"Hear now, O house of Israel; Is not my way equal?" (Ezek. 18:25) is a Scriptural basis for the statement in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy (p. 110), "The equipollence of God brought to light another glorious proposition,—man's perfectibility and the establishment of the kingdom of heaven on earth." The connection between these three—God's equipollence, "man's perfectibility and the establishment of the kingdom of heaven on earth"—may not at first be readily discerned by a cursory reading.
"Equipollence" means equality of power, and applied to the Supreme Being it means that God's power is equal in every way, everywhere, every hour. This must have been what the Psalmist had in thought when he declared (139:8-10): "If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me."
The perfection of God is axiomatic; it follows that perfection is equipollent, and since God is the only cause, perfection must characterize every effect of this one and only cause. Hence man's perfectibility is brought to light by the equipollence of God, as Mrs. Eddy has revealed. This unveils the unreality of all the various claims of inequality, personal, national, international, and the various phases of physics —time, space, and substance.
The personal senses claim inequality in receptivity, purity, consecration, reasoning. The patient may be mesmerized to say, "I am not receptive to the ministrations of Christian Science, and therefore I am not healed." The equipollence of Spirit, which is reflected by man, is the answer to this lie. For St. Paul taught that God is the author of all volition and doing. "The Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works," said Jesus (John 14:10), and the Father is not more or less of a Father in one place than in another, nor in one age than in another age.
Another student may be misled into thinking that his purity is not equal to that vouchsafed to others who seem to progress in Science more rapidly. He may lay the blame on heredity or environment, but whatever the excuse the equipollence of Soul and its inherent chastity will obliterate the belief of impurity and of fleshly appetites if the victim turns unreservedly to the infinite resources of Soul and affirms their equipollence.
The equipollence of divine Mind must be declared by those who do not find studying easy or who believe they have no capacity for reasoning metaphysically. Isaiah voices God's invitation to man to reason wholly from the spiritual standpoint. Does not this imply that reasoning is equipollent if it is based upon the truth of spiritual being, the oneness and allness of God?
From these instances, briefly referred to, it is easy to see that there is no condition of material existence that cannot be improved by anyone who intelligently holds on to and affirms the equipollence of God. In the midst of an air raid over London the writer gained much comfort from meditating upon this profound statement by Mrs. Eddy, as quoted above.
"Perfection" has been defined as "the quality or state of being perfect," and "perfectible" as "capable of arriving at the highest attainable perfection." The latter definition is applicable to human beings who do not manifest perfection but are striving for it by following the teachings of Christ Jesus. Such as these can be assured that this perfectibility can be gained by knowing that right wherever one may be at any given moment, and in whatever state, there is the active omnipotence of divine Love operating, not in any diluted degree, but infinitely and equally.
The equipollence of God reveals not only man's perfection but the instituting on earth of the kingdom of heaven. It eliminates all inequality. Are not communal, national, and international discords the outcome of some basic inequalities, injustice, inequity? The work confronting the Allied nations after the war is as stupendous as the task of winning the victory, and more so, because the stimulus associated with fighting for one's life will be absent, and the need for relaxation, a resting upon the oars of earnest effort, will claim to be present. Our duty then when we are confronted with what seems a personal or international injustice is to declare for the equipollence of God. Then we can view the claim, not as against oneself, or against a specific nation, but against the character of divine Principle, whose ways are equal. Only the ways of mortals are unequal, unfair.
The phrase "the good old times" indicates belief in the falsity that God, good, is not equipollent in what is termed time. The Christian Science textbook states (Science and Health, p. 494), "It is not well to imagine that Jesus demonstrated the divine power to heal only for a select number or for a limited period of time, since to all mankind and in every hour, divine Love supplies all good." Our need then is not to search the future or the past for perfection, but to realize the equipollence of divine Love throughout all ages. The equipollence of God applies to all time, all space, and to all that is termed "relativity." It explains all spiritual phenomena recorded in the Bible; from the demonstrations of the early prophets to the healing works of Christ Jesus and his followers.
The omnipotence of God, never less or more at any moment, constitutes the substance of all real events; hence they are discernible to those endowed with the understanding of this equipollence. This is the true sense of substance because it is indestructible; time cannot wear it out, space cannot limit it. "Heaven and earth shall pass away," but reality, that is, equipollent Truth, abides.
