In these troubled times, when hatred, strife, and warfare seem to predominate in some areas of the world, every Christian Scientist must be asking himself: "What can I do to help?" Each one finds the answer by gaining an understanding of creation as given in the first chapter of Genesis and demonstrating it. Here we are told that man is made in God's own image and likeness. God is Spirit. Therefore His creation must be spiritual.
In the second chapter of Genesis, we are told of another creation which occurred when a mist arose from the earth. The general belief in the world today is in this material man, made "of the dust of the ground," who will one day, through some process or other, be redeemed and be turned into a spiritual man. Great confusion of thought has arisen in the world today because of its belief in two creations —one spiritual and one material.
Christian Science distinguishes between these two accounts of creation, separates the fact from the fable, and shows that the salvation of the world will come through the separation of these. Christ Jesus did this constantly. Jesus said (John 12:32), "I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." He was not, of course, speaking of his human selfhood; he was referring to the Christ, the spiritual idea of sonship, which enabled him to put off every belief of the flesh.
In her work "Unity of Good," Mrs. Eddy says (p. 52): "This Science of God and man is the Holy Ghost, which reveals and sustains the unbroken and eternal harmony of both God and the universe. It is the kingdom of heaven, the ever-present reign of harmony, already with us." It is "this Science of God and man" which must be the sum total of our lifework.
Our Leader tells us of the effects of this truth understood and upheld in consciousness when she says in Science and Health (pp. 476, 477): "Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick. Thus Jesus taught that the kingdom of God is intact, universal, and that man is pure and holy."
The concept Jesus had is the one we must have of our brother men, whatever to human sense their race, color, or creed. We all have one Father. Paul saw this great truth, for he said that God "hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth" (Acts 17:26).
If we are united in single-hearted purpose to make it a daily, hourly, resolve to see our brother as God's own likeness, as Jesus did, we shall still the strife of nations and demonstrate that regardless of nationality or color we are all one in Christ, the spiritual idea of sonship.
Perhaps we may be tempted to let in the thought that it is difficult to hold up this great truth in consciousness in face of the evil, cruelty, and bestiality which seem to be manifested in the world today. But do we believe that our night dreams are real even though they often include terrible happenings and personalities? Does not our awakening destroy them all?
We do not have to busy ourselves with this or that personality, but we do need to look into our own consciousness and ask ourselves: "Am I going to believe this is man? Which man am I going to believe in —the man of the mortal dream or the man made in God's own likeness?"
In the measure that we answer aright, and hold to it, we shall bring peace to the troubled waters of mortal strife and help to awaken mankind from the dream. To do this does not involve a negative attitude towards evil, nor does it ignore evil. It is rather the most powerful rebuke evil can receive, for the awakening uncovers and destroys the false assertions about the presence and power of evil and its claim to have channels and ways through which it can carry out its intentions.
In times of national and international crises, we may not be in the position to know accurately the human rights and wrongs, but we are in the position to know that right must inevitably win in any conflict with wrong. Wrong motives, wrong desires, cannot prosper.
Today there is everywhere a tremendous urge for freedom. This urge comes from something so deep-seated in human nature that it cannot be turned aside and frustrated. It must be met with a divine, not a human, force. This divine force is with us now; it is the understanding of true individuality, which will meet and guide aright mankind's upsurge for freedom.
As mankind look here and there for right leadership, Christian Scientists can steadfastly uphold in thought the Christ, above the confusion and mesmerism of mortal thinking, and hold to a sure, confident realization that in this understanding lies the government of the nations.
Sometimes apathy or indifference may try to come in because the problem seems not to touch our immediate lives. But each difficulty or crisis we hear of or read about is in reality on our own doorstep and has knocked at the door of our consciousness with the question, "What are you going to do about me?" We cannot ignore it.
In thinking on these things, we inevitably realize that we have to look into our own individual lives and see that these truths have to be demonstrated there in order that our work may effectively reach out to the problems of the world. This may involve a struggle with oneself, sometimes many hours of prayer. So often we try to find justification for hurt feelings or for someone's misjudgment of us or perhaps deliberate unkindness to us. Maybe out of our own self-righteousness we judge another and hold him under condemnation.
Like Jacob, we need our Peniel, in which we see God face to face, and, like Jacob, see in that divine vision the face of our brother. Jacob had deeply wronged Esau, and the last thing we hear of Esau before Peniel is that he hated his brother and that Jacob had to flee from Esau's revengeful intentions. But in the transforming experience that Jacob went through at Peniel, something happened which brought healing to the situation. The brothers met in absolute friendliness, and Jacob, looking into Esau's face, made this wonderful statement (Gen. 33:10): "I have seen thy face, as though I had seen the face of God, and thou wast pleased with me."
If a Peniel experience awaits us, let us not shirk it. In that divine experience we shall see our brother's true individuality as the likeness of God and find that there is nothing to forgive, nothing to condemn.
Our Leader says in Science and Health (p. 316), "The real man being linked by Science to his Maker, mortals need only turn from sin and lose sight of mortal selfhood to find Christ, the real man and his relation to God, and to recognize the divine sonship."
We cannot fully measure the wonderful results in the world, in our churches, and in our lives, when we faithfully endeavor to understand and to demonstrate the truth of the statement, "I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." Paul must have seen this truth and the fulfillment of it when he wrote the following (Col. 3:9–11): "Ye have put off the old man with his deeds; and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him: where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all."
