Christian Scientists are learning to acknowledge God in all their ways and to be grateful, even in troublous experiences, that God is present to dissolve the darkness of mortal belief with the light of spiritual being. The prophet Malachi gave this message from God (3: 10): "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it."
God's invitation through the prophet, addressed not merely to the Israelites but to all who follow Christ, is to prove Him "now herewith." Not tomorrow, not next week, not even in an hour's time, but "now herewith"! So many times in the Bible and in the writings of Mary Baker Eddy, this little word "now" is used. A typical example is found in II Corinthians (6:2): "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." This is quoted several times by Mrs. Eddy; for instance in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," where she follows the quotation with the stirring declaration (p. 39), "Now is the time for so-called material pains and material pleasures to pass away, for both are unreal, because impossible in Science.'"
The ability to prove the goodness of God has, however, a condition: that we should first bring in our tithes, our sincere gratitude for the ever-present perfection and omnipotence of God, divine Love. Christian Scientists appreciate the fact that God is the only and constant source of all that is real and good and that man, God's image, cannot acquire or manifest what does not exist in God, such as diseases, discords, and other erroneous illusions of the carnal mind. Neither can man fail to enjoy what belongs to him by reflection, namely spiritual good, health, substance, happiness, emanating from his divine source, God.
If a healing is delayed or if an inharmonious situation persists despite sincere and consecrated effort to apply Christian Science, may it not be that the sufferer has not realized the immediacy of God's law of perfection, which needs no long process in order to become operative? The mathematical law which establishes that two plus two equals four needs no time in which to operate; it needs only to be understood. Similarly the divine law, which establishes that man is made spiritually and expresses only the characteristics of his divine origin, God, needs no complicated process or argument in order to be demonstrable; it only needs to be accepted, understood, and yielded to.
True it is that in our developing state of understanding, we seem often to need a process of argument in order to bring the evidence of the divine facts of being into our conscious human experience, but this is because we do not fully apprehend the Science of Christ. It is impossible to make that true which is not already true, and a realization, through Christian Science, of the present perfection of God and man will demonstrate that divine fact at the moment of its discernment.
To the Christian Scientist there is no incurable disease, for there is no mistake that cannot be corrected. Christian Science reveals that disease, no matter what its type, symptoms, supposed cause, or severity may be, is a mistake admitted into consciousness and manifested physically—a mistake regarding the allness of perfect and omnipotent Mind and the consequent perfection and dominion of Mind's manifestation, man. It is logical that an error in the premise, in one's concept of God, must result in error in the conclusion, in one's concept of the manifestation of God. It is obvious that the correction of the error in the premise must result in a consequent and immediate correction of the manifestation —the healing of the disease.
There are many authentic records of the cure through Christian Science, not only gradually but instantaneously, of so-called incurable diseases of long standing when the truth concerning the nature of God and man has been accepted. The result can always be "now herewith" when the truth is trustingly and understandingly declared.
A gardener knows that if his seed and ground are good, the result will surely appear in the order of natural law of germination and fruition. He does not constantly take up the seeds to see if they are all right; neither does he continue to plant more seeds in the same place in case the original ones do not grow. He is satisfied and certain that the law which governs growth is operating and that in due time the fruits of his sowing will be ready for reaping.
Our Master likened the kingdom of heaven to a mustard seed sown in the field. The seeds of righteousness, love, loyalty, understanding, goodness, and the like, sown in consciousness, are evidences of the kingdom of heaven within us. The law governing the growth of such seeds is divine, and when properly tended in human consciousness, they come to full fruition.
Unlike the horticulturist's seed, however, the spiritual harvest is always present. As Jesus said to his disciples who had conscientiously studied and practiced with him for some time (John 4:35), "Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest." As always, Jesus pointed the scientific way, lifting his disciples' thought from the material to the spiritual. Christian Science healing is always a spiritual activity, lifting thought from the physical to the divinely mental. And the divinely mental is an unfoldment of what already is.
Sometimes one hears it said, "I have studied and practiced Christian Science for many years, and now this problem has come upon me which I cannot meet, however much I try." May it not be that this worker needs more confidence that because of the years of sincere and consecrated work the ground of consciousness is properly tilled and the seed of truth is good and that therefore what has been sown in past years of prayerful declaration must, according to God's law, be reaped in the harvest of present demonstration? May it not be that time and effort are sometimes wasted in going over and over the same ground, taking up the seeds of scientific affirmation for examination, or sowing more of them in order to be quite sure of their vitality, when all that is needed is radical reliance on the truth already perceived and declared?
Consecrated work does not bring to the scientific worker additional onslaughts of evil. Such a suggestion is one of the carnal beliefs which would attempt to defraud us of our just reward. It is not a law of mortal mind which decrees that after years of faithful work and progress in Christian Science the worker should be met with increasing difficulties, for there is no such law. Often our only need is for greater understanding of and claim upon God's law of good and His love for man. Every true statement, understood, has all the might of Truth supporting it; it cannot be reversed, for it is always true. The harvest is in the eternal now.
In Science and Health we read (p. 329): "Principle is imperative. You cannot mock it by human will." The human will which tries to bring about healing by human thinking is an attempt to mock, as it were, imperative Principle. Human sense would deceive us, if we are not alert, into believing we must pray to God to heal or improve His work, which He has already seen and pronounced very good. True prayer, in Christian Science, is not asking that man and the universe be improved, but that we see and understand how spiritually excellent they already and eternally are in God's sight. Divine Principle, God, establishes the law of healing, regeneration, and resuscitation, and although applicable to human needs, it is a spiritual, not a human law.
Elsewhere in Science and Health Mrs. Eddy states (p. 458), "Divinity is always ready." Every student of Christian Science must in some degree have had proof of the readiness of divinity to meet any sudden demand in human experience. When we are faced with calamity or sudden fear, Truth, or divinity, stands ready to reveal the divine fact and annul the illusion.
One day my wife and I, while away on holiday, returned to the town near where we were staying and for a short time sat in the car, chatting with two friends. One of them had to leave to keep an appointment; and after a few moments the three of us decided we would move the car about fifty yards down the road and take a trip to the top of a very high tower from which there was a magnificent view over the town and the surrounding country.
When we stepped out of the elevator at the top of the tower, we heard sirens; and on looking over the edge of the platform, we saw that right where we had been sitting in the car five minutes previously a large building had collapsed, partly burying another car which had drawn up in that spot. Had we not moved, we would have been under the debris. Our gratitude for this evidence of divine protection was, of course, heartfelt.
As we looked upon the scene from that great height, I became vividly aware of divinity's readiness. Where normally one would have turned away from such a scene in order to correct one's thought more easily, I found myself watching with absorbed interest the qualities of divine Mind, Love, being manifested. I gave thanks for the selfless courage with which scores of men, indifferent to their own danger from other parts of the building still likely to fall, immediately began tearing away at the rubble to release those underneath. It seemed quite natural for me to declare, audibly and confidently, that right there where the rubble and destruction seemed to be, divine Life, God, was operating. It was only when we were quite satisfied that divinity's readiness can be proved "now herewith" that we left the scene.
Had we not known the certain operation of divine law, it would have seemed incredible to read in the newspaper next day that the sixteen people who were underneath the collapsed building were rescued alive. We do not, of course, claim that our thoughts saved those people; it was the presence of divine Life and Truth, "always ready" to be proved All, that preserved them.
If the law of Life ever ceased to operate, God would cease to be! The divine law coexists with its Principle and operates eternally, universally, and instantaneously through spiritual consciousness. The eternal mandate of divine Mind is growth and progress, not governed, helped, or hindered by time, but serenely unfolding. There is no law of human belief to delay the harvest, and we have divine authority for claiming it "now herewith."
