THE world cannot be saved by ignorance. Job cried, "Oh that I knew where I might find him!" Job uttered this cry notwithstanding the knowledge he had gained that God "is in one mind." What Job was crying out for, the whole of humanity needs. It is a correct, intimate understanding of the Supreme Being. That this is capable of achievement is shown in the ancient drama referred to. Job gained humility through his recognition of the inability of mortal man to gain a knowledge of immortality through material sense or by hearsay. Then he reached out for and achieved God's gift of spiritual perception; and his possessions, which he had lost because they had rested upon a finite belief, were restored, manifold, upon a spiritual basis.
The multiplicity of religions in the world indicate humanity's echo of Job's cry. The egotism of material man, obstinately insisting, as he does, upon the possibility of finding the "Great First Cause" by material research, prevents his gaining the self-knowledge and the ensuing humility which would open to him the sheepfold of which Christ Jesus is the shepherd, where all who enter in can find the truth, the spiritual sustenance, which comes down from heaven.
In striking contrast to the arrogant puerility and self-sufficiency which would claim to enter the Holy of Holies, Christ Jesus stated with humility, and yet with assurance, his knowledge or understanding of God: "As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father." Jesus knew the perfection of God, the Father. Could a perfect Father create, maintain, and know an imperfect offspring? That is an impossibility! It would imply a lapse from perfection. An imperfect offspring would presuppose a state of negation in the midst of positive, omnipresent harmony, a condition which is unthinkable.
The offspring which the Father knows, namely, His image, must be, in its degree, as beautiful and gracious as the King of kings. This is part of the gospel, or good news, which Christ Jesus brought to humanity. In the parable of the prodigal son, Jesus taught that God withholds not one element, quality, or substance of His being from His sons and daughters. In the realm of infinite, beatific splendor, God's creation, man, perceives, receives, and radiates all the glories of illimitable Love.
What the Father knows exists from all eternity to all eternity, and to this fact jesus refers in his prayer as recorded in the seventeenth chapter of John. He speaks of that glory which his real selfhood had with the Father before this dream-world of matter seemed to begin. Moreover, that which he claimed for himself he claimed also for his immediate followers; and not only for them, but for all who would receive his teaching. His comprehensive prayer will reverberate down the ages until its consummation in universal salvation shall have been achieved.
The Father will never cease to know us, however far away we may seem to wander. Since spiritual man is forever perfect, His knowing us only as perfect will draw us even as it drew the prodigal from his far country. There is no far country to omnipresence. It will bring us to the recognition of God's allness and abundance. How comforting is this to suffering, vacillating humanity, which catches only occasional glimpses of an ideal self removed from unworthy desires, which in humanity's better moments are regretted. The Father's knowing of man, His image, is "the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever;" hence to Him there are no back-slidings, no failures under temptation. He knows the steadfast, joyful doing of His will by His children.
God knows man as the pure reflection of Spirit. One definition of "purity" is "containing nothing unlike itself." For Spirit to contain matter would constitute adulteration; hence for the pure reflection of Spirit to be in any way linked with matter would also constitute adulteration. From this it will be seen that the demand of our Master that we must sacrifice the fleshly concept of man is natural and scientific. Self-abnegation of the material selfhood is not some arbitrary command from a tyrannical god, but is as lawful and natural as any rule in arithmetic, where one does not grumble because one must eliminate a mistake.
Since God knows us as pure, we must know ourselves as pure. Since He knows us as immortal, we must know ourselves as immortal; and so on, through the whole range of the qualities of Spirit. By this process we arrive, concurrently, at the point of the true knowledge of God. If, on the other hand, we accept the belief that we know ourselves only as material, we might conclude that God, also, must be material. Upon examination we find that we have held views about God based upon and induced by the false data collected by the unreliable material senses.
The way of salvation from this false position is through the teaching of Christian Science, which reveals that in reality there is no carnal, mortal mind to cause us to believe in matter as the substance, dictator, and architect of our individuality. There is but one Mind, which has known man from all eternity as His offspring, spiritual; that is, unlimited by time, space, or conditions, even as the Father is beyond all limitation.
Jesus knew the Father; knew Him so well as Love that he could thank Him for answering his prayer at the grave of Lazarus before the answer was made manifest in the resurrection of Lazarus, which proved that, as our Leader says, "Life is the spontaneity of Love" (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 185).
Mrs. Eddy has enabled humanity to know the Father better by applying the term "Principle" as a synonym for God. This term is not cold and abstract, when seen as invariable Love. If God were changeable, fluctuating, His knowledge of man would be similar, and man would reflect this variableness.
Christian Science teaches that it is not possible for mortals to gain accurate views of the Father by examining matter. They may, however, gain some indication of the nature of Deity by discerning the beauty which tree, flower, and planet symbolize. Jesus used the lily and the bird in his illustrations, thereby helping us to ascend by the ladder of reason to a height where we can glimpse some true view of God's love. The Horeb height, however, is reached only by discerning the elements of Spirit, not of so-called matter. Purity is one of these elements, and our Master taught that only as we allow this element to permeate our affections and aspirations can we perceive the source of all purity, God Himself.
This perfect knowing by the Father is reflected by man; hence, as God's knowledge of man is perfect, even so man's knowledge of God is perfect. It is this ability to know God that constitutes the Christian Scientist's power over disease and sin; and this position is diametrically opposed to that of the hypnotist, psychoanalyst, and auto-suggester. Christ Jesus taught his disciples that their power to heal depended upon the keeping of their gaze upon the nature and character of God. He showed that it was even unwise for them to contemplate merely the successes resulting from this process. He bade them, rather, to continue rejoicing that God was their Father. Then the results would always redound to the glory of God, unmarred by any subtle self-aggrandizement of the disciple. That Jesus practiced this precept himself is shown in the rejoicing of those who witnessed his many healings. They never glorified Christ Jesus, but always the God of Israel.
This, then, is the culmination of the Christian Scientist's aspiration —to know the Father so intimately that he reflects that which the Father knows concerning what to material sense seems to be the patient, namely, that he is in reality a son of God. The result of this reciprocal knowing, or realization, is healing; and the result of the healing is a clearer understanding of God. The final result of this will be that "the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea."
It is this glorious vision of ultimate universal salvation, through the knowledge of God, that inspires the earnest Christian Scientist to achieve the same consummation of complete knowledge as was shown forth in the life of our Master, to wit, the laying down of his false concept of life for the true.
Would you live for eternity? Would you rise to the height of your great destiny? Would you let the whole flood of power which streams down from celestial fountains flow through your life, and bear you along? Heal the sick, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, teach the ignorant, reclaim the erring, help the weak, pity the poor. No diviner life ... is known to the angels who surround most closely the glory of the central throne.
