WHO that has breathed the exhilarating air of the mountains or the salty freshness of the sea has not felt lifted above worldly troubles and pettiness? But higher than the mountains and broader than the sea is the infinite presence of divine Spirit, whose pervading atmosphere speaks of the peace of God and the comfort of Love. Indeed, the ever-available atmosphere of Spirit is more liberating and satisfying than its counterpart in nature can be. The purity of Soul, the rhythmic harmony of good, the certainty of divine law, the beauty of Love, and the accuracy of Mind constitute the ambient air of Deity.
In the atmosphere of Spirit man rejoices in the glory of true being. As one is progressively lifted into this consciousness of reality, all personal limitations and entangled feelings are dissolved, and the pressure of material things is destroyed. The useless discontent, the weary striving, the bitterness of personal comparisons, the mesmeric suggestions of physical symptoms and their implication in the thought of mortals—all fade in the radiance and the splendor of the One "altogether lovely" (S. of Sol. 5:16), whose name is God.
The oneness and allness of God and His ideas constitute His kingdom, the kingdom of heaven, which Jesus said is "at hand" (Matt. 4:17). Mrs. Eddy describes this kingdom as "the reign of harmony in divine Science; the realm of unerring, eternal, and omnipotent Mind; the atmosphere of Spirit, where Soul is supreme" (Science and Health, p. 590).
