The Kingdom Within

“He that ruleth his spirit [is better] than he that taketh a city.” — Proverbs.

“The grand necessity of existence is to gain the true idea of what constitutes the kingdom of heaven in man,” — Science and Health, p 356.

A GLANCE over the world at this time reveals a stormy sea with many threatened shipwrecks. Everywhere men are so continuously striving for material possessions and power that, as they readily admit, they are unable to find time for the only conquest of any real value,—that of self, and the finding of the kingdom within. It is surely self-evident that were it not for those who keep the sacred light of Truth burning, the conflicts between nations, classes, and individuals would soon lead to utter darkness and the annihilation of the human race.

It is well-nigh universally admitted by thinkers that the teachings of Jesus contain the essential truth which would end all strife, were it not for the unwillingness of mankind to be guided by his precepts. More and more does the world acknowledge the beauty of his character and teaching, but almost always with the reservation that under present conditions the one is as impossible of imitation as is the other of demonstration. The majority wholly overlook the fact that he clearly pointed out the only means by which these conditions may be reversed, and good, not evil, seen to be the reality of existence.

In the midst of political and religious strife, Jesus announced the absoluteness of God’s kingdom, and made the statement which will hold good to the latest hour, that it is neither “here” nor “there,” but within us. To those still in bondage to material sense and self, the kingdom within,—the reign of Divine harmony, does not exist, and a well-known writer ironically says that without actual obedience to Christ’s teachings, “none of all who pray for it (the kingdom of God), need be the least afraid of its coming.”

Christian Science teaches that the laws of God’s kingdom are eternal in their duration as well as universal in their application. That these laws were known to the Master was proved by his healing of disease and sin and by the raising of the dead, and those who were delivered by him were also taught to look for the kingdom of God and the operation of its laws “within,” and in spite of all the denials of the applicability of this teaching to present conditions, “the law of the Spirit of life” is found to be a power mighty enough to annul the action and supposed authority of “the law of sin and death.”

No right thinker would deny that all ought to control their feelings and actions, but the multitudes of sick, sinful and unhappy mortals everywhere to be found, is proof that they do not know how to do this. The Bible says that the Christ must “put down all rule and all authority and power,” and deliver up “the kingdom to God, even the Father,” and this is what Christ, Truth, is doing for thousands to-day through the scientific understanding that divine Principle controls alike thought and its embodiment, and thus is established the kingdom within where the discords of earth never enter.