The moment one begins to discern the spiritual facts of existence as Christian Science reveals them, he has entered the infinite path, which leads to man's immortal life in God. Through dynamic living, not helpless dying, one gains the heavenly kingdom. In the divine realm the family picture consists of God as Father-Mother and the children as ideas, eternally united in Spirit. Here every relationship is intact, unmarred by dissension or by death. In scientific being, God is supreme; His law is enforced. Harmony belongs to this unity; so do sinlessness, health, joy, tireless activity. Being unfolds forever because God is inexhaustible in goodness and variety and in freshness of expression.
To walk in the infinite path, one must give up the mortal self, which reports limited and precarious views of life and joy, and exercise spiritual sense, which takes in views of real being. Mary Baker Eddy says in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 1), "The mounting sense gathers fresh forms and strange fire from the ashes of dissolving self, and drops the world."
In childhood our sense of family is very much centered within the home. Our keenest interests concern the activities of the various members of the household, their personalities, experiences, education, and social life. Our dependence is upon parents and others in the family group. Under normal and right circumstances, family life has a vastly important place in the development of character in the child and youth. Wholesome family life is one of the chief bulwarks of society and deserves our protection and devotion.
Through Christian Science one's interests and affections and activities are enriched as the true view of existence unfolds to thought. The student of Science finds his interests broadening, his affections embracing all mankind, his activities becoming more spiritual. He devotes himself to proving the truth; his desire is to give the comfort of Christ to many. He "drops the world'" for heaven's order by proving God's control of his life.
In order to drop the world, one must exchange every material concept for a spiritual fact. Instead of obtaining provision and protection from a human father, one receives them from God. Instead of seeking comfort from a human mother, one rests in conscious union with divine Love. Instead of limiting companionship to family and friends, one is deeply satisfied with the association of divine ideas. Home is heaven; Church is God's universal idea; life is the perpetual unfoldment of Spirit's activity. This spiritualization of thought purifies the human sense of home and life and lifts each concept higher.
Mrs. Eddy says in her Message to The Mother Church for 1902 (p. 10): "When the human mind is advancing above itself towards the Divine, it is subjugating the body, subduing matter, taking steps outward and upwards. This upward tendency of humanity will finally gain the scope of Jacob's vision, and rise from sense to Soul, from earth to heaven."
Even those who are not students of Christian Science often find their lives forced by the turn of human events into more impersonal channels. The divine law of progress causes all mankind to look away from person to Principle, from dependence upon mortals to dependence upon Truth. The Scientist rejoices in the knowledge of what is happening in his life. He is not frightened by adjustments which he must make, but looks forward with the expectancy of a closer walk with God and a clearer comprehension of man's inseparable unity with the Father. The future has no terrors for him, because he feels God's sustaining love, which he knows to be eternal. He is certain that only increasing spirituality lies before him.
Even as a child, Christ Jesus instinctively lifted his life above the personal to the spiritual. He lingered in the temple at Jerusalem for three days after the feast of the Passover, "sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions" (Luke 2:46). When Mary and Joseph found him, he said (verse 49), "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" Growing to manhood, Jesus accepted his destiny as Way-shower for mankind, and before the eyes of doubting humanity he worked out the will of God, subduing every law of matter, destroying sin, sickness, and death. His affections were healing forces reflected from Love and impartially demonstrated for all. He proved for all time to come that God is man's only Father, and that Life cannot be destroyed. In the ascension, the Master entered the kingdom which in reality he had never left. His "mounting sense" had dropped the world for reality.
Our joy becomes steadfast and deepens as we turn from the mortal sense of life and discern the path of infinity opening before us, with its vistas of health and freedom, goodness and immortality. Each day should be a period of eager expectation of the unfoldment of God's power, His law, His love, embodied in man. There should be no regrets for the world, no sorrow because of the exchange of a personal sense of life and man for the concepts of reality. The transformation of human experience through Science attests the rightness of that course.
Nothing is lost when one "drops the world" for spiritual progress. "The mounting sense" discovers peace and power as one abandons dependence upon persons for trust in Principle, emotional intensities for impersonal and universal affections, limitation for affluence, control by human will for the government of divine will. Mrs. Eddy says in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 206): "Beloved students, you have entered the path. Press patiently on; God is good, and good is the reward of all who diligently seek God."
