Anna E. Herzog, C.S.B., of Columbus, Ohio
Member of the Board of Lectureship of The Mother
Church,
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts
Humanly all education is a matter of exchange. It is the exchange of ignorance for knowledge, inefficiency for capability, irresponsibility for discipline, apathy for alertness, stagnation for progress. If that be the purpose and result of human education, what must be the effect of true spiritual education and what is its purpose and result?
On page 531 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," the author, Mary Baker Eddy, says, "The human mind will sometime rise above all material and physical sense, exchanging it for spiritual perception, and exchanging human concepts for the divine consciousness." There is defined the process of the practice of Christian Science, the way whereby we shall attain health, harmony, heaven.
Correctly applied, in human experience, Christian Science exchanges mortal ignorance for spiritual understanding, sin for righteousness, disease for health, lack and limitation for sufficiency, and failure, frustration, discouragement, and apathetic routine for successful activity and a rich and fruitful experience. In other words, Christian Science, applied, exchanges the belief in so-called mortal mind for an ever-clearer understanding that the divine Mind is the only mind.
In Science and Health are these statements: "The conceptions of mortal, erring thought must give way to the ideal of all that is perfect and eternal" (p. 260). "The starting-point of divine Science is that God, Spirit, is All-in-all, and that there is no other might nor Mind, — that God is Love, and therefore He is divine Principle" (p. 275). Whether we are beginning the study of Christian Science, or beginning our day, or beginning to work out a given problem, the starting point is always the same — the allness of God. That statement just quoted contains much about God, Spirit, who is All, and therefore the only might or Mind.
The statement says that God is Love. Then the only might, the only Mind, is loving, blessing, tender, good. God is divine Principle — that which upholds, underlies, and governs all reality. There is no reality in anything which cannot conceivably be the creation of infinite Love. The immutable, unvarying Principle which is God, is Love.
One word which Mrs. Eddy uses frequently in speaking of God is Truth. That is not a word very often used thus outside of Christian Science. The world still asks, as did Pilate, "What is truth?" Christian Science answers, It is God and His manifestation, Mind and its expression, Principle and its government. Truth, one sees at once, is not corporeal, not personal. It can be utilized by anyone and everyone who discerns it. It cannot be confined to any one place.
Truth is active, invariable, spiritual, eternal. Truth is powerful, invincible. Truth, because Love and Truth are one, is beneficent, joyous, radiant, living. Thus the eternal Truth, which is God, when welcomed into human consciousness, is revolutionary, revelatory, and healing. The effect of this Truth when accepted is uplifting, purifying, saving, informing, and joy-giving. Could there be a better starting point than Truth? Could there be anything more basic, more reliable, more foundational than truth? Could there be any other way to exchange human concepts for divine ones than by starting with God, Truth? Thus the effort of the student of Christian Science is to take the allness of God, good, the truth about reality, as his basis forming his concept of being.
The writer, or writers, of that wonderful first chapter of Genesis started with God thus: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." "And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." If all that is reality is a concept of infinite Mind, of Spirit, Love, and Truth, how could it be less than good? By no means all of the Old Testament writers had the same clarity of vision, but many of them glimpsed the same eternal truth. Thus Isaiah says: "Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee." "Lift up thine eyes round about, and see." It takes mental rising, it takes broad vision to see spiritual reality! Generally speaking, men have not lifted up their eyes and seen reality, but have looked down into the dream of materiality and seen its mistaken, limited concepts, its beliefs of life and intelligence in matter, its fears of power and reality in evil. That is not seeing at all, it is mis-seeing.
How much good, reality, can you see or experience? All that you can appreciate, all that you so far know. Sometimes little human incidents are helpful in illustrating great spiritual truths. Thus the following experience was helpful to me. Many of you have no doubt had similar ones. I rode in an airplane one day, above a dense white cloud. Frequently there appeared before us black spots on our cloud floor, and when we reached them we found them to be breaks through which we caught glimpses of the country far below. Each glimpse was restricted to the size of the opening through which we looked. Sometimes we saw quite a countryside, sometimes only a single farm. The country was all there, miles of it spread out before us, but we saw only what the size of the aperture through which we looked permitted. Thus it is with our view of reality. It is restricted by our ignorance. It is limited by our false concepts. The breadth of our vision of good is measured by the breadth of our understanding of God.
What a marvelous understanding of God was possessed by the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy! I had no appreciation of that fact when I first heard of this Science and its Founder, but when later all my questions were answered and my life revolutionized by her teachings, my gratitude to the woman whose consecration to Truth had made that possible to me, as to thousands of others, knew no bounds. I have always loved to hear those who knew Mrs. Eddy tell of her tenderness and kindness, her wisdom and discernment when dealing with the sick, the sorrowful, the sinner. And to hear of the dominion and dignity which were hers when facing some problem which menaced the Science of which she is the revelator. Her devotion to God, stronger than the enduring granite of her native state, was manifested in a selfless life of constant effort to promulgate and protect the eternal truths she had discovered. Her position as interpreting the spiritual message of the Bible and as reaffirming and amplifying the teachings of Jesus, qualifies her as undisputed Leader of the Christian Science movement and as revelator of the truth about God and man to the world.
Her human heritage was of the best tradition of America's Pilgrim founders; thus she was religiously prepared to hear and to recognize the Christ, Truth. She writes thus on page 332 of Science and Health: "Christ is the true idea voicing good, the divine message from God to men speaking to the human consciousness." That divine message reached Mrs. Eddy's consciousness in full measure. The Christ, the eternal activity of good, is forever present to dispel the dreams of the senses and to lead thought into the very presence of God. The Christ, Truth, with its active, loving, healing influence, is forever speaking to the receptive human consciousness and is here for us to apprehend, to love, and to obey. How clearly Jesus heard and how implicitly he obeyed and demonstrated the Christ! The Gospels are full of accounts of his application of the Christ-cure to sin and suffering. In fact, his whole life was spent in listening for "the divine message from God to men" and in repeating that message to those prepared, at least in some measure, to receive its blessing.
On page 19 of The Mother Church Manual Mrs. Eddy says: "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Mass., is designed to be built on the Rock, Christ; even the understanding and demonstration of divine Truth, Life, and Love, healing and saving the world from sin and death; thus to reflect in some degree the Church Universal and Triumphant." Through the Christian Science Quarterly, with its Lesson Sermons composed of citations from the Bible and Science and Health — copies of which all students of Christian Science own — through the Christian Science periodicals, which may be obtained at Christian Science Reading Rooms scattered all over the world, and through circulation of the writings of its Founder, this church of her establishing is bringing the Christ, Truth, to human consciousness.
Christian Science exchanges a belief in a personal God for a true understanding of God as Spirit, Mind, Life, and Love. Happiness is realized to be commensurate with our reflection of God, our understanding of Mind, and is not, as many have supposed, dependent on any human circumstance. God is seen, not as a God afar off, who has to be gone to or reached out to, but as Love, Life, Spirit, always the only real presence. This teaching exchanges a concept of man as mortal, limited, physical, and imperfect, for the understanding of man as God's expression, Mind's idea, Love's reflection, Principle's effect — man spiritual, eternal, unlimited.
The difference between man and God is always clear. God is the original, man always the reflection. Science and Health states clearly (p. 70): "Man is never God, but spiritual man, made in God's likeness, reflects God." Man, as the expression of God, is an individual consciousness forever as inseparable from God as a sunbeam is inseparable from the sun. To keep man thus in our thinking, separated from evil but one with good, is not easy to do for oneself and sometimes even more difficult to do for others. That is because we have confused the true, God-made individuality of each one of us with the counterfeit mortal in which we have believed. How real our friends' faults of character seem! How hideous those mortals who appear to stand at the head of evil movements seem! How much a part of ourselves fear, selfishness, depression, disease, or pain may seem! Not one of these things belongs to the real, spiritual man or inheres in true manhood or womanhood.
An amusing little experience I had a few years ago was helpful to me along that line. The day before Halloween I went to the house of some young friends who were expecting me. As I opened the front door I saw, crouching at the end of a long hall and approaching me slowly, a grotesque figure wearing a hideous mask which completely covered head and face. Recognizing this as a Halloween trick, I knew that the ugly mask was no part of this friend of mine. It could not become a part of him even if he himself accepted it as such. No matter how long he wore that mask or how many believed it was he, it could never in reality be a part of him. This simple little incident illustrates the forever fact that sickness and sin, hatred, stupidity, and unloveliness of all kinds are never a part of the child of God. As, through correct, scientific thinking, we become aware of man's true individuality, we exchange our mistaken concept of an imperfect mortal for the changeless understanding of man as God's inviolable reflection. Thus we are constantly removing the mask of mortal mind's belief and seeing more and more clearly the reality back of it. As we learn to know and love the truth of spiritual man, we hold that in thought as our model. We not only try to realize ourselves as that God-like man but we look at that perfect man as the model for our thought of others.
Insist on, know, what man is, his complete oneness with God, God's own expression, witness, idea — man boundless, spiritual, unfettered, free! Matter does not constitute man, control man, contain man. Only as we enlarge our concept of the divine Mind which man expresses shall we be enabled to get an ever clearer concept of man as Mind's expression. We can be proving now that Mind furnishes decision, discrimination, inspiration, discernment — that Mind guides, leads, lifts, and empowers man.
There is no greater need of change from beliefs of material sense to spiritual perception than in regard to what we call time. Man's true life is spiritual and everlasting. That life knows no aging, no deterioration, no disintegration, no failure. We need to claim these great facts and know them daily. We live today in eternity. We exist today as individual consciousness. Our life today is, in reality, infinite because the only Life we have is infinite God!
Our thinking needs to be enlarged; our expectancy must be increased; our mental horizons must be broadened; our human concepts must be exchanged for the divine consciousness. That is true in every department of our experience. Belief that good is in materiality and that security lies in an aggregation of matter should change to a realization that the only good is spiritual unfoldment. Progress should be understood to have no actual association with human honors and accumulated wealth. These are appreciated, however, when they appear as a result of a more unlimited sense of God and His bountifulness.
What is business, humanly considered? It is giving and receiving. Men give time, service, possessions. They receive the human equivalent, necessary supply and provision. What is business, scientifically, spiritually considered? It, too, is giving and receiving. Man, the real man, necessarily receives from divine consciousness its contents of ideas, of spiritual, infinite, eternal facts. Then, because man is the very expression of God, he necessarily expresses those ideas. That is the way God is expressed. That, then, is the perfect concept of business — unlimited reception of active good and unlimited expression of active good. There must be no limit to our expression of good if we wish not to limit our reception of good. Lack of kindness, love, or generosity is often externalized in lack of health and supply.
As our concept of God and His affluence, Mind and its activity, increases, our ability to give out healing, intelligent ideas will increase. In the affairs of the real man there is no stagnation, no obstruction, no limitation, no lack. Then as our concept of the reality of man improves, the measure of our concept of activity and abundance increases. As our scientific realization that the only supply is spiritual, the only provision mental, grows, the realization is gained that lack is fictitious, limitation a lie. Thus it is evident that the need is not more matter, but a clearer understanding of spiritual reality. Just as in the case of the illustration given earlier, the need was not for more country to see, but for more unrestricted vision.
Ambition to know God and serve mankind is true, selfless ambition. Truth, not material wealth, is power. But because there is no lack or meagerness in Mind there must, naturally, be less and less of it in the consciousness that is approaching Mind. And it is our consciousness that we see expressed humanly in our lives. Because man's business is, actually, expressing God, he cannot be put out of business. He cannot be excluded from active participation in his own business. The reality of man knows no age, failure, or loss. One of the mistakes of mortals is that of letting the symbol, which is the human, material business, monopolize thought and exclude the realization of true business as the knowing and reflecting of God. Human business typifies great spiritual facts — activity, helpfulness, co-operation, resourcefulness, intelligence, wisdom. But when an individual becomes entirely engrossed in the human symbol, business is likely to become joyless, anxious, and tense.
The real man's true occupation is being man — the eternal expression of God. That active occupation can never be wearisome, apprehensive, or a failure. Through many different departments of business activity true ideas are expressed. Thus production is discerning and supplying a need. Distribution is sharing, disseminating good. Expansion is a larger vision of usefulness. Invention is the breaking down of some false law or limiting belief. To that extent each of these activities is pointing the way to man's ultimate dominion over all the earth.
The only security against lack is the realization that man is one with boundless Spirit. Security for man, complete safety from every phase of error, can be found only in the realization and demonstration of his eternal being as idea in Mind. There is no impregnable defense for mortal mind's false concept of man. On the other hand, there is no possible agency of destruction or invasion or depletion which can touch the real man, the divine concept of man, safe in infinite Mind. That conviction is increasingly borne in upon the student of Christian Science.
In "Miscellaneous Writings," on page 353, Mrs. Eddy writes: "If one asks me, Is my concept of you right? I reply, The human concept is always imperfect; relinquish your human concept of me, or of any one, and find the divine, and you have gained the right one — and never until then." In that brief statement Mrs. Eddy has defined the healing practice of Christian Science. Relinquishing the mistaken belief and gaining the true concept, that is the outline of a treatment — denial of error and affirmation of Truth. Whether the problem is sickness, domestic difficulty, lack in any of its myriad phases, sin in any of its countless aspects, the need is always the same. The error is the mortal belief. The remedy is the divine idea.
In explaining Jesus' method of treating sin and sickness, Science and Health says (pp. 476, 477): "Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick." Thus Jesus rejected the false concept of man and held to the true; he did not accept the mask, the mortal, but discerned the true identity, the immortal. Such is the aim of earnest, loyal Christian Scientists in their efforts to break the mesmerism of sin and disease. In proportion to their clear perception of the spiritual significance of Jesus' teaching and example, is there healing of sickness and sorrow and sin today as definitely as in Jesus' own earthly experience.
Recently a man I know had an experience which proves this. Just as he was about to undertake a very important piece of work requiring constant use of his voice, he was almost overcome with a violent cold, loss of voice, and disturbing cough. He was unable to take a day off for quiet rest and study, but did the best work for himself that he could, though with little apparent effect. Physical sense claimed the condition to be unconquerable. Hoarse voice and nights of coughing made his day's work very difficult. As time passed and a greater task, which was imperative, loomed ahead, utter hopelessness seized him. Then he awakened to realize that he must get help and get it at once. He sent for a friend in whose healing work he had great faith. This practitioner came immediately to his city and spent hours the first day in quiet mental work and reading, making occasional positive statements of truth audibly, thus striving to change the patient's thought.
That very evening his thinking began to lift, to fill with hope, to feel light and confidence. The mesmerism of despair began to break. He began to see that he could be ready for the great opportunity which was just ahead of him. Immediately the body began to respond. When the day came in which free voice and full strength were requisite, they had completely appeared. Quick and perfect physical recovery had followed the breaking of the mesmerism. The grateful, joyous acceptance of God's presence and of man's right to freedom and health had replaced hopelessness and paralyzing fear.
Prayer, as understood in Christian Science, is close and always possible mental communion with God. It is the reflection of the truths of divine Mind. Such prayer does not expect God to change. That is impossible! It does however change, uplift, and purify human thinking until it gains a clearer understanding of the reality of all good now. This spiritually intelligent prayer corrects and heals all human woes. Christian Science treatment is prayer. It is the effort to understand the divine Mind's expression, to see being as it is. Through such understanding, countless cases of sin, sorrow, disease, fear, and lack have been healed. A Christian Science treatment is not a formula or routine or ritual. The Christian Scientist does not have a set pattern for his treatment. Because it is prayer, it is communion with Mind, the source of all inspiration and spontaneity. Such thinking, such prayer, is not repetition of words, but reflection of divine ideas; not routine, but revelation.
Our mistaken concept of evil as a reality, an eternal power to be reckoned with, gives way before an increasing understanding of the reality, presence, and power of infinite good. Jesus gave a wonderful definition of evil, devil. He said it is "a liar, and the father of it." Mrs. Eddy often quoted that definition of evil as lie and liar. She also says (Science and Health, p. 71): "Evil has no reality. It is neither person, place, nor thing, but is simply a belief, an illusion of material sense."
Seeing, even though faintly, that evil — and the term evil includes all the hate, misery, sickness, and death of the world — rests upon the false supposition that there is a mind opposed to God, immediately deprives it of much of its seeming power and impressiveness. Christian Science teaches that evil is a lie, dream, illusion, mesmerism. The student of Christian Science denies its power, its presence, its very existence. As we learn to think thus of all sin and sickness and to replace its apparent presence in consciousness with truths about man, we shall find evil vanishing — even though it may be slowly — from experience. Is evil tempting you to fear? Know God's allness. Is it tempting you to hate? Know that you express Love eternally. Is it overwhelming you with regret? Set right whatever may need to be set right humanly and then close the door on yesterday and live today gloriously. Know, as the poet Whittier beautifully expressed it, "Before me, even as behind, God is — and all is well."
The increase in the pronouncements of the medical profession as to the mental nature of the cause of many diseases, goes on. We are glad that earnest men and women are admitting this fact which Christian Science has promulgated for more than seventy years. In October of 1942 a prominent magazine published an article called "How Your Mind May Make You Ill." The following is quoted therefrom: "For more than a decade a group of outstanding physicians has been investigating the strange influence that our minds have on our bodies. They have evidence even stronger than the medical profession previously suspected that mental conditions can upset normal physical functions, can weaken our resistance to infection, and, most remarkable of all, can actually cause physical changes in vital organs." In Science and Health is this interesting statement (p. 208): "You embrace your body in your thought, and you should delineate upon it thoughts of health, not of sickness." Innumerable instances could be cited proving that changed thinking definitely changes that which is the result of thinking, the human body. The Christian Science Sentinel and The Christian Science Journal contain in every issue authenticated healings, and Wednesday evening meetings in Christian Science churches the world over furnish opportunity to hear testimonials to the healing and regenerative mission of Christian Science. Confidence in God and assurance of His presence and power and of the real man's unity with Him, furnish the most unfailing resistance to all the claims of materiality.
Mortals often believe that arduous and unselfish work in pursuing some worthy aim can result in exhaustion and sickness. Because no such stupid injustice is supported by the law of Truth, divine Mind, it is constantly being reversed by Christian Science treatment. One such case of which I have personal knowledge is that of a young woman who had a serious attack of influenza in her senior year of college. She did not regain her health, and a year later was told by her physician that an immediate operation was unavoidable. Under those conditions she realized sadly that the plans she had made to attend summer school were hopeless. She decided then to turn to Christian Science for healing. The practitioner whom she called said to her, "God will take just as good care of you on the train and at school as at your home, so go ahead as you had planned." She also said, "I will work for you, and you study the citations from the Bible and Science and Health which I will give you." The young woman accepted what she was told and did as she was requested. That was on a Wednesday. Saturday she took the train. Monday she began attending classes, and by Tuesday every vestige of the indisposition had permanently disappeared. That healing was this woman's introduction to Christian Science twenty years ago. She is a professional woman, and her undimmed vitality and indefatigable energy impress all who know her. She proved the healing efficacy of a correct concept of God and man when applied to sickness and discouragement.
The Christian Scientist, whether he is in the public practice or is applying what he knows in bank, schoolroom, military service, or household work, is constantly striving to exchange false concepts for true ones, to replace material beliefs with divine ideas. He has to destroy human fears, mortal concepts, and material convictions. He recognizes them as racial beliefs, the age-old contents of the counterfeit which we call mortal mind. He does not need the corroboration of the physical scientist as to the unreliability of all sense testimony. He knows its unreliability because he has seen it destroyed by Truth.
As one writer of many books on physical science puts it plainly: "The progress of science is continually toward a dematerialization of matter. Physical analysis resolves the crude, heavy, solid stuff that our senses show us into finer and finer particles farther and farther apart until they practically disappear into mere points of irradiating influence." The same writer goes on to say: "It is disconcerting to the layman to be told, first, that matter consists of solid, round atoms in empty space: next, that it is made of mere particles of electricity . . . then that it is constructed out of strains in the ether: and finally that there is no ether." That statement would indeed be disconcerting to one who wanted to believe in the substantiality of matter, but to the Christian Scientist, who knows that true substance is spiritual and eternal, it is merely an interesting statement of a certain development in human thought and investigation. In quoting the physicists, however eminent, it must be remembered that their deductions are not yet based on a clear sense of the reality of Spirit and are therefore not permanent but subject to constant change.
Today we all have a great work to do. Never was right thinking more needed. Every earnest citizen wants to do his part to the utmost in winning righteousness and freedom for the world, in establishing a sound basis for an enduring peace. Each must eradicate from his consciousness all that would militate against peace in his own life. As harmony and love take such a place in our daily consciousness that we find no inharmony in our human relations, in family, church, or community, we do away with just so much of the thing that causes war. Useless criticism, faultfinding, and condemnation of governments and people do not help. Repeating hearsay and speculation, suffering from apprehensive forecasts, mentally accepting and expecting increased limitation of normal good — none of that is helpful or constructive. Neither does apathetic ignoring of evil help in any case. Let us realize that in truth the only progress for men, individually and collectively, is in increasing wisdom and unceasing love of good. Progress for individual or race is not toward disintegration or deterioration. Civilization, collective progress Godward, must and will march on. Wise, God-directed government; active, free, and loving man; ever-present, spiritual good must be held in thought resolutely and permanently. While doing this let us act with selflessness and helpful co-operation in all of humanity's best efforts.
Even in human warfare the mental attitude of the spiritually awake differs greatly from that of others. The spiritually-minded see that all conflict is between error and Truth. The Christian Scientist goes to war — thousands have — in a righteous cause. He has to take part in all of the unlovely activities of war, and he does so effectively and courageously. But however ably he may be conducting war's activity, he is trying to exchange the tragic human concepts of danger, hate, death, and destruction for the realization that he cannot, nor can anyone else, end real life, cause pain in true being, or injure the qualities of God — which are all that the real man expresses. He is knowing that the real and only man is one with God, that the only activity is spiritually mental, and that the only universe and being are permanent, safe, well, indestructible now. Men holding to these spiritual facts have, in many well-authenticated cases, been protected from menacing dangers apparently inescapable.
We need to know that divine Mind is the only source of action. Let us be knowing that neither men nor nations are subject to hypnotism, but that they are subject to the active influence of good. Not apathy but alertness, not discouragement but indomitable courage and expectancy belong to man. His is not bewildered acceptance of evilly directed propaganda with its resultant confusion and indecision; he is inspired by God, directed by infinite Mind, awake and aware of the ever-presence of spiritual wisdom and love. Sick worlds and sick mortals are equally unreal. If we are trying to see that man individually is well and at peace, let us extend our work to see that, in Truth's reality, man collectively is well and at peace. In eternal Truth there is no enemy to man, either personal or collective.
The real man expresses the one and only Mind, not minds many. The real man knows only what God knows. That means no division, separation, enmity, confusion, greed, war, or destruction. Relinquishing the present chaotic outlook for that perfect realization is our mental work for self and mankind. Peace will come permanently to the world when it has come permanently to the individual thinking in the world. A prominent thinker has recently said: "Peace will never come by any one race ruling the world. Peace will come only as all nations gradually acknowledge God as their leader, saviour, and friend." No, true peace can never come to humanity through races ruling the world, but it will come as the understanding of God rules the races.
Keep up daily, hourly, your exchanging of human concepts for divine ideas. Whatever our concepts are, whatever concepts we accept — whether from the one divine Mind or from its pretended opposite, mortal mind — they will be externalized in our human experience. If we are seeing only confusion, lack of love, obstruction, or limitation about us, or if we are seeing self-pity, obstinacy, age, sickness, or failure in our thinking, let us be sure to change it. Relinquish those false concepts and claims and hold on to true concepts of health, right activity, dominion, and freedom. It is not someone else's thinking that needs changing. It is one's own. Face your daily thinking, be willing to analyze it, recognize it, and change it. Change thus false, and perhaps very set, habits of thought. It may not seem easy. Nothing worth while does. But it is your task, and no person and no circumstance can prevent you from seeing your eternal unfoldment as God's glorious reflection if you are sufficiently persistent in seeing it yourself.
Our growth in spiritual understanding will come from our own simple, clear, spiritual apprehension of God and our real selfhood, and from bringing that understanding into daily human life to its reformation, regeneration, and spiritualization. Then in some glad day we shall see, not a mortal concept at all, but only the clear expression of the divine. Because you are the true concept, Mind's creation, consciousness, individuality, you are as eternal as the Mind that conceived you, as safe as the Love that enfolds you, as unalterable as the Principle that sustains you, and as radiant as the Soul that inspires you.
We shall never fully understand God, we shall never actually cognize our true selfhood, until we have fulfilled all the demands of good. As we exchange mortal beliefs for spiritual perception, human concepts — limited, meager, sick, and sinful — for the boundless glory of divine consciousness, we shall see resurrection, ascension, eternity, opening up before us.
On the way to that desired goal we are daily filling consciousness with more of spiritual truth, daily letting shine into the world a little more of God's glorious light, daily pouring into the chaos and disorder and frenzy of mortal thinking and living powerful trust in God, indomitable dominion, the calm and joyous serenity of the Christ. That is your work. Exchange the unworthy for the lovely, the transitory for the eternal, the limited for the infinite, until Love's reality, the spiritual concept, is all there is for you.
[1943.]