  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 [25] 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 [30] Jesus said to call no man father; “for one is your Father,” [1] 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 dem- [5] onstrate 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 [10] 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 [15] 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 [20] 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 [25] of mortality—disease, sickness, sin, and death—in the proportion that they gain the sense of man's spirit- ual preexistence as God's child; as the offspring of good, and not of God's opposite,—evil, or a fallen man. [30] 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 [1] of materially to reckon himself logically; hence the im- possibility of putting him to death, only in belief, through violent means or material methods. “As many as received him;” that is, as many as per- ceive man's actual existence in and of his divine Princi- [5] ple, 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 [10] 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, spirit- [15] ual 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, [20] 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;
condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” [15] On our subject, St. Paul first reasons upon the basis of what is seen, the effects of Truth on the material senses; thence, up to the unseen, the testimony of spiritual sense; and right there he leaves the subject. Just there, in the intermediate line of thought, is where [20] the present writer found it, when she discovered Christian Science. And she has not left it, but continues the ex- planation of the power of Spirit up to its infinite meaning, its allness. The recognition of this power came to her through a spiritual sense of the real, and of the unreal [25] or mortal sense of things; not that there is, or can be, an actual change in the realities of being, but that we can discern more of them. At the moment of her discovery, she knew that the last Adam, namely, the true likeness of God, was the first, the only man. [30] This knowledge did become to her “a quickening spirit;” for she beheld the meaning of those words of our Master, “The last shall be first, and the first [1] last.” When, as little children, we are receptive, become willing to accept the divine Principle and rule of being, as unfolded in divine Science, the interpretation therein will be found to be the Comforter that leadeth into all truth. [5] The meek Nazarene's steadfast and true knowledge of preexistence, of the nature and the inseparability of God and man,—made him mighty. Spiritual insight of [10] Truth and Love antidotes and destroys the errors of flesh, and brings to light the true reflection: man as God's image, or “the first man,” for Christ plainly declared, through Jesus, “Before Abraham was, I am.” The supposition that Soul, or Mind, is breathed into [15] matter, is a pantheistic doctrine that presents a false sense of existence, and the quickening spirit takes it away: revealing, in place thereof, the power and per- fection of a released sense of Life in God and Life as God. The Scriptures declare Life to be the infinite I [20] am,—not a dweller in matter. For man to know Life as it is, namely God, the eternal good, gives him not merely a sense of existence, but an accompanying con- sciousness of spiritual power that subordinates matter and destroys sin, disease, and death. This, Jesus demon- [25] strated; insomuch that St. Matthew wrote, “The people were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.” This spiritual power, healing sin and sickness, was not con- fined to the first century; it extends to all time, inhabits [30] eternity, and demonstrates Life without beginning or end. Atomic action is Mind, not matter. It is neither the [1] energy of matter, the result of organization, nor the out- come of life infused into matter: it is infinite Spirit, Truth, Life, defiant of error or matter. Divine Science demon- strates Mind as dispelling a false sense and giving the [5] true sense of itself, God, and the universe; wherein the mortal evolves not the immortal, nor does the material ultimate in the spiritual; wherein man is coexistent with Mind, and is the recognized reflection of infinite Life and Love. [10] And he was casting out a devil, and it was dumb. And it came to pass, when the devil was gone out, the dumb spake.—Luke xi. 14. The meaning of the term “devil” needs yet to be more than theory, have given me a higher sense of Christianity. [30] The “I” will go to the Father when meekness, purity, and love, informed by divine Science, the Comforter, lead to the one God: then the ego is found not in [1] matter but in Mind, for there is but one God, one Mind; and man will then claim no mind apart from God. Idolatry, the supposition of the existence of many minds and more than one God, has repeated itself in all manner [5] of subtleties through the entire centuries, saying as in the beginning, “Believe in me, and I will make you as gods;” that is, I will give you a separate mind from God (good), named evil; and this so-called mind shall open your eyes and make you know evil, and thus become [10] material, sensual, evil. But bear in mind that a serpent said that; therefore that saying came not from Mind, good, or Truth. God was not the author of it; hence the words of our Master: “He is a liar, and the father of it;” also, the character of the votaries to “other gods” which [15] sprung from it. The sweet, sacred sense and permanence of man's unity with his Maker, in Science, illumines our present existence with the ever-presence and power of God, good. It opens wide the portals of salvation from sin, sickness, [20] and death. When the Life that is God, good, shall ap- pear, “we shall be like Him;” we shall do the works of Christ, and, in the words of David, “the stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner,” because the “I” does go unto the Father, the ego does [25] arise to spiritual recognition of being, and is exalted,— not through death, but Life, God understood. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.—Acts xvi. 31. The Scriptures require more than a simple admission [30] and feeble acceptance of the truths they present; they require a living faith, that so incorporates their lessons [1] into our lives that these truths become the motive-power of every act. ur chosen text is one more frequently used than many others, perhaps, to exhort people to turn from sin [5] and to strive after holiness; but we fear the full import of this text is not yet recognized. It means a full salva- tion,—man saved from sin, sickness, and death; for, unless this be so, no man can be wholly fitted for heaven in the way which Jesus marked out and bade his followers [10] pursue. In order to comprehend the meaning of the text, let us see what it is to believe. It means more than an opinion entertained concerning Jesus as a man, as the Son of God, or as God; such an action of mind would be of no more [15] help to save from sin, than would a belief in any historical event or person. But it does mean so to understand the beauty of holiness, the character and divinity which Jesus presented in his power to heal and to save, that it will compel us to pattern after both; in other words, to “let [20] this Mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. ii. 5.) Mortal man believes in, but does not understand life in, Christ. He believes there is another power or intelli- gence that rules over a kingdom of its own, that is both [25] good and evil; yea, that is divided against itself, and there- fore cannot stand. This belief breaks the First Command- ment of God. Let man abjure a theory that is in opposition to God, recognize God as omnipotent, having all-power; and, [30] placin
|
|
