Mankind often tries to get from without what already is within. Why is it not seen that all of good is within? This is not a new thought. Even in his time Christ Jesus said (Luke 17:21), "The kingdom of God is within you." He unquestionably meant everyone, not a single one or a certain few. He surely had in mind that the kingdom of God, the reign of harmony, the peace, joy, freedom, health, provision, and dominion of Spirit, is within as well as without all things, for every Godlike quality is as ever present as God Himself.
In Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy it is written, "Knowing that Soul and its attributes were forever manifested through man, the Master healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, feet to the lame, thus bringing to light the scientific action of the divine Mind on human minds and bodies and giving a better understanding of Soul and salvation" (p. 210). Every Godlike quality is "forever manifested through man." Think of the full import of that statement! Health is manifested through you and me right this very moment. Intelligence is. Abundance is. Dominion is. Happiness and joy are. Completeness is. Not a single divine quality or attribute of God is lacking in man, God's likeness.
But in spite of this assurance, mankind spends much of its time trying to get something that it thinks it lacks. However, if life consists only of getting, who does the giving? If mankind could follow what appears to be its inclination, would it merely work to get and not give anything? It is the business of someone to provide what mankind is trying so hard to get. Who does this? Essentially it is God, divine Love. It is He who gives man every needed thing.
Divine Love provides and supplies all good. It is the very nature of divine Love to give. It is the true nature of man to reflect, to show forth, this divine gift. Only an enemy would attempt to keep one from doing that which is truly natural for him to do. Who is this enemy? It is ignorance of the true intelligence and force which really motivate man. The imperative need of mankind is to know the true selfhood of man, his source, his substance, intelligence, and life, and the eternal and perfect nature of these.
What is man's reason for being? Is it to get, to struggle, to gather in, to outwit or to outtrade someone who has some good things and to deprive him of them? Christian Science teaches that man's reason for existing is to impart. Mrs. Eddy writes in a letter to a branch church (Miscellany, p. 165): "As an active portion of one stupendous whole, goodness identifies man with universal good. Thus may each member of this church rise above the oft-repeated inquiry, What am I? to the scientific response: I am able to impart truth, health, and happiness, and this is my rock of salvation and my reason for existing."
Man's reason for existing is not merely to get. It is to reflect divine Love, the infinite Giver. Even though mankind thinks it now is deprived of health or anything else that is good, it does not have to get them. It needs only to open its eyes to their very presence here and now, that is, to the ideas which represent them. It must open the curtains of material sense and let the Christ light shine forth.
The forever Christ, the divinely right idea of everything, the perfect manifestation of God, is the eternally present fact. One can see this healing presence and experience it right now. As he does, the qualities which belong to him appear. That is living helpfully and is really loving or seeing oneself, as well as his neighbor, as God knows him to be; it is evidence of the divine nature transcending human nature.
The Christ nature is the true nature of man. As mankind opens its thought to expressing this true nature, it will no longer remain obsessed or possessed by the suggestions that it is an incomplete reflection and must fulfill its completeness by getting something that it does not now have— something that is outside. The Christ is right here, right now, showing forth man, that magnificent identity which is the very highest, the very acme of creation, and which lacks nothing.
There are in the Bible instances of provisions being found right at hand when it appeared there were none. Hagar's child needed water, and fearing he would die, she began to prepare for his death. "And God opened her eyes," the Bible reads (Gen. 21:19), "and she saw a well of water; and she went, and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink." The well had been there all the time, but Hagar had not seen it. She thought she had to get water. But she needed only to open her eyes to its presence. Something in her true nature reached out to God, and divine Love met her human need.
The experience of Hagar happened to involve a need for water. But it might just as well have been a need for health or supply or happiness. Health, abundance, freedom, joy—all good—are spiritual qualities. They are forever manifested through man.
It is obvious that more is required than simply saying, "The kingdom of God is within." There must be response to the fact. But a sincere holding to it—a conscientious striving to make the fact fully one's own—in order to accept its presence awakens one to the truth that the real, the perfect, the all-harmonious, are already present with man. Thus the Word is made flesh and dwells with us. The power of God and of His Christ is manifested.
There are a few lines in the poem "Christ and Christmas" by Mrs. Eddy that set forth with great force and clarity the actual presence of the healing Christ. They are these (p. 27):
"Forever present, bounteous, free,
Christ comes in gloom;
And aye, with grace towards you and me,
For health makes room."
