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CSEC ON-LINE REFERENCE LIBRARY |
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MARY BAKER EDDY But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. — JOHN i. 12, 13. Here, the apostle assures us that man has power to become the son of God. In the Hebrew text, the word "son" is defined variously; a month is called the son of a year. This term, as applied to man, is used in both a material and a spiritual sense. The Scriptures speak of Jesus as the Son of God and the Son of man; but Jesus said to call no man father; "for one is your Father," even God. Is man's spiritual sonship a personal gift to man, or is it the reality of his being, in divine Science? Man's knowledge of this grand verity gives him power to demonstrate his divine Principle, which in turn is requisite in order to understand his sonship, or unity with God, good. A personal requirement of blind obedience to the law of being, would tend to obscure the order of Science, unless that requirement should express the claims of the divine Principle. Infinite Principle and infinite Spirit must be one. What avail, then, to quarrel over what is the person of Spirit, — if we recognize infinitude as personality, — for who can tell what is the form of infinity? When we understand man's true birthright, that he is "born, not . . . of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God," we shall understand that man is the offspring of Spirit, and not of the flesh; recognize him through spiritual, and not material laws; and regard him as spiritual, and not material. His sonship, referred to in the text, is his spiritual relation to Deity: it is not, then, a personal gift, but is the order of divine Science. The apostle urges upon our acceptance this great fact: "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God." Mortals will lose their sense of mortality — disease, sickness, sin, and death — in the proportion that they gain the sense of man's spiritual preexistence as God's child; as the offspring of good, and not of God's opposite, — evil, or a fallen man. John the Baptist had a clear discernment of divine Science: being born not of the human will or flesh, he antedated his own existence, began spiritually instead of materially to reckon himself logically; hence the impossibility of putting him to death, only in belief, through violent means or material methods. "As many as received him;" that is, as many as perceive man's actual existence in and of his divine Principle, receive the Truth of existence; and these have no other God, no other Mind, no other origin; therefore, in time they lose their false sense of existence, and find their adoption with the Father; to wit, the redemption of the body. Through divine Science man gains the power to become the son of God, to recognize his perfect and eternal estate. "Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh." This passage refers to man's primal, spiritual existence, created neither from dust nor carnal desire. "Nor of the will of man." Born of no doctrine, no human faith, but beholding the truth of being; even the understanding that man was never lost in Adam, since he is and ever was the image and likeness of God, good. But no mortal hath seen the spiritual man, more than he hath seen the Father. The apostle indicates no personal plan of a personal Jehovah, partial and finite; but the possibility of all finding their place in God's great love, the eternal heritage of the Elohim, His sons and daughters. The text is a metaphysical statement of existence as Principle and idea, wherein man and his Maker are inseparable and eternal. When the Word is made flesh, — that is, rendered practical, — this eternal Truth will be understood; and sickness, sin, and death will yield to it, even as they did more than eighteen centuries ago. The lusts of the flesh and the pride of life will then be quenched in the divine Science of being; in the ever-present good, omnipotent Love, and eternal Life, that know no death. In the great forever, the verities of being exist, and must be acknowledged and demonstrated. Man must love his neighbor as himself, and the power of Truth must be seen and felt in health, happiness, and holiness: then it will be found that Mind is All-in-all, and there is no matter to cope with. Man is free born: he is neither the slave of sense, nor a silly ambler to the so-called pleasures and pains of self-conscious matter. Man is God's image and likeness; whatever is possible to God, is possible to man as God's reflection. Through the transparency of Science we learn this, and receive it: learn that man can fulfil the Scriptures in every instance; that if he open his mouth it shall be filled — not by reason of the schools, or learning, but by the natural ability, that reflection already has bestowed on him, to give utterance to Truth. "Who hath believed our report?" Who understands these sayings? He to whom the arm of the Lord is revealed; to whom divine Science unfolds omnipotence, that equips man with divine power while it shames human pride. Asserting a selfhood apart from God, is a denial of man's spiritual sonship; for it claims another father. As many as do receive a knowledge of God through Science, will have power to reflect His power, in proof of man's "dominion over all the earth." He is bravely brave who dares at this date refute the evidence of material sense with the facts of Science, and will arrive at the true status of man because of it. The material senses would make man, that the Scriptures declare reflects his Maker, the very opposite of that Maker, by claiming that God is Spirit, while man is matter; that God is good, but man is evil; that Deity is deathless, but man dies. Science and sense conflict, from the revolving of worlds to the death of a sparrow. The Word will be made flesh and dwell among mortals, only when man reflects God in body as well as in mind. The child born of a woman has the formation of his parents; the man born of Spirit is spiritual, not material. Paul refers to this when speaking of presenting our bodies holy and acceptable, which is our reasonable service; and this brings to remembrance the Hebrew strain, "Who healeth all thy diseases." If man should say of the power to be perfect which he possesses, "I am the power," he would trespass upon divine Science, yield to material sense, and lose his power; even as when saying, "I have the power to sin and be sick," and persisting in believing that he is sick and a sinner. If he says, "I am of God, therefore good," yet persists in evil, he has denied the power of Truth, and must suffer for this error until he learns that all power is good because it is of God, and so destroys his self-deceived sense of power in evil. The Science of being gives back the lost likeness and power of God as the seal of man's adoption. Oh, for that light and love ineffable, which casteth out all fear, all sin, sickness, and death; that seeketh not her own, but another's good; that saith Abba, Father, and is born of God! John came baptizing with water. He employed a type of physical cleanliness to foreshadow metaphysical purity, even mortal mind purged of the animal and human, and submerged in the humane and divine, giving back the lost sense of man in unity with, and reflecting, his Maker. None but the pure in heart shall see God, — shall be able to discern fully and demonstrate fairly the divine Principle of Christian Science. The will of God, or power of Spirit, is made manifest as Truth, and through righteousness, — not as or through matter, — and it strips matter of all claims, abilities or disabilities, pains or pleasures. Self-renunciation of all that constitutes a so-called material man, and the acknowledgment and achievement of his spiritual identity as the child of God, is Science that opens the very flood-gates of heaven; whence good flows into every avenue of being, cleansing mortals of all uncleanness, destroying all suffering, and demonstrating the true image and likeness. There is no other way under heaven whereby we can be saved, and man be clothed with might, majesty, and immortality. "As many as received him," — as accept the truth of being, — "to them gave he power to become the sons of God." The spiritualization of our sense of man opens the gates of paradise that the so-called material senses would close, and reveals man infinitely blessed, upright, pure, and free; having no need of statistics by which to learn his origin and age, or to measure his manhood, or to know how much of a man he ever has been: for, "as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God."
by Mary Baker Eddy, pp. 180-185 |
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