Before the science of astronomy was generally understood, it must have been a tremendous task to explain to the unenlightened that the sun does not move around the earth, that day and night are caused by the rotation of the earth and not by the movement of the sun. The unenlightened found this difficult to understand, because they saw everything from the evidence presented by the physical senses.
To accept the facts concerning the earth's diurnal rotation, one had to be willing to reject the visual evidence and permit thought to be identified with the law of astronomy. This simple illustration has sometimes helped the writer when false suggestions claimed reality and intelligence. To behold the truth of any discordant condition, one must turn away from and reject utterly the misconception, in spite of material evidence.
Mary Baker Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 561), "The Revelator beheld the spiritual idea from the mount of vision." This statement has great significance for the student of Christian Science. It reminds him that in beholding "a new heaven and a new earth" (Rev. 21:1) John must have identified himself with that which is Godlike. He must have rejected the mortal sense of things and turned to the clear, spiritual discernment of his true nature as the son of God. He must have understood that the true view of the universe is to be seen and experienced from the standpoint that God, Truth, is the boundless basis of all identity and being.
When Christ Jesus declared (John 10: 30), "I and my Father are one," he was referring to his true, spiritual selfhood and not to the physical body viewed by his questioners. His acknowledgment that man's spiritual being is inseparable from God enabled him instantly to heal the sick and to raise the dead. The Saviour's mission and John's vision of divine reality exemplify the promise given by Mrs. Eddy on page 322 of Science and Health, "When understanding changes the standpoints of life and intelligence from a material to a spiritual basis, we shall gain the reality of Life, the control of Soul over sense, and we shall perceive Christianity," or Truth, in its divine Principle."
From the spiritually scientific standpoint, which has nothing to do with human location in space or time, misconceptions are impossible, for there is in reality no mortal or human mind to misconceive. God is the Life of man, and man has no Mind but God. The immortal, spiritual man is not in a state of consciousness which is aware of discord, nor does he see the kingdom of heaven afar off and labor and strive in order to reach it. He is already the radiant reflection of infinite Mind, the divine expression of Life and Love.
It may be asked: "How can the true view of reality be reconciled with the material or human concept in which one appears to live? Is spiritual discernment an ideal relegated to an unknown and unknowable future?" The spiritual fact is that there are not two standpoints, one material and the other spiritual, from which reality may be viewed. There is only one standpoint, the spiritual. The mortal sense of being has to be put off for the spiritual, because the divine Mind, which man reflects, is aware only of its own infinite universe, which is not and never was material, but is entirely spiritual and wholly good.
In John it is recorded (8:31, 32), "Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." To know the truth and live it is to have no consciousness but good, to claim no substance, no life, no love, but that which is spiritual. In such divine acknowledgment and understanding, one is newborn of Spirit and is free. He is free from the belief in any power apart from God and therefore free from the suggestions of sin, sickness, and death. He is free from the myriad claims of a mortal or material sense of existence. Spiritual living is the forever identification of true selfhood with the divine, demonstrating the oneness of God and man as divine Principle and idea.
It is the glorious work of the Christian Scientist constantly to reject the dualistic sense of existence and to acknowledge one Mind, one God, as the basis of spiritual being. In such consecrated living, new and clearer views of reality appear.
One who has been struggling long with a problem which has not yielded may well ask the question, "From what standpoint am I seeing the situation, from the human or the divine, from the mortal or the immortal?" In the honest answer to such a question, release has often been found. To accept the spiritual standpoint alone is to know oneself as the son of God, flawless and forever complete.
Living the truth from the standpoint of the teachings of Christian Science is the greatest contribution one can make to the solving of personal or world problems. To the materialist, such a statement would be absurd. To the humanist, it would be too transcendental. But to the Christian Scientist, it is divinely natural, for he has experienced the power of the Christ, Truth, in gaining clearer views of health, or wholeness, a more spiritual sense of values, and in a lifting of the veil of materialism to discern spiritual reality. The recognition that there is but one standpoint, the spiritual, is a denial of the spurious suggestion that there can actually be any material or mortal view of reality. Spiritual consciousness is Mind, all-seeing, all-knowing, all-acting, which interprets and unfolds man and the universe in accordance with the divine laws of Life, Truth, and Love.
There is much for us to ponder in the words which our beloved Leader, Mrs. Eddy, writes on page 262 of Science and Health, "Starting from a higher standpoint, one rises spontaneously, even as light emits light without effort; for 'where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.'"
