Heaven on earth is a startling idea, heaven within us even more startling. To the Christian Scientist these ideas are not impossibilities. They are spiritual actualities to be brought to light through an active understanding of God.
Mankind generally have thought of heaven as a locale remote and out of reach—a promised land. Christian Science presents not a geographical but a subjective heaven, a serenity within, wherein one knows and includes in his true nature as the reflection of God every right idea: home, health, completeness, abundance. Such concepts cannot of necessity exist as a series of material objects arrayed outside the realm of consciousness, with man forever striving to possess them. They exist as divine concepts, and, as expressions of God, comprise man's compound nature.
Jesus' answer to the questioning Pharisees concerning the kingdom of heaven was revolutionary. He said (Luke 17:20, 21), "The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you." Mrs. Eddy declares in Science and Health (p.560): "Heaven represents harmony, and divine Science interprets the Principle of heavenly harmony. The great miracle, to human sense, is divine Love, and the grand necessity of existence is to gain the true idea of what constitutes the kingdom of heaven in man."
