The Dream Dispelled

“Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.” This clarion call of Paul is just as applicable and significant to the Christian of today as it was to the Ephesians of the first century, but until the advent of Christian Science the real import of Paul’s peremptory yet loving command was not understood by mortals, though there is embodied therein the most important advice in all Christendom. Parallel in importance is Mrs. Eddy’s statement on page 40 of Science and Health, “The nature of Christianity is peaceful and blessed, but in order to enter into the kingdom, the anchor of hope must be cast beyond the veil of matter into the Shekinah into which Jesus has passed before us.”

One of the things which Christian Science seeks constantly to impress upon its students, is that there is no resting-place in matter. This Science clearly teaches that matter, or material consciousness, is but the Adamic dream from which all mortals must awaken before peace and happiness can be attained. When one is convinced of the truth of this statement, there is seen to be but one real business in life, namely, the continuous effort to awaken one’s self and others to a consciousness of the real universe of God’s creation. Accompanying this conviction comes a quickened condition of thought which realizes the foolishness and danger of dillydallying by the way, and thereby prolonging the dream of life and intelligence in matter.

What gratitude the world owes to Mrs. Eddy for instructing mortals as to the facts of existence, showing them that the mortal sense of it is but a dream, to be dispelled through a knowledge of the truth of being! This is what Paul taught the Ephesians. “Awake,” he tells them, “and Christ shall give thee light.” It is Christ, then, that is to awaken dreaming mortals. Here again Christian Science confers eternal blessing on mankind by giving a spiritual understanding of Truth and imparting the ability to apply it practically to all the affairs of daily living.

To those who have wondered and mourned over earthly existence, with its sin, sickness, and death; with its cruelty, selfishness, and inhumanity; with its strife, competition, and rivalry involved in the mere act of existing, there comes a great sigh of relief to know through Christian Science that it is all a mortal and unreal dream, and that in place of the hopeless task of unraveling the tangled medley of centuries, one has only to awaken to a higher consciousness which knows the universe as God has ever known it, unchangeably perfect, harmonious, and indestructible, every idea forever in its rightful place, doing its own work, always provided for. This view illuminates the declaration of Paul to the Corinthians, “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” Here the terms Adam and Christ unmistakably refer to mental conditions, and this interpretation is further strengthened by the rendering given in another translation, which reads “the Christ.”

That mortal existence is but a dream, is clearly taught by the Scriptures, which employ the terms sleep and awake repeatedly in connection with the all-important question of salvation. To the Romans Paul said, “It is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.” Again the psalmist sang, “I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.” So, then, the most important thing in life, the true goal of mortal existence, is to awaken from the Adam dream or consciousness, to perceive the universe as it really is, spiritually perfect. To this end, therefore, must be brought all effort and endeavor, that we may bring into captivity “every thought to the obedience of Christ.” That is, one must plant one’s self on the rock of truth, knowing that God, man, and the universe are eternally perfect; and standing there, one must deny every argument or suggestion which would contradict this great truth. In other words, one must strive to know that he is a child of God, and must act accordingly.

Those who are convinced through Christian Science that the real business of human experience is to awaken from mortality’s dream, make no compromise with error, have no time or inclination to gossip or listen to slander, have no surplus time to kill in foolish amusement or frivolity, but on the contrary deem every moment precious and an important factor in life’s problem. “With Christ,” Mrs. Eddy declares, “Life was not merely a sense of existence, but a sense of might and ability to subdue material conditions” (Unity of Good, p. 42), and on page 56 of the same volume she points out the landmarks which indicate progress in this overcoming. To experience such progress, it is well for one constantly to observe the admonition of the Founder of Christian Science, she who discovered the way of awakening from the Adamic dream. “To understand God,” she tells us, “is the work of eternity, and demands absolute consecration of thought, energy, and desire” (Science and Health, p. 3).