Divine Mind's eternal mandate is for order, and Christian Science demonstrates the obedience to this mandate that is real and universal. In the record of the revelation of spiritual creation found in the first chapter of Genesis we note that "the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep" before God's resounding mandate, "Let there be light," was heard. Does this not imply that no semblance of order or form could be produced if God, divine Mind, was not shining through the mist of false material mentality, the so-called carnal mind, dispelling its chaos —its lack of order?
The pattern of stars, the seasons, the tides, the fragrance and beauty of flowers, the wealth of verdure covering the earth—all hint the presence of spiritual reality and the harmony that indicates the supremacy of Love's mandate. The author of the fiftieth Psalm expressed his thoughts on the subject in these words: "The mighty God, even the Lord, hath spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof. Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined." And Mary Baker Eddy says in her "Miscellaneous Writings" (pp. 331,332): "As mortals awake from their dream of material sensation, this adorable, all-inclusive God, and all earth's hieroglyphics of Love, are understood; and infinite Mind is seen kindling the stars, rolling the worlds, reflecting all space and Life, —but not life in matter. Wisely governing, informing the universe, this Mind is Truth, —not laws of matter."
Through Christian Science, Mind is informing mankind of spiritual formations, unseen by the physical senses, but tangible to spiritual consciousness. Mind is awakening men to know themselves as actually spiritual and obedient to Love's mandate for the intelligence and purity, the harmony and joy, that constitute man in God's image. Through Science they become conscious of real concepts in God's kingdom, much as the sleeper, roused from fantastic dreams, becomes aware of familiar shapes and scenes around him.
The harmonious human body, good sight and hearing, the fruitful plant, celestial order—all normal formations apparent to human sense—witness to the fact that the so-called human mind responds to divine Mind's eternal mandate for order, and reflects it. Even though matter itself is temporal and illusory, as Christian Science explains it to be, the present order of human concepts represents a step out of the chaos of mortal mind, an advance toward the awakening of human thought to man as the full expression of Spirit. For this reason one may expect Christian Science to protect the human body and to promote human concepts to higher manifestations of harmony and obedience to God until matter finally disappears.
Mrs. Eddy says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 62), "The divine Mind, which forms the bud and blossom, will care for the human body, even as it clothes the lily; but let no mortal interfere with God's government by thrusting in the laws of erring, human concepts." Our Leader saw that the higher must govern the lower until all shadows of belief in a lower sense of life are dispelled by the appearing of the light and glory of spiritual being.
All malformations and abnormalities, decay, blight, sin, disease, and death, evidence the failure of human thought to respond to divine Mind's demand for perfection. They represent states of thought that are still deaf to Deity's mandate. But Christian Science shows us how to demonstrate obedience to God, how to submit to the control of Truth, how to bring health and beauty to light. In "Miscellaneous Writings" Mrs. Eddy says (p. 283), "It is the genius of Christian Science to demonstrate good, not evil,—harmony, not discord; for Science is the mandate of Truth which destroys all error." Acknowledgment of the real and disbelief in the false bring the good and harmonious into living action in our present stage of consciousness.
To a certain extent the so-called human consciousness responds universally to Mind's eternal mandate for order. This is seen in the fact that all men, even the most degraded, are conscious of the rhythm of the stars—reflect in their present sense of being something of God's control of the universe, however remotely. One includes subjectively whatever he is conscious of, for what seem to be things are thoughts—the concepts one entertains. The order we reflect proves the degree of our demonstration of the real, and it marks the measure of our response to Mind's mandate for obedience. If an individual can reflect this obedience at one point, such as the order of the stars, he can express it at all points. Only a higher understanding and cultivation of obedience is needed for one to embody fully the control which Spirit holds over its creation.
The centurion whose servant Christ Jesus healed must have glimpsed something of Mind's mandate of health for man, since he likened the Master's status to his own as "a man under authority" (Matt. 8:9) and recognized Jesus' ability to manifest the power of the divine authority he represented. It was Jesus' own obedience to God's mandate for perfection that gave him power to demonstrate that mandate for others by healing the sick and sinful and by raising the dead. He understood the law of Love, and he knew that it is fully enforced. He saw that every phase of error is the belief of insubordination to Deity's mandate and that Truth, the Christ he manifested, reveals the fact of universal obedience to God.
Physical forms and forces never become spiritual; but they do yield to the mandate of God when His supremacy is understood by individuals. Under this submission moral and physical deformities and discords disappear, the earth becomes productive, harmony takes the place of inharmony, and true freedom wipes out the illusion of limitation and frustration. When the divine controls the human, this is proof that the unreal material sense of being is disappearing in the presence of reality. The true spiritual cosmos is overcoming the untrue mortal chaos.
Those who hear the divine command and obey it through Christian Science are finding it more and more natural to express health and goodness and abundant usefulness. God's will is proving to be the law to every condition and situation that arises in their lives. They are finding their way to heaven by proving that God's "mandate of Truth" is eternal and that obedience to it is the real order of the universe and man.
