Fulfillment of precious Biblical promises is being experienced more and more by mankind. Every day untold numbers are proving that the promises given by prophet and apostle centuries ago were not given in vain. The purpose of these promises was definite; and the spiritual animus, inspiring, governing, and blessing mankind, is operating the same now as when it impelled the furtherance of God's law through those found worthy in Biblical times.
For more than three quarters of a century Christian Science has been and is being demonstrated as fulfillment of promise. In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mary Baker Eddy writes (p. 55): "In the words of St. John: 'He shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever.' This Comforter I understand to be Divine Science."
The promise is that the Comforter will abide with us. To abide means to stand firm, to dwell. One who was weighed down by many suggestions of error seemed at the point where there was no way out, no ray of light. Then a promise given in Psalms came so clearly to thought that the burden seemed to vanish almost instantly, although to outward appearance no change was apparent for several weeks. This verse reads (138:8), "The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me: thy mercy, O Lord, endureth for ever: forsake not the works of thine own hands."
As though a great light flooded her consciousness, this student saw the vestiges of mortal mind disappear into their native nothingness. She recognized that divine Love always had perfected all things pertaining to her life and that she had never really known a discordant condition. She realized that a childlike acceptance of the promise quoted from Psalms had been foremost in her thought during the entire transitional period.
In Isaiah we read (45:11), "Thus saith the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me." At this time when to mortal sense many nations are vying for recognition and demanding a status of authority, let us see what Christian Science reveals concerning government, true dominion, and authority. To one humbly seeking guidance, God's promise will be seen in a verse of a loved hymn, a Bible passage, or one of our Leader's divinely inspired statements. The promise of prophet and apostle is now revealed and will bless mankind universally as it is understood that our Father-Mother God is impartial in His bestowals.
Understanding the true sense of government and authority, one clings to the fact that there is but one Mind, one God, governing all mankind. One sees evidence of the Christ working in and through all nations and in individual affairs. In order to contribute to the improvement of the health and welfare of man individually and collectively, we must see that God's image, idea, is inherently at one with the unlimited substance of good; that man is untouched by claims of false theology, or materia medica; that he is wholly apart from mortal mind's suggestions. God knows only perfection concerning His creation, including man.
When the suggestions of sin, sickness, and death present themselves, we must ask ourselves what our Father-Mother God knows about such so-called conditions. We find that He knows them not; hence they are not real, and they have no place or power in the realm of infinite Love, where man, the image and likeness of God, forever dwells.
True listening and obedience go hand in hand. When truly seeking the spiritual status of being, wholly under the reign of Principle, we see that the ever-present Christ, Truth, is always impelling, inspiring, and guiding us into higher realms of thought where mortality disappears. Then spirituality is seen as a present, provable fact. This abiding Christly presence, revealing God's active law of being, shows us what we need to know concerning any situation.
We must be deeply concerned with what we are as children of God, but we must also prove error's nothingness. Thus we find harmonious, progressive activity, and the right idea pertaining to church, home, health, to harmony, to all true substance. We raise the window shade, expecting that the light will shine through the window. There is not an interim of waiting between the lifting of the shade and the pouring in of the light. As we lift the shades of mortal thinking, the light of promise and fulfillment pours into our waiting thought accordingly. No phase of mortality can obscure the light, the full effulgence of the Christ, Truth.
In Science and Health, under the marginal heading "Promise perpetual," we read (p. 328): "Understanding spiritual law and knowing that there is no material law, Jesus said: 'These signs shall follow them that believe, . . . they shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them. They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.'" And on the same page we find: "Jesus' promise is perpetual. Had it been given only to his immediate disciples, the Scriptural passage would read you, not they. The purpose of his great life-work extends through time and includes universal humanity."
Obedience to our highest understanding of God's law, revealed through inspiration, promise, and fulfillment, leads us to the demonstration of the perpetuity of the Christ, Truth. This obedience enables us to know the ever-presence of God's goodness and to demonstrate that there is no obscuration of spiritual enlightenment. Indeed, God's promises are always kept.
