CONCERNING an outstanding character of the Old Testament Mrs. Eddy writes in her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures"(p. 214), "If Enoch's perception had been confined to the evidence before his material senses, he could never have 'walked with God,' nor been guided into the demonstration of life eternal."
By this we see that thought must discover something beyond the testimony of evil and of matter, something which will reverse that testimony, if eternal life is to be recognized. Spiritual understanding of things far beyond the range of the physical senses, tells us of God. This understanding, not to be had by the materially-minded, is nevertheless here, and is for all who long to know good. It has been imparted to prophet, apostle, and Christian in every age. And to the longing heart of Mary Baker Eddy it came with such revelation that the spiritual facts of true being became clear to her, so clear that she could set the statement of the revealed truth before the world.
So we can with deep appreciation recognize that Mrs. Eddy, following in the footsteps of the Master and striving to understand better all that he taught, came to walk with God. So clear became her thinking, so altogether lovely grew her affections through her devoted search for these things spiritual, that by her life's work great spiritual issues have been laid before mankind. Her mentality, washed with the dews of desire to know God, purified by turning to God for relief from suffering, weaned from the world, became a natural transparency for the light of heaven. Through true prayer she companioned with the angels of His presence and, like Jacob of olden time, held to these angels until they blessed her. Longing and purposing that all men might find and understand God truly, she walked faithfully with her highest comprehension of Him, until her testimony could bring others to walk with Him. By this spiritual devotion Christian healing came again to the world.
So, too, the humblest Christian finds this way of the close and loving walk with God the divine demand for him, and the satisfying path for him. The Scriptures say that "the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." Only when divine Love purifies the affections and quickens them into un-selfed love for others does the walk with God really begin. Unselfed prayer walks with God, that prayer the essence of which is in laying down the carnal or mortal mind and adopting into the affections the Mind of Christ.
Basically, Christian Science puts it thus: God is divine Mind, everywhere present, all-inclusive. Man and the universe, as they really and eternally are, exist as His divine idea, having their purely spiritual being within the infinite all-inclusiveness of divine Mind. This being true, the divine idea—God's creation—must partake of the nature of the Mind from which it emanates; must express this Mind; and this, because the idea must be true in nature and action to the Mind of which it is the expression. Therefore, Christian Science says that man, as divine idea, has no consciousness apart from God, and so can only know and contemplate himself and all the universe spiritually, even as God knows and contemplates His creation.
The revelation of God as Spirit and of man as spiritual logically discovers that the mental concept which believes matter to be man is a counterfeit, an untrue sense which has nothing to do with true existence. The supposed life in matter, the physical sense which claims man and universe to be physical, is exposed as a dream sense, an illusion, an unreality. And however real the dream may appear to the dreaming physical senses, it must lessen as the evidence of these senses is laid aside for the revelation of the divine fact. This was the way of Enoch's walk with God. His understanding of existence was not "confined to the evidence before his material senses."
If we would walk as Enoch walked, the false beliefs which constitute the activities of a supposed fleshly existence must not be acknowledged as real. Neither God nor the real man in His likeness can see or know materiality. As Truth cannot know falsehood, light know darkness, or good know evil, so God, divine Mind, and man in His likeness cannot know their suppositional opposite. And the simple and clearly understandable instruction of Christian Science is that men shall cease cherishing the myriad round of false beliefs which they have heretofore regarded as real, and turn to discover what God is, how He regards His works, and how a false mode of thinking can be laid aside for correct spiritual perfection. Reason yields its false premises and adopts true views as revelation is accepted. Fundamentally mental, this transformation of the outlook and the affections comes first in thought, and then in the outward life. And the childlike willingness to put away the mistaken belief and to adopt the divine fact, coupled with the intelligent self-disciplining doing of it, is the loving upward walk which leads into the pathway of all-satisfying spiritual experience.
When a man returns to his home at night and his little daughter comes running to meet him, he takes her hand in his and then adjusts his step to hers. Because she is very small his step must be short and slow, but his love for her keeps him beside her in just the way that is easiest for her. The lesson is pointed. Divine Love blesses the humblest and lowliest right desire. Wherever an honest desire to be better reaches out for higher things, there divine Love is walking beside it, supplying from its own completeness whatever of understanding and tenderness can be accepted, and in a way which will steady the short and faltering step. Jesus made that clear by his lesson of the sparrow, which cannot fall beyond Love's care; Mrs. Eddy states it in her loved sentence (Science and Health, p. 494), "Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need." He who, like the little child, runs to the heavenly Father to walk with Him, will find His tender presence always at hand, supporting his smallest effort. So the unity of God and man is proved in small beginnings and according to our present needs, until step by step it shall all be established.
One gloriously effectual way, a basic and fundamental way, to walk with God is to praise Him for all the good that is; to thank Him hourly and momentarily for the harmonious and indestructible facts of being. This is not a sentimentally religious point, but a profoundly metaphysical one. For such giving of thanks helps to cancel both faith in and fear of the entire dream-sense, and exalts in thought the truth of being. It lifts the curtain upon reality; banishes all supposed reason for complaint by enthroning the reasons for thanks. To thank God for spiritual facts is to declare and acknowledge the truth, and correlatively deny the evidences of trouble. So, thanksgiving based on Truth is the purest form of prayer, and indeed keeps step with infinite good.
When the revelation of real spiritual existence is brought by Christian Science to any mortal, and is accepted, there is no place left empty, no sense of separation from God. Instead of accepting as real some lack, some sickness or sorrow, while at the same time praying for relief, the follower of Christian Science discards his belief in it as true by giving thanks that in the sight of God it is not real. When there seems lack or need in the human experience, this simply indicates that the gracious abundance of God is at hand to fill that need completely. Prayer may begin with petition, reaching upward from material sense, which is separated from good; but this separated sense is silenced when God is thanked with all the heart that His completeness is sufficient, already here, already ours. This highest form of prayer is urged upon the student of Christian Science, for it means laying hold of eternal verities and rejoicing in their present helpfulness to mankind.
Jesus thanked God for healing Lazarus, even before his eyes saw him come forth from the tomb. The Psalmist, too, thanked God for the priceless facts of spiritual existence, even while destruction lay before his human sight. He saw the need of cleansing the hands and purifying the heart in order to come unto His holy hill. But he ended with thanksgiving and praise for the spiritual facts as they are. "Thy testimonies are very sure," he declares. "O give thanks unto the Lord; ... for his mercy endureth for ever." "While I live will I praise the Lord: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being."
And so, the followers of Christian Science learn to be thankful. There is no better preparation for healing than to count one's blessings. Ingratitude is always a sufferer. Self-pity, self-will, self-love, are by nature unthankful. Mortals are inclined to take even the normal daily good too much for granted, to accept it unthinkingly. When we can be grateful we are silencing self. We should be always thanking God for everything good, and for all that is true. We who apprehend that the real man is now spiritual and perfect should praise God that this is so. As health and happiness already belong to man, as supply, home, heaven are already bestowed upon man in God's completeness, we should continuously thank Him for these ever renewed gifts. In true prayer we rise from the belief that we must attain to better health and more happiness, and praise God that in His sight man has all perfection and all bliss, all health and all dominion, now and always.
We can have a constant song of thanks in our hearts. We can thank God all the time, for all good things, and he who does this rids his thought of the down-dragging fears and suggestions which otherwise would claim to accompany his outlook and to call themselves his mentality.
This form of prayer acts as authority and power and healing. It blots from thought the sense of existence separated from God, and acknowledges the sublime fact that all the heart's desire of heaven is here, and may be ours. Truly, such prayer walks with God in quietness and humbleness of heart, and receives good measure of His grace.
By these views we can all be encouraged to keep close to the walk with God, however faltering and feeble some of our trying may be, however often we may need to check wayward steps and turn them again to the right way. The follower of Christian Science, like Paul, claims not to have attained; but he knows without any doubt the way in which he is to walk. And he can keep in his heart at all times the spirit of his Leader's poem "To the Big Children" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 400):
"Father-Mother good, lovingly
Thee I seek,—
Patient, meek,
In the way Thou hast,—
Be it slow or fast,
Up to Thee."
In the walk with God all that is sincere will stand; what is not sincere cannot stand. No bit of righteousness can ever be lost; nor can any evil be long exploited. The path is sunlit. Sin and sorrow cannot find this holy highway. If there be times when temptation or trial would argue that the sun is not so brightly shining upon this path of prayer and understanding, one need not be disheartened. There are days both gray and sunny in the coming of the springtime. Cold rains and bitter winds may beat upon the fragile blossoms, but things keep right on growing. Though for the moment weather-beaten, they advance in strength and beauty. Somewhere a bird is singing, and the sun comes out again.
So it is in the walk with God. Good is perennial and ever appearing, always springing anew to strengthen and to gladden all who truly seek it. If the path is hedged with sacrifices, it is also abloom with the happinesses of service. It is God's way, and our way, thought by thought and deed by deed, into heaven.
