion only as he reflects the tri-unity of Life, Truth, and Love. On the following page she also states that "man, made in His likeness, possesses and reflects God's dominion over all the earth." It should be noted here that this dominion, this power to express Life, Truth, and Love over all the earth, was not given to Adam, who typifies the mortal concept of man, but to man made in the likeness of God, Spirit, and cognizing only a spiritual universe.
How can the power thus divinely bestowed on man, one may ask, be made available in an ordinary human way? The human self needs, first of all, to be evangelized—instructed in spiritual things—in order that it may turn away from reliance upon false material theories and seek the true source of being. Spiritual dominion begins in one's thinking. Presumably, that is where Christ Jesus began overcoming the world, the flesh, and all error; and we have no reason for supposing that he waited until he had reached mature years before beginning to exercise man's dominion.
From earliest childhood, it is safe to assert, Jesus was instructed in the Word of God, for we read that "the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him." When, at the age of twelve, he was found sitting among the learned doctors of the temple in Jerusalem and astonishing them with his questions and answers, Jesus already had gone some way on the road of understanding dominion, for he perceived that he must be about his Father's business, the business of reflecting spiritual power. Only the very shortest account of the youth of Jesus has come to us, but there we read, "And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man." What more is needed by us to-day? Symmetrical growth and the approval of God can come only through the daily mastery of self, of every ignoble trait of character that tries to establish itself in our consciousness. Sweet, childlike dominion over the things of sense and self may be seen to-day in little children who, at home and in the Christian Science Sunday School, are taught the truth of being. Because they know the government of the one Mind, the thinking of these children should be spiritual and right from the beginning, and through it they can and do learn to exercise dominion over the ills of childhood, as well as in the struggles and perplexities of youth; and they reflect to others the healing power of Life, Truth, and Love, understood and demonstrated.
Jesus established God's law of dominion in the earth and gave unmistakable evidence of the fact that God created man in His likeness, and with him the law of sufficiency in all things. Jesus knew that a mortal who, apparently, was sick, poor, sorrowful, or worried over how he was to pay his taxes or feed and clothe his family, was not using man's God-given dominion. Realizing that, fundamentally, God ordained ways and means for spiritual man's comfort and happiness, so that he should be, as indeed he is, perfect, unhampered, unoppressed, he taught men how they might avail themselves of the blessings God had provided for His likeness, and thus become a law unto themselves.
Becoming a law unto one's self does not mean the self-indulgence of false or sinful pleasures, indifference to the rights and the sufferings of others, neglect of opportunities for self-improvement, or license to lead an idle, inconsequential, aimless existence. Rather does it imply the bringing of every thought, motive, desire, and personal ambition into conformity with the law of God, the law of good, the law of true dominion. This law is absolute, infallible, ever present, ever available, and ever operative. Acknowledging the supremacy of Spirit and the tri-unity of Life, Truth, and Love as being ever active and available in human affairs, one has only to maintain himself in harmony with the divine Mind to discover that an individual rightly is a law unto himself only in so far as he reflects divine law and applies it in his human experience.
True dominion means the application of intelligent right thinking to one's problem, working it out according to divine Principle and the rule of universal harmony. Christian Science interprets God's law of universal harmony in such a simple manner that the little child, the unlearned, the sick, the sinful, the earth-bound, as well as the scholar and the sage, may understand it and find therein the solution of their own peculiar difficulties. Every essential question relating to human welfare that has troubled the heart of men all through the ages, is fully and finally answered in Christian Science.
The scientifically divine methods which Jesus used in establishing the kingdom of God in the hearts and lives of the people of his time, his conformity to divine law, his spiritual understanding of man's dominion over the earth, and his power to demonstrate the truths he taught— all prove that his knowledge of the Principle and rule of harmony gave him supremacy over material phenomena, and over the claims of sin, sickness, and death.
Divine Science, or the promised Comforter, is with us to-day; the same healing Truth is available now in every time of need; the same Life and Love, forever above material sense perception, destroy the illusions of death and the grave. We may exercise the full dominion which spiritual understanding makes available. Inharmony, limitation, unemployment, uncongenial surroundings, loneliness, doubt, fear, sin, and bodily suffering—all come within the range of spiritual dominion.
We, too, can know the truth that makes men free, and loose the bands of error's thralldom. We can know that no mesmerism of material sense can keep us from our heritage of Truth and Love, nor prevent the demonstration thereof in our daily lives. In "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 16) Mrs. Eddy gives this assurance: "The Principle of Christianity is infinite: it is indeed God; and this infinite Principle hath infinite claims on man, and these claims are divine, not human; and man's ability to meet them is from God; for, being His likeness and image, man must reflect the full dominion of Spirit—even its supremacy over sin, sickness, and death."
