By John Wellsman
(As my readers may know, John is a dear friend who lives in Arizona)
During my study of Christian Science, I have found tremendous inspiration in the writings of early workers in the Christian Science movement. Particularly the writings of individuals who were privileged to interface directly wit the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy in her home on a daily basis. One such individual in particular is Martha Wilcox who served Mrs. Eddy in her home in Brookline, MA and went on to become a teacher of Christian Science for almost 40 years.
One recent occasion I was awakened in the middle of the night aware of some serious mental discomfort. As I prayed earnestly to regain harmonious control over my thoughts I was led to consider a passage from the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy (p. 536:8) "The divine understanding reigns, is all, and there is no other consciousness." As I pondered that passage, the word "understanding" stood out to me. Very soon I recalled reading in material from Martha Wilcox elaborating on what she referred to as "Fundamentals of Christian Science" where she discusses in depth man's relationship to God. She referenced Mrs. Eddy's statement in Science and Health (p. 202:3) "The scientific unity which exists between God and man must be wrought in life practice, and God's will must be universally done."
Mrs. Wilcox goes on to explain that there are four words used in Mrs. Eddy's writings that when studied and pondered help to improve our conception of the "scientific unity which exists between God and man." The words she refers to are: "idea", "understanding", "awareness" and "realization". For example, with the word "idea" we need to understand that God's idea of Himself is man and that we need to progress to the point where we see that man is not a separate idea that has ideas on its own about something, but rather that man is idea, God's idea, etc. of Himself.
In the past, as I pondered these four words and their exemplification of our relationship to God, I had begun to see that I couldn't continue to think of myself as a separate mortal struggling to get a better understanding but that since I was actually God's own understanding of Himself I needed to approach my prayerful work by claiming that unity as a present fact. In short, I already not only had understanding, I was that understanding God was being. To get a better grasp of this concept, I spent some time with dictionary and thesaurus considering both the definitions of these words as well as other words with the same meaning.
However on the particular occasion referred to above, as I prayed it became clear to me that I could actually substitute each of these other three words and some of their synonyms in Mrs. Eddy's statement from Science and Health on page 536. For example: "The divine idea reigns, is all, and there is no other concept." Or, "the divine awareness reigns, is all, and there is no other cognizance." Or, "the divine realization reigns, is all, and there is no other actuality." All of these statements are, I think, metaphysically accurate and as I pondered them and their truth I began to have a much clearer concept of my own "scientfic unity" with God. Within a fairly short time I was aware of a much clearer sense of God's everpresence and my relationship to Him. Peace returned to my thought. I was able to go back to sleep for the remainder of the night and awoke the next morning both refreshed and still cherishing this enhanced sense of my relationship to God.
I am indeed grateful for the privilege of being able to study Christian Science.
