Everyone is seeking dominion in some form or other, anxious to find release from pain and sorrow, liberty from subservience to drugs and medicine, or freedom from worry and limitation. Christian Science, with its teaching of the omnipotence, omnipresence, and perfection of God and of man's God-given dominion, brings release from the domination of the so-called carnal mind and all the enslaving beliefs of sin, sickness, and fear.
A familiar Bible passage, and one of great import with regard to dominion, is found in the first chapter of Genesis. It reads, "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." This passage contains one of the basic truths of being: that man is the image and likeness of God. Every quality man possesses is his by reflection; he has no ability or power underived from God. There is no power apart from God, and man's gift of dominion lies in expressing the nature of his Maker.
It is a common misconception that man was originally given dominion but later lost it as a result of his fall from perfection, and consequently must strive to regain it. This notion arises from the false concept of man as a sinning mortal, rather than God's own image. But a mortal is not the likeness of God. Man, created in God's image and likeness, is as perfect as his Father; he is spiritual, changeless, and complete, for that is true of God. Man, then, has never fallen; neither has he lost his dominion over all. As the image, or idea, of God he is forever conscious of the allness and omnipotence of God and knows no loss, deficiency, or diminution of good. The actual truth of being is that man by reflection has dominion over all now and forever.
In her exegesis of the first book of the Bible, referring to the use of the plural term our for God, as previously quoted, Mary Baker Eddy writes (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 515): "The name Elohim is in the plural, but this plurality of Spirit does not imply more than one God, nor does it imply three persons in one. It relates to the oneness, the tri-unity of Life, Truth, and Love. 'Let them have dominion.' Man is the family name for all ideas,—the sons and daughters of God. All that God imparts moves in accord with Him, reflecting goodness and power."
It is interesting that Mrs. Eddy stresses the word them by the use of italics. "Let them have dominion," she writes immediately after naming the three synonyms for God. Perhaps our failure to experience dominion is due to the fact that we are not willing to concede dominion and power to Life, Truth, and Love. Perhaps unconsciously we are inclined to ascribe authority and control to disease, evil, death, and other phases of human belief. Watchfulness is requisite to demonstrate dominion, and we might well ask many times a day, "To whom am I giving dominion?"
When we declare understandingly that Life is the all-embracing and indestructible cause of all true existence and realize that man, as the image of this fetterless Being, is constantly manifesting the activity, energy, radiance, and joy of Life, then we shall be letting Life have dominion. In this all-inclusive and changeless Life there is no evidence of weakness, decadence, disease, deformity, or imperfection of any kind. We can know that Truth is the unerring Supreme Ruler and that man, as the idea of Truth, is reflecting the integrity, nobility, and grandeur of this one infinite controlling power. Deceit, lawlessness, cunning, and fear are unknown to Truth's unimpeachable law of good, and therefore Truth's idea knows nothing of them either.
To let Love have dominion in our daily living, we need to be more aware of Love as the all-encompassing and exhaustless presence. Man, as the likeness of Love, is continually expressing the tenderness, grace, mercy, and beauty of his immutable source of being. Man, held forever in this atmosphere of harmony and peace, knows nothing of hatred, revenge, or greed. No element of jealousy, resentment, or bitterness can disturb us if we are conscious of Love's ceaseless dominion. When we let Life, Truth, and Love have dominion, sin, sickness, and fear will disappear from our experience.
"Truth, Life, and Love," says Mrs. Eddy, "are a law of annihilation to everything unlike themselves, because they declare nothing except God" (Science and Health, p. 243). So-called material, man-made laws of suffering can never withstand the power and might of the divine law of good. Man is not subject to these material laws, for as the spiritual idea of God he is governed only by the ever-operative, available, and omnipotent law of Life, Truth, and Love. This law is continually unfolding the beauty and holiness of being.
Though small, the word let is important in its significance. It expresses a sense of humility and meekness. We must be willing to give up our false concept of life as mortal, willing to rise from the belief of life, substance and intelligence in matter, and let Life, Truth, and Love be our All-in-all. Mrs. Eddy uses this word let many times in her writings, and so we see the need to strive constantly to replace thoughts of stubbornness, pride, and self-will with true meekness and let Life, Truth, and Love be omnipotent, All. "Blessed are the meek," said Christ Jesus 'Matt. 5:5); and blessed are those who yield in true meekness to the omnipotence of God.
Dominion is never dependent upon circumstance or environment; nor is it limited by age or time. Nothing can interfere with man's divinely given heritage of freedom. As an intrinsic quality of the divine nature, dominion has no beginning or end and is not subject to change, limitation, or time. The Psalmist recognized the ceaseless unfoldment of good when he wrote (Ps, 145:13), "Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations."
The writer has proved the practical nature of the foregoing truths about dominion. Suffering one day from severe pain, biliousness, and headache, she suddenly-realized that she had been mentally insisting that matter had power and that nerves had control and authority. She remembered the words, "Let them have dominion," and felt a deep desire to know more about man's dominion; so she rose from her bed and began to study the Bible and the writings of Mrs. Eddy. Later she found that all pain and sickness had left her, and she was experiencing freedom, joy, and health. Healing in Christian Science results from thought yielding to the omnipotence and efficacy of God's law of annihilation to error.
Every day students of Christian Science use the "Daily Prayer," written by our Leader and found in the Manual of The Mother Church. It is as follows (Art. VIII, Sect. 4): "'Thy kingdom come;' let the reign of divine Truth, Life, and Love be established in me, and rule out of me all sin; and may Thy Word enrich the affections of all mankind, and govern them!" What better prayer, coupled with the prayer our Master gave, could Christians pray each day:? It is an earnest desire to let Life, Truth, and Love have dominion, to yield to the omnipotence of divine law; and it is a prayer not only for oneself, but for all mankind. Ceaseless prayer of this nature must guard the door of thought that no aggressive suggestion of any power opposed to God enter our thinking.
Surely everyone desires to have dominion over any circumstance which might retard his progress, and the way to experience dominion is to claim it as a present reality and to begin to demonstrate it. Let us give all power to God and say with Jude (1:24, 25), "Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever."
