Predestination ANNIE M. KNOTT, CSD         Time was, not so long since, when many deeply religious people suffered from fear because of their belief in the doctrine of predestination as popularly accepted. Strange as it may seem, it was held that while the divine purpose provided for the salvation of some, it was also decreed that vast numbers would be lost; and this through no fault of their own. As thus regarded, there was always a dread uncertainty as to one's eternal fate, and little wonder; yet the Scriptures are by no means silent on this momentous question. It matters not that material theories may have been built up around spiritual facts; for when the spiritual idea is understood, mortal beliefs are given up for the truth.          Here we may remind ourselves that the teachings and mighty works of Christ Jesus shook the very foundations of age-long beliefs; yet he said, ''Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." Christian Science is a religion of fulfillment, and not a mere reaching out for some desired good, temporal or eternal. It gives a certainty that the realization of all good is dependent upon divine law, and that this law must be known and obeyed. There can be no uncertainty as to the divine purpose for man; and this is beautifully expressed in Mrs. Eddy's words respecting Abraham, on page 579 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," where we read, "This patriarch illustrated the purpose of Love to create trust in good, and showed the life-preserving power of spiritual understanding."          It seems strange that there should ever have been any question as to God's purpose for all His children, call it predestination or what you will. That is what Paul names it in his wonderful eighth chapter of Romans, and he begins his declaration by saying that "all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." Then he goes on to make clear the ultimate of predestination in the following words: "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son."          Wonderful words these, leaving no shadow of doubt as to the aim and purpose of predestination! Man as God's idea is spiritual, and is never less than perfect; and Christian Science insists that no actual progress toward its realization is made by humanity until this basic truth is held persistently in thought, and motive, word, and deed "conformed to the image of his Son." God has never lowered His own standard. It is the same as when Christ Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." This divine requirement was addressed to those who were under the belief that man had fallen and that, therefore, his divine heritage of likeness to God had been lost. That humanity should remain in a hopeless condition, although apparently this condition had lasted for ages, was not in harmony with the divine purpose, and those who had eyes to see and ears to hear, who were thus awakened to the demands of Truth, were calling upon others to find their rightful heritage as sons of God. To this end they were required to sacrifice all material considerations and to keep ever in view the divine purpose, namely, to bring out in their lives and experience "the beauty of holiness," the strength and immortality of a child of God.          Does mortal sense cry out that the price demanded is too great for humanhood to pay? Then let us pause and ponder these words from the second chapter of Hebrews: "For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things [God], in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." The gold must be tried in the furnace until all the dross of earthliness is consumed. Here we may remember that the three Hebrews in the "burning fiery furnace" uttered no complaint, for the fire was consuming not themselves, but their bonds. Thus were these men led by the inexorable power of Spirit into an ever unfolding sense of the divine purpose.          Who can tell what would have been the effect upon the characters of these men had they hesitated in that crucial hour between loyalty to God and a weak concession to the god of this world, with the alluring promises of honors, pleasures, place, and power? Even in the furnace the joy of spiritual victory was sufficient to bring them safely through the ordeal, as it will be to all who resolutely cling to the spiritual ideal, for the world of sense is well lost to those who care only to be sons of God.          Here it must be kept well in view that spiritual sense never suffers. It is the human sense which clings to a material and personal estimate of things; that cries out at the spiritual demand for progress, without which conformity to the divine image and likeness cannot be realized. Mortal sense would fain linger on the plane of material pleasure or personal dependence; but the divine purpose must be fulfilled, and the discipline of Love is never harsh or severe. The divine purpose cannot be hindered, or even delayed, because of the low aims of materiality. In the twelfth chapter of Hebrews we are urged to go forward, "looking unto Jesus . . . who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." The writer of the epistle reminds those who may be faint-hearted that they have not yet "resisted unto blood, striving against sin."          In this age the resistance of mortal mind to every demand of Truth exposes at every step its utter inconsistency with what may properly be regarded as the facts of existence. Someone has ventured to say that "religion is mainly an opiate" to keep the nations asleep. The very opposite is the case! Religion makes the most tremendous demands upon mortals to arouse themselves, so as to bring out higher ideals along all lines. Time was when all that was beautiful in architecture seemed to belong almost exclusively to religion, but all that is beautiful and enduring, even on the human plane, springs from some recognition of man's divine origin. The vital consideration, then, is to know our true selfhood, our high destiny, as sons and daughters of God. In "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 104) Mrs. Eddy asks the question, "How shall we reach our true selves?" She answers this in these words: "Through Love." Then she goes on: "Who wants to be mortal, or would not gain the true ideal of Life and recover his own individuality? I will love, if another hates. I will gain a balance on the side of good, my true being. This alone gives me the forces of God wherewith to overcome all error."          We need to understand that the process by which we attain to our true selfhood, by which we are "conformed to the image of his Son," means transformation, as we read in the twelfth chapter of Romans; and Christian Science enables us to "prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." To the human sense, the process makes such strong demands upon us that we are apt to think our suffering is inflicted by God, when it really comes from the resistance of mortal mind to the demands of spiritual law; yet it is comforting to know that all our help comes from divine Truth and Love, and what we most need is the heroic spirit which does not give up faintheartedly, but presses on to the goal that is always at hand, could we keep close enough to the divine power, which is molding and fashioning our characters — our whole being — into the divine likeness. If at any time we are tempted to give up, we may well recall the poet's words respecting "the one note, the great final harmony needs."          When we can realize that we are "workers together" with God, we shall not shrink from aught which is included in the divine purpose for our perfection. The fulfillment of the divine purpose is wonderfully expressed in Paul's second epistle to the Corinthians, where we read, "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." These inspired words relate themselves unmistakably to the apostle's words already quoted regarding predestination, and these lines of a familiar hymn express the mental state of those who are gaining in Christian Science their spiritual freedom: "Through clouds of doubt, and creeds of          fear, A light is breaking calm and clear."   "Predestination" by Annie M. Knott, CSD The Christian Science Journal, February, 1928

 

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