Each one of us, in his human experience, has the glorious privilege of assuming responsibility for his own spiritual welfare and progress. But before we can undertake this responsibility or before we can go forward, there must be a willingness to think more spiritually. We must be willing to let the kingdom of God function within us. One dictionary definition of "function" reads, in part, "the natural, proper, or characteristic action of anything." Then we might say that to let the kingdom of God function within us is to let the spiritual nature, which is the only true nature of man, be demonstrated; that is, brought into actual experience.
Now, in order that we may behold the real nature of man, we must utterly abandon the false concept of man which implies that we are mortals. Our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, tells us in her book "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 185): "Self-renunciation of all that constitutes a so-called material man, and the acknowledgment and achievement of his spiritual identity as the child of God, is Science that opens the very flood-gates of heaven; whence good flows into every avenue of being, cleansing mortals of all uncleanness, destroying all suffering, and demonstrating the true image and likeness. There is no other way under heaven whereby we can be saved, and man be clothed with might, majesty, and immortality."
The teachings of Christian Science clearly show that a mere acknowledgment of our spiritual status as a child of God is not sufficient to bring forth the actual evidence of man's immortal being. We must achieve through spiritual understanding our inseparable unity with the Father as His idea, and we must demonstrate this unity. It is thus that the sinless, birthless, deathless man of God's creating appears. We must be willing to awaken from the delusion that we are separated from God and that we live in a material body. Renouncing "all that constitutes a so-called material man" compels us to lay down fleshliness for spirituality and to cease thinking of ourselves in terms of matter. Isaiah said (2:22), "Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?" Centuries later the Apostle Paul proclaimed the fact (I Cor. 15:50), "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God."
The Master, Christ Jesus, was never deceived by the appearance of flesh. He entertained no doubts as to man's spiritual identity, for he knew that true being is not in matter but in Spirit, God. Identifying himself wholly with the Father, Jesus said (John 10:30), "I and my Father are one." Jesus' understanding that man is spiritual, forever at one with God, brought the conclusive evidence of life and harmony to those who were receptive. The realization of man's inseparability from the Father and the conscious awareness of the spiritual realities of being enabled Jesus to demonstrate the lifelessness of matter and to rise above a bodily form of existence.
We should not be tempted to think that we can demonstrate man's status as the spiritual image and likeness of God through a mortal sense of existence. Our sonship with the Father is never in any way connected with matter.
On page 491 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy says: "Matter cannot connect mortals with the true origin and facts of being, in which all must end. It is only by acknowledging the supremacy of Spirit, which annuls the claims of matter, that mortals can lay off mortality and find the indissoluble spiritual link which establishes man forever in the divine likeness, inseparable from his creator."
Those who are living in accordance with the teachings of Christian Science are furnishing evidence of mankind's redemption from the bondage of matter. Indeed, as one acknowledges his true, immortal being, which is untouched by matter or mortal mind, hopelessness, disease, pain, sorrow, and death begin to disappear from his consciousness.
To illustrate this point, I should like to give an example in the following healing. A friend of mine was suffering from internal injuries caused by a speeding toboggan which had struck her with such force that she did not regain consciousness for several days. Four hemorrhages, which took place in rapid succession, resulted in great loss of blood. Artificial feeding was resorted to. For weeks this woman lay in a hopeless condition.
Finally one of the attending physicians said to her, "You should take up the study of Christian Science." This my friend agreed to do at once. No further medication was given, and a Christian Science practitioner was called for treatment. When my friend learned something of her true being as the child of God and realized to some extent that man in His image is never at the mercy of matter, she was healed.
Eventually every mortal will be called upon first to understand and then to demonstrate his own immortal being. Christian Science is the divine way and teaches men to accept and demonstrate immortality here and now and not to postpone this demonstration. As Christian Scientists we know that the fulfillment of the sacred task of demonstrating the truth is not the work of a day or even of a year. But through the constant endeavor to forsake the material for the spiritual, the outward seeming for inward reality, we attain a clearer and truer estimate of man's genuine nature and his eternal at-one-ment with God. And as we progressively demonstrate this oneness as Jesus did, our proofs of Love increase, and our progress appears. As we go forward to deal with all that is a denial of our true being, let us pause to recognize the spurious claims of matter only to the extent of detecting them and ejecting them from consciousness.
One may well ask himself, "How much do I really love?" Every thought and deed accelerated by the glow of love is a spiritual force that sweeps material beliefs away, drawing us nearer heaven. As we truly love, we truly rise toward the certainty of reality, which clothes us "with might, majesty, and immortality." Some day we must all claim the spiritual realities of being and demonstrate the kingdom within ourselves. The question today is, Are we willing?
