HOME is described by our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, on page 58 of her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," as "the dearest spot on earth." But are there not many to-day who feel that certain radical changes would have to take place before they could truly call their home "the dearest spot on earth"?
Perhaps one individual feels that he has no home, no family; another longs for a more pretentious dwelling or furnishings more to his taste, and in his present surroundings sees little to rejoice over. Still another faces what seems to be a stern, unyielding condition of lack or limitation, or else a discordant condition of family relationships which, he may say, makes life hardly worth living. As a remedy, so-called mortal mind may urge an abrupt tearing away from the scene or the forcible severing of human ties as a means of securing peace. Indeed, it may even argue that this particular set of conditions is too extreme or of too long duration ever to be adjusted.
How grateful one should be at such a time for the comforting message of Christian Science, which comes as the light shining in darkness, assuring each suffering one that "with God all things are possible;" that each one here and now may find his real home through the correct understanding of what home really is!
Christian Science lifts thought out of the concept of home as comprised of a certain group of individuals, a certain structure, location, or accumulation of material possessions, into the mental realm, into the glorious realization of home as the consciousness of infinite divine Love. It declares this to be the only home the real man ever has had or ever can have; for man lives in God. Down through the ages various prophets have caught glimpses of this great fact, and the Bible is replete with beautiful passages describing man's true home. Did not the Psalmist sing, "Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations;" and did not the great Apostle to the Gentiles declare, "In him we live, and move, and have our being"?
How glorious it is to know that home is always available to each one of us! How joyful to realize that we can no more be separated from our true home than we can be separated from God Himself! It is truly comforting to know that wherever we may be, wherever we may go, there we can always find God, good, and man's true abiding place. Further, we see that in the infinitude of Mind there can be no homeless ideas, but that each one forever dwells in the bosom of the Father—protected, provided for, beloved—never alone, but always enjoying blessed companionship in His family of right ideas. As one begins to grasp this truth, he sees that he can no more run away from his false, mistaken concept of home than he can run away from his thinking. Just as he takes his thinking with him, so does he take his concept of home with him. The only solution is to correct his concept of home by viewing it through the lens of Truth.
Home—the consciousness of infinite divine Love! What can possibly enter or claim to have presence there that does not proceed from God, good? Surely, no beliefs of discord, hatred, lack, or limitation have any abiding place in Love's presence. In the ever-presence of Love there can be no sense of pride, selfishness, domination, fear, self-pity, or anything that claims to deny or veil from us the allness of Love. All is Love and Love's ideas, dwelling together in harmony, unity, and cooperation. But we need to know this, and to bar the entrance of our thought to every undesirable guest, to every discordant belief which claims to have presence and power.
No longer need mankind accept unquestioningly the unhappiness and inharmony growing out of a false concept of God and the belief in a power apart from Him. To-day each one of us may prove the truth that "with God all things are possible," that to-day the same God who delivered those of old from the fiery furnace, from the lions' den, and led them safely through the Red Sea, is still available to help us when we turn completely to Him. As these true witnesses of God turned away from the false testimony of material sense, which argued for the presence and power of evil, to the understanding of God as ever present and all-powerful, so our part is to turn completely away from the false concept of home we have been accepting as real, and to lift our eyes above it to behold man's eternal, indestructible dwelling place, in which all are united in one Mind, one Love.
Our beloved Leader has written in our textbook on page 261, "Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true, and you will bring these into your experience proportionably to their occupancy of your thoughts." How eagerly and earnestly, then, we should strive to gain the right sense of home and persistently hold to it, refusing to accept as real the mist of belief which claims to hide true, harmonious existence and happiness. As the sun dispels the mist, we may prove the truth of Mrs. Eddy's statement and find that, proportionately as we "hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true," we shall be able to bring into our environment more of harmony, happiness, and supply, and to make home "the dearest spot on earth."
O be very sure
That no man will learn anything at all,
Unless he first will learn humility.
