Mrs. Eddy's move to Concord, New Hampshire, in 1891 was not a retirement from founding Christian Science. During the next almost twenty years, although largely secluded from the world—in Concord and later in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts—she stayed very active. Revisions of Science and Health, the Christian Science textbook, attention to a constant flow of correspondence, decisions about the future structure and operation of the Church of Christ, Scientist, occupied her days. In 1908 she founded The Christian Science Monitor. Mrs. Eddy explained her seclusion to her followers in nearby Concord in the following way: "I shall be with you personally very seldom. I have a work to do that, in the words of our Master, 'ye know not of.' From the interior of Africa to the utmost parts of the earth, the sick and the heavenly homesick or hungry hearts are calling on me for help, and I am helping them."The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 147;
What a record of spiritual achievement and dedication these years contain! It is clear that at this time Mrs. Eddy was listening more intently and loving more widely than ever before; that she was battling right out on the frontiers of advanced, Christianly scientific thinking; and that personal withdrawal was simply the prelude to deeper mental and spiritual outreach.
To me, this mental pathway traced by the Leader of Christian Science is something that can be emulated in some degree by each of us. By choice or circumstance most of us have our precise sphere, of greater or lesser scope—though one may well expect to enjoy broadening horizons. But there need be no restriction of our thoughts; they can go as wide and deep as our spiritual vision allows. Like our Leader, we can reach out to "the sick and the heavenly homesick."
It is in fact one purpose of the Monitor precisely to encourage this universal love in us. Being a Monitor reader should help us to exercise our citizenship of the world and, as metaphysicians, to be prompted to expand our reasoning from individual predicaments to collective problems.
We may feel our contributions are modest and our efforts localized, but we will be following a route that leads to at-one-ment with universal good. As we grow spiritually, the facets of human existence come into sharper focus, for as Mrs. Eddy also explains, "This scientific sense of being, forsaking matter for Spirit, by no means suggests man's absorption into Deity and the loss of his identity, but confers upon man enlarged individuality, a wider sphere of thought and action, a more expansive love, a higher and more permanent peace."Science and Health, p. 265;
We become more interested in events outside of our immediate circle—events in which, in the highly interdependent world society we live in, we are after all inextricably involved; and then we become more committed, more public-spirited, in praying about them and doing something about them.
The basis of this Christian, mental participation in "a wider sphere of thought and action" to which the Monitor introduces us is exactly the same as it is when we're confronted with a more personal problem, such as sickness or troubled business affairs: the basis of one indivisible, ever-present, good God, inseparably re-fleeted by perfect man and perfect universe. Because God is perfect Being, the source and substance of all being, His creation is undivided. There is no conflict in the images brought forth by the one Soul, or divine intelligence.
As man is spiritual, he is already the reflection of the infinite, never involved in birth, mortality, and death. Distinctions of class and notions of hierarchy are therefore misconceptions. Alienation, animosity, domination, and subservience are precluded from man's God-derived dignity. He is not the product of human ancestry and the victim of instinctual drives and environmental determinations. He is the offspring of one heavenly Father-Mother God, not born of the earth; theories of racial origin or limited pigeonholing into nationalities are mortal, and therefore false and inaccurate.
Because God's idea, His universe, is at one with Him, nature, rightly interpreted, is spiritual. Its primeval quality is neither chaos nor savagery nor struggle, but order, light, harmony, and perpetual freshness. There can be no areas of depletion or pockets of scarcity. In the perfection of this universe every detail of the divine design is perfectly integrated into the whole. Man is not a stranger in a vast and hostile universe, nor is he the chance product of material evolution; he is at one with his environment, which is harmonious and spiritual. The only place that exists is the state of heavenly being, instituted and sustained by God and filling all space. There is no time but only the now of eternity, where man's immortality is an established fact, and his life unfolds in satisfying rhythm and pattern. In God's measurement there can be no buildup of a deprived or an embittered past, no memories of racial or personal vendettas, no lapse from stability or divine glory.
We need to have correct mental and spiritual concepts, in the light of which pictures of famine or war, mediocrity or mismanagement, injustice or pollution, referred to in the Monitor can be exposed as vile misconceptions about God's creation. This is the mental and spiritual pathway Abraham and his companions took out of Ur toward the promised land: a matter of inspired vision and intelligent faith. The Epistle to the Hebrews explains: "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. . . . For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. . . . These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. . . . But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city."Heb. 11:8, 10, 13, 16;
As we let spiritual sense govern and interpret our perception of events, many things happen. With the Monitor's help we gain a clearer grasp of current affairs. Our judgments become more impartial and less simplistic; we become more sure where to place our sympathies, less complacent, better balanced between tradition and modernity; less nostalgic for the past or fearful of the future. We see evidences of a purer humanity appearing and can detect and support the plans, projects, and individuals, right across the spectrum, that further this appearing. We can expect to see "the fruit of the Spirit," which Paul enumerated as "love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance"Gal. 5:22, 23; appearing in every department of human affairs.
As the spiritual nature of creation is brought to light in our thought, we will be better equipped to discern more clearly, and have more dominion over, the Adam-dream of mortal existence, whether experienced individually or collectively. In this dream humanity seems to experience a mixture of good and bad. But mortality, with all its disease, wrongs, and cruelty, is never part of the spiritual man's life and consciousness, and it will be progressively absent from the experience of humanity. Mrs. Eddy prophesies, "Sooner or later the whole human race will learn that, in proportion as the spotless selfhood of God is understood, human nature will be renovated, and man will receive a higher selfhood, derived from God, and the redemption of mortals from sin, sickness, and death be established on everlasting foundations."Unity of Good, p. 6;
It is in individual consciousness that the claims of a false, illusive mentality must be exposed and rebuked in order that Christly light can radiate into "a wider sphere of thought and action." So there cannot be anything abstract or vicarious about this process of regeneration. The Monitor challenges us as metaphysicians to recognize that the way we deal with our individual problems has an effect on society. This is not simply because as a matter of historical fact our own countries may be involved in the news and we recognize our duty as citizens to be aware of this fact. It is also a matter of metaphysics. Discords are not out there, external to us; they constitute an aspect of one single lie—the one evil suggestion that there is power, intelligence, and substance apart from God. Scientific prayer is an invigorating mental process; indeed, one might almost say the Monitor reads us as much as we read the Monitor; it forces us to reexamine our thoughts as we absorb the news.
A recent example from my own experience comes to mind: One day I read in the Monitor about the conditions of near slavery existing for many young men in a certain third-world community. At the same time I was feeling keenly that my own environment was becoming less and less stimulating to me. Reading this news item had the effect at first of making me count my blessings and be grateful for the benefits of freedom. But thinking again, I realized I needed more than a useful corrective of moral perspective between developed and third-world countries, since no set of human conditions constitutes the kingdom of heaven. What was needed, and what I did, was to enter and maintain a mental protest against the possibility that anyone, anywhere, could be separated from the Father of all, who confers limitless opportunity, joy, and fulfillment individually on every one of His creations.
Again, there was a time recently when I found myself becoming extremely angry and quick-tempered. At the same time, increasing violence in Ireland was being reported in my country's news. One evening, reflecting on the injunction "Let not the sun go down upon your wrath,"Eph. 4:26. I realized that if I gave in to my own anger I was in effect assenting to the possibility of endless anger and strife being expressed elsewhere. Not wishing to do that, I replaced my anger with forgiveness. The Lord's Prayer, given to us by Christ Jesus, with its opening "Our Father" came to my rescue and led me to a clearer realization of my origin and unity with God alone. I saw that anger and temper are not Irish or British or anything else, but simply impersonal mortal mind, that they have no part in me or anyone else, and that desirable characteristics, whatever nationality they may seem to be connected with, are available to all, since all are in reality God's children. Not surprisingly, acceptance of these truths had a thoroughly healing effect on all my immediate affairs; I also feel it has made me more effective in praying spiritually and scientifically, for spheres beyond my own.
The mental channels that being a Monitor reader opens up for us are always healing and invigorating. Reading the Monitor expands opportunity for healing prayer—both for ourselves and others. To take advantage of this opportunity provides a challenge and a blessing.
