The book of Revelation describes the seventh angel sounding a trumpet. Then great voices in heaven proclaim, "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever."Rev. 11:15; What does this proclamation mean in contemporary terms, and what can the individual do to help make it the present experience of all men?
Many people, coming for the first time on Mrs. Eddy's book Science and Health, have leafed through its first six hundred pages and then read with eager hope the chapter entitled "Fruitage." In these last hundred pages they have found a record of bodies healed and of lives made over; they have glimpsed what it means when for an individual the kingdoms of this world have begun to become the kingdoms of God. At this point they have turned back to the book's beginning. There they have learned how they may share this change of experience themselves; and, if they are men or women of compassion, how they may help others to share it.
The first four chapters of Science and Health, in just less than one hundred pages, lay for the reader a firm foundation of moral and spiritual values. They include discussion of such subjects as prayer, sacrament, marriage, and the allness of divine Spirit.
Then, before proceeding further, Mrs. Eddy performs a task she knew could not be avoided if her book was to achieve its healing purpose. In a short penetrating chapter of some six and a half pages only she unmasks the nature and methods of the immoral and the unspiritual. This pretense of power, which claims to possess and exercise an attraction opposed to God or good, has been called at different periods and in different cultures the accuser, the adversary, Satan, devil, or just plain evil. In this chapter, Science and Health with great verbal precision identifies it as animal magnetism.
Of the effects of this unmasking, Science and Health says, "The destruction of the claims of mortal mind through Science, by which man can escape from sin and mortality, blesses the whole human family." Science and Health, p. 103; Today men everywhere are having to solve the old familiar personal problems. They are also having to face worldwide perils, of which radio and television make them instantly and vividly aware. In the village that our world has become there are no hideaways. Anyone who wishes to help the world cope with these perils needs precise knowledge of what the pretended power opposed to good claims to be and do.
How does one render this help? Mrs. Eddy offers a pointer when in Science and Health, before unmasking evil, she lays that firm spiritual foundation earlier spoken of. So a first step toward helping our world is for us to take a good look at the evidences of the Christ among us, at the advances humanity is currently making.
For several decades now Science and Health has been extending this compelling invitation: "Citizens of the world, accept the 'glorious liberty of the children of God,' and be free! This is your divine right."p. 227; And in considerable degree the world has been responding.
Between the discovery of Christian Science in 1866 and the opening of the original edifice of The Mother Church in January, 1895, the Christian Science movement became solidly established. Very soon a tremendous revolution in human thought began to be apparent. Dr. James B. Conant says of one significant aspect of it, "Somewhere about 1900 science took a totally unexpected turn." The distinguished scientific writer Arthur C. Clarke, after quoting Dr. Conant, pinpoints the unexpected turn more precisely. He writes: "The collapse of 'classical' science actually began with Roentgen's discovery of X-rays in 1895; here was the first clear indication, in a form that everyone could appreciate, that the commonsense picture of the universe was not sensible after all." Profiles of the Future, p. 17; The X ray was discovered late in 1895. Soon the atom began to yield its secrets. Then in 1905 Einstein published his Special Theory of Relativity. Within ten years the world's concepts of space, time, and material structure had all become fluid. Today manned vehicles are being dispatched into airless space and brought home safely.
No less spectacular has been the breakthrough in world concepts of social justice. Today more widely than ever each individual adult or young person is recognized as possessing certain basic human rights. Practice falls far short of theory; but at least it is now broadly agreed that the more advantaged everywhere have a binding obligation to extend a hand to their less fortunate fellows.
Most important of all, spiritual truth, sometimes acknowledged, sometimes only felt as a transforming and elevating influence, is increasingly setting men free from the ball and chain of matter-based thinking. Humanity is being led up and out into the "glorious liberty" of existence seen as wholly spiritual. It is finding the deepest recesses of consciousness penetrated by the clear laser-beam and logic of a triple spiritual insight: the allness of God, or Spirit, the nothingness of any opposing power, and the progressive demonstration of these facts in present experience.
What then is it that seems to impede this advance?
A small child stands upright for the first time. At once it feels the pull of strange forces. It tumbles; but soon with its parents' help it walks. Today, in the light of the insights just listed, men are learning to stand spiritually free and upright; and they are meeting unfamiliar resistance. To maintain and extend their freedom, they must identify and destroy each claim that would drag them down and back.
It is this essence of evil, this downward, backward drag, that Science and Health terms animal magnetism. Animal magnetism is the belief that life is physical, that intelligence is personal and limited, that good is fragmented, and that identity is a transient flash of consciousness bounded by birth and death. It is also the claim that this animal belief acts as an inescapable downward drag on all human thought and action. It is the basic lie from which all particularized lies of evil arise.
Let us now require that some of these particularized lies, which would drag the world backward, stand up and be counted: racial animosity which regards skin pigmentation, contour of nose or cheekbone, texture of hair, and management of lips and tongue in speech as justification for everything from discrimination in facilities and jobs to genocide; phony economics that make permission to pollute air and water a cornerstone of free enterprise; toleration of urban, rural, and academic slums in communities wealthy enough to change these conditions; unimaginative attitudes that see in automation, designed to lift men's burdens, only a threat to rob them of their livelihood; a world half rich, half starving; anarchic self-will; or easygoing conformity that does not dare to stand by Emily Dickinson's
conviction, that granitic base,
though none be on our side.Poems, p.341;
Grimmest of all, perhaps, is that cluster of pseudoscientific tyrannies: the claims that men are basically physical and so must be persuaded or forced to rely on matter for their health care; that the ethic of instant gratification allows each individual to write his own do-it-yourself morality without concern for his neighbor or his own tomorrow; and that religion, whatever its past usefulness, is now an outgrown hangover from the world's childhood and adolescence.
These and many similar custom-made lies of animal magnetism need specific rebuttal. Perhaps we cannot every day give focused attention to every item on the whole list. But every day we can thoroughly handle in thought the basic claim, animal magnetism. Then with equal thoroughness we can deal with whatever particular claims we identify as most needing our attention at the moment.
Here The Christian Science Monitor can be of great assistance. Mrs. Eddy in the crowning action of her lifework directed this bridge of many spans and levels to be thrown across the chasm that otherwise could too easily have separated the church she founded from the humanity she loved. Anyone with true concern for the world finds that his consistent reading of this daily newspaper brings him essential data for his understanding and appraisal of the world's most pressing needs.
At the same time, for final inspiration as to where our prayers are most needed, we must turn to and rely on the guidance of divine Mind. This infinite intelligence will also enlighten us as to any outward action we need to take in following through on our prayers.
And now, just how do we pray for the world?
The road has been signposted by Christ Jesus. One pointer is his saying, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." John 12:32; All men, he says. We, too, can lift up in thought the Christ ideal, the concept of perfect man expressing perfect God, as the ultimate reality of all true being. And as we honestly attempt to let this ideal guide our daily living, it will help draw us and all men upward more certainly and more powerfully than the polar magnet draws compass needles on every ocean of the globe. In the words of Science and Health: "There is but one real attraction, that of Spirit. The pointing of the needle to the pole symbolizes this all-embracing power or the attraction of God, divine Mind." Science and Health, p. 102;
A second pointer was set by Jesus during his testings in the wilderness. He refused to accept the kingdoms of the world from the hand of the accuser, Satan, the symbol of a pretended power opposed to God. He did not admit these kingdoms were in Satan's hand. They were wholly in his Father's hand and gift.
Christ Jesus came into the world to save it. Always he was under the impulsion of divine Love and of a deep compassion. And his compassion never shone out more clearly than when, in the words of a hymn,
His just rebuke was hurled
Out from a heart that burned to break
The fetters of the world.Christian Science Hymnal, No. 333.
For cruelty and naked force, for heartless attitudes that bred poverty and disease, for brassy show of rank, for cold indifference of intellect, for the stubborn pride of willful ignorance, his denunciations were searing, explicit.
But behind denunciation stood always his ultimate weapon, his most formidable armament. This was his innocence and purity—his refusal to recognize any power or presence but Love. Total commitment to the Christ, total involvement as the Lamb of God, total conviction of divine Love's all-power—these were his program for total elimination of the world's sin and suffering.
So, whatever the world did, Jesus still loved. Even in Gethsemane with the crucifixion just ahead and his closest friends asleep, he maintained his vigil for the world.
In many areas today's world is locked in struggle with the downward drag of animal and magnetic beliefs. Jesus has signposted the way by which we may help the world counter these; but his way calls for no bland optimism, extends no soft options. It demands toughness of mind and heart. It requires our acknowledging advances made, our recognizing Spirit as the only attracting power and our clearly identifying and silencing in thought any other claim to power, and our listening through tumult and confusion for the great voices of revelation. These voices bear witness on behalf of "the whole human family" that, whatever the contrary evidence, the kingdoms of this world are now and ever in spiritual reality the kingdoms of God.
