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LUELLA M. MACARTHUR
Idea never has to wait to find its place; neither is place ever idle waiting for idea to fill it. From the beginning they are inseparable. Thus, strictly speaking, one never has to look for a better or more advantageous place in which he may reflect God, because wherever he finds himself, at whatever instant, there is the place to be spiritually active. Nevertheless, through demonstrating or proving the spiritual fact that idea is always in its right place, it frequently develops that a Christian Scientist will find himself in new surroundings which are apparently richer in opportunity than his previous environment, or he will engage in new activities amid his old surroundings. In either case there will come changes in his human affairs and circumstances, which these new conditions make inevitable. It follows, then, that whatever place we may occupy at any given time, right there is the point in our individual progress where we must prove that we are ready for the blessing of further unfoldment; that is, are able to recognize and accept more of the truth than we have yet known. Since every new problem is an added incentive to earnestness, loyalty, faith, labor, and receptivity to things spiritual, we find every place a starting point from which to respond to a call to higher duties. If we answer this call wholeheartedly, we shall always see the material situation changing, swiftly or slowly, according to the rate of improvement in our mental state. We can find great encouragement in the fact that there are always opportunities and means to better our mental condition. Indeed, we learn with certainty that there can be no real betterment anywhere in our affairs until this is done. There is but one way really to better this condition, and that is to learn to think aright, habitually to measure our thoughts with the quality of thought expressed through Jesus' teaching and manifested in his healing work. Mrs. Eddy through her prolific expression of the truth, her labor of love, her exposition of life, contained in her writings, shows us plainly, inexorably but tenderly, how to do this; and until we practice her teaching and faithfully strive to have that Mind "which was also in Christ Jesus," we cannot justly call ourselves Christian Scientists. To the degree that we do this, we find ourselves in our right order, or place; that is, we know man as the image and likeness of God. A common difficulty here is that we are all prone to outline or plan, deciding beforehand how and when this change is to come. This is only an attempt to set up our own will or choice as a ruler, forgetting the eternal announcement, "The Lord God omnipotent reigneth." We read in Psalms, "Thou has set my feet in a large room." This is a definite affirmation that we are not constrained or hindered, whatever the seeming may be, from effecting any needed mental change, and this is the only change that is ever needed on our part; for the outward results are irrevocably promised, — "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." If, through our human self-determination, we select and occupy a new material location of activity, it may not be long before we learn that we have not really gone into a new place, but have carried with us all our unsolved problems, which reappear, it may be many times, under new or old forms, until they are worked out according to Principle. Then the error will go into its native nothingness before our improved understanding of the truth. To effect a change in our situation, then, we must consider as altogether mental whatever may seem inharmonious regarding it, and so prove that idea is in its right place, indeed can be nowhere else. We can do this only through learning more of Principle, with a corresponding loss of so-called knowledge of matter. The proof will invariably be in proportion to the degree that we know Truth, and hence, the truth of the situation. Reality never changes. The only thing that changes is our own state of consciousness, and through this changing we attain new viewpoints where all things are new, because seen through increased enlightenment. The more we learn of Principle the more we experience this spiritual newness, this renewing. It is through this perpetually clearer unfoldment of divine Principle that proof is brought forth showing that idea is never away from its source, infinite Mind, God, where man lives and moves and has his being, and we are thus assured that man is ever in his place, and is forever the idea of God. Place and idea, then, can never be considered apart from each other. The reverse is true concerning mortal concepts. Whatever mortal mind may claim to be or to have, it possesses no place. Then, as far as man recognizes his true mental status, or place of standing, and acts on that basis, just so far he finds himself entering into his divine heritage, the one and only right place for man, the idea of Principle, even the kingdom of heaven. In order to do this he must turn unreservedly to Spirit, since, as our Leader tells us, "Spirit is reached only through the understanding and demonstration of eternal Life and Truth and Love" (Science and Health, p. 279). This makes it clearly evident that if we would prove here and now that place and idea are inseparable, we must through loyal practice of Christian Science demonstrate the all-presence and all-power of Life, Truth, Love. It is through the demonstration of this divine trinity, or threefold essence of Principle, God, that we see and prove man to be "a living witness to and perpetual idea of inexhaustible good" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 83). Of necessity, then, place being concomitant with idea, man has an unlimited place, — that is, his place is always ample for him to do whatever is right for him to do, this being one of the manifestations of divine coincidence. Neither fleshly bonds nor other mortal inventions can fetter man and hinder him from moving freely in his own place. If obstacles seem to develop, or hindrances to multiply, we may be sure that mortal mind is claiming place in our thought for some of its concepts or beliefs. These, however, are always counterfeit and there is no place where they have a legitimate right to be. When our own thought has cleared as to identity being the idea of Principle, we shall learn that we are already established in our right place, and can be nowhere else. We shall also learn that no good work, no righteous effort, no true knowledge, is ever lost, but continues in its forever unfolding activities; and with the constantly developing understanding of idea, place continues to reveal itself in exact ratio, and through it all shines the promise of a mansion in our Father's house, here at hand as soon as we are ready to occupy it. First, however, we must fully occupy the place of the present moment "until he comes whose right it is," and we know ourselves even as we are known of the Father, no longer sojourners and strangers, but "joint-heirs with Christ." Then we shall "come with singing unto Zion" and shall "rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory."
Christian Science Sentinel, October 25, 1919 |
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