A Christian Scientist’s View

The Constitution

“Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, That Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?”—Jesus.

“The Man with the Hoe” “will not down.” He stands through the ages a sad, tragic, interrogation point, whence? where? whither? He is the epitome of the problem of human misery. What is the answer? Does socialism give it? Does the property qualification theory remedy the condition? No! Or taxation, or human government? No! On any human basis the equality of to-day is the inequality of to-morrow. Is there any remedy? Yes!

There is but one evil under the sun, of which the amplifications are sin, poverty, disease, death; this one evil is a false sense, or lie, about God, man, the universe, and their relations. This false material sense Jesus classified as a lie, liar, and the father of lies, and “a murderer from the beginning,” a causeless illusion; for God, Truth, is Cause, Creator.

There is one remedy for this one evil. It is to know the truth about God, man, and the universe. Jesus proved that the understanding of this truth could destroy the works of the devil, or one evil. “The Man with the Hoe” was forever answered when Jesus fed the multitude, by the recognition of God’s true relation to man, as the infinite ever-present Mind, the true Substance, the infinite never-failing Source, from whence are all things. He reversed the standpoint from which to view man. He said “Call no man your father upon the earth: one is your Father which is in heaven.” John and Paul declare “we are now sons of God, and heirs [not of poverty or disease] but heirs with Christ,” of power, glory, and dominion. Jesus said, “Look up,” and “the harvest is already ripe,” it is in Mind, not in the ground, nor from it.

Man as a spiritual being is the image of Spirit and has dominion over all material conditions. In the true spiritual account of creation God made “every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew, … and there was not a man to till the ground.”

Isaiah said, “Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?” and Paul said, “The children of the flesh, these are not the children of God,” and “henceforth know we no man after the flesh,” and Jesus said, “Ye shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall make you free.” To awake out of the Adam dream, material existence, into the divine actualities of celestial scientific Being, and find man unfallen, pure, and free, exercising his rightful heirship, dominion, is to find the true solution of the problem of life.

Man’s true environment is the infinite Good, but, like poor, blind children, mortals have been seeking for that which is already here.

Where is the sea, the fishes cried,
As they swam the crystal clearness through,
We have heard from old of the ocean’s tide
And we long to look on the waters blue.
The wise ones tell of an infinite sea—
Oh! who can tell us if such there be?

The lark flew up in the morning bright
And sung, balanced on sunny wings;
And this was the song: I see the light,
I look on a world of beautiful things,
And flying and singing everywhere,
In vain I have sought to find the air.

So Christian Science is saying to every one: “Awake thou that sleepest,” and Christ, the Truth of Be-ing shall shine on thee.

Behold, God is here. He is everywhere, and we live, and move, and have our Be-ing in Him; the ocean of infinite Love encompasses all things, the atmosphere of divine Intelligence reveals to us what “eye hath not seen nor ear heard, nor hath entered into the heart of man to conceive.” Immortal Love changeth not, the music of the spheres still chants the eternal harmonies of Be-ing, as when “the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.” We only need to know the actualities of Be-ing and to be satisfied only as we awake in the divine likeness.