"LET THERE BE LIGHT"

IN the first epistle of John, the beloved disciple said (1:5), "This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all." This utterance clearly bears the impress of Christ Jesus' influence on John's thoughts. A correlative statement is to be found in the Old Testament (Hab. 1:13), "Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity."

Mary Baker Eddy has followed these statements to their logical conclusion in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." In this book it is revealed that God, divine Mind, is infinite, changeless good. The perfection, allness, and oneness of God concede no place and no existence to an opposite, named evil. In the transcendent light of Spirit, darkness is not. In all-pervading Love, evil is unknown.

One would think that such positive Biblical statements as those given above might have formed the starting point for all theologians of the Christian faith and that from this standpoint they could have demolished belief in evil or in a power apart from God. Unfortunately this was not the case, and when Mrs. Eddy first enunciated the teachings of Christian Science in the last century, some of the most bitter attacks against it were aroused simply because this Science does not recognize evil as an entity or a reality.

Even today, in many quarters, the Christian Science standpoint is not understood, so ingrained in human thought is the belief that evil is something positive and that there exists a devil in eternal opposition to God. Yet during the present century a gradual change is taking place, and these erroneous theories are dissipating as a more enlightened outlook gains ground.

Christian Science is in entire accord with the teachings of Christ Jesus, who proved his statements by actual demonstration. This demonstration is an irrefutable argument. To preach the omnipotence and omnipresence of God and then to turn to matter and material methods for healing is inadequate theology and inspires no confidence in the thoughtful or inquiring person.

Mrs. Eddy taught her students that God is All-in-all, that He is divine Principle, to be adored and understood, and that this Principle is adequate to deal with all erroneous conditions as untrue and unreal. The history of the Christian Science movement is a long, uninterrupted, and inspiring record of disease dissolved, death defeated, and joy established as man's divine right. This religion reveals the light of intelligence and Love displacing the phantoms of superstitious fears and false beliefs.

The Christian Science textbook contains the following passage (pp. 504, 505): "Spirit is light, and the contradiction of Spirit is matter, darkness, and darkness obscures light. Material sense is nothing but a supposition of the absence of Spirit. No solar rays nor planetary revolutions form the day of Spirit."

The supposition of Spirit's absence includes within itself all the so-called results of evil—sin, disease, accident, death, strife, and disaster. As the seeming cause of evil lies within a supposition or falsity, then it will be patent to all that the correction of the original supposition by the light of Christ, Truth, leads to the elimination of its so-called effects.

Just as in mathematics the increasing enlightenment of the student spontaneously eliminates the errors which are the result of ignorance, so in divine Science our better understanding of God as All destroys the belief in evil and the effects of that belief.

These sentences of our Leader are the key to our continuously expectant progress and development (ibid., p. 454): "The understanding, even in a degree, of the divine All-power destroys fear, and plants the feet in the true path,—the path which leads to the house built without hands 'eternal in the heavens.' Human hate has no legitimate mandate and no kingdom. Love is enthroned. That evil or matter has neither intelligence nor power, is the doctrine of absolute Christian Science, and this is the great truth which strips all disguise from error."

The writer has known many instances in which an individual has been healed after hearing a simple explanation of the facts of divine Science. Often too these explanations have healed a patient who was at a great distance from the one who had been asked to give prayerful help. Christian Science is the truth that makes free. It reveals the true light which disperses darkness.

On some armorial bearings appears the Latin phrase Fiat lux, "Let there be light." This might well be the motto of every student of Christian Science, for light implies understanding, unfoldment, and revelation. Mind is ever manifesting itself. It is evidenced in increased loveliness and joy, which tend to transform the environment, heal disease, and establish integrity in human affairs.

Consider deeply what can result when each individual Christian Scientist gains clearer glimpses of the omnipotence of God and conceives the pattern of His universe as incorruptible and eternal. By degrees almost imperceptible, these individual glimpses of reality touch and uplift the world's thought and so bring blessings universal.

In terms of practical Christian Science the student is able, when confronted with difficult or chaotic conditions, to bring to his aid the recognition of God, Spirit, who is ever present and therefore always just at that point where trouble seems to be. It does not much matter whether the problem is personal, national, or international; the remedy is always the same: that God is Light, that God is infinite and ever present, and that He controls all.

Man dwells in spiritual light, dwells where life is unfettered and love is boundless, for in the divine unity, that which belongs to God belongs also to man by reflection. The revelation of Christian Science and its results are clearly expressed in the words of this inspired verse (Christian Science Hymnal, Hymn No. 149):