America – Cradle For The Second Coming Of The
Christ
CHAPTER XI
WHY OUR CONSTITUTION IS UNDER
ATTACK
120 Years of Christian Science
Instruction
 Long
before most Americans and others of the world realized the nature of the enemy
of mankind, Christian Science had begun its critically important instruction in
spiritual Science. (See Mis. 61:4.) Mary Baker Eddy's writings, and the
Christian Science periodicals--during Mrs. Eddy's time with us--contributed
importantly to the strength and dynamism of America, and of the entire
world.
Unfortunately, after Mrs. Eddy's passing, The Christian
Science Monitor has sadly seemed, on many issues of national importance, to
join forces with what many thinking Christian Scientists deem the enemy of
individuality and the Science of the Christ.
When Mrs. Eddy was asked what her political views were, she
answered, "I have none other than to help support a righteous government." It
behooves Christian Scientists to consider seriously the question of
constitutional government because it is outside of all political issues.
Under our constitutional government, the three
branches--legislative, judicial, and executive--prevent the misuse of power,
and when carried out as intended, make it impossible for
the government to tyrannize and exploit the individual. As already noted, our
Constitution provides the best framework ever created by man within which to
develop his genius and work to fulfill his dreams so that an entire nation may
prosper.
Our Constitution is unique in all the world, though many are
not aware of this fact. Some constitutions of other nations selectively ban
writing and speaking, when it is used, for instance, to point out the truth
about communistic inclinations. Constitutions of other nations prevent churches
from publishing their condemnation of certain practices the churches deem evil;
some constitutions even ban the exposure of evil, ostensibly on the ground that
such publication and airing might offend "minority groups." But our
Constitution is today under attack because its guarantees of freedom are
absolute and not subject to suspension as they are in a parliamentary form of
government.
In times of crisis, Christians look to the Bible for help.
Today astute Christians of every faith are contending that the approaching
crisis of Western civilization is not just a political battle, but is actually
a spiritual battle, and that the greatest collision of the forces of good and
evil in history is approaching. They are warning that Western man will find the
answers to the approaching Armageddon only in the Bible.
Christian Science not only points out the danger, but
advocates and intelligently, powerfully articulates the ideals which constitute
the framework of a free society.
The Christian Science Solution is
Critical to Humanity's Survival
In her writings Mrs. Eddy set forth the Principle that
uniquely promotes and defends the fundamental principles on which America was
built. "Governments," she states, "have no right to engraft into civilization
the burlesque of uncivil economics." Mrs. Eddy knew that history fails to
record a single precedent in which nations subject to moral decay have not
passed into political and economic decline; and that when moral decline sets
in, there is either a spiritual awakening to overcome the moral lapse, or a
progressive deterioration leading to ultimate national disaster.
Christian Science, through its written and spoken word, has
cast light where darkness now screams to replace it. This Science gives the
solutions that are critical to humanity's survival. Its teachings are alerting
many who would otherwise remain unaware until too late. Christian
Science--Science as Mrs. Eddy taught it--is today appealing to the uncommitted
millions who must be won over to the cause of freedom, not only in America but
in all the world. Future ages will owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the
"remnant" that has maintained, and is continuing to maintain, a tireless vigil
against those forces which threaten our freedom.
Christian Science is lifting the affections and impulses of
man, spiritualizing his motives and methods. It is teaching him how to love and
bless mankind without a humanly-controlled world government, and without
discarding our glorious Constitution. Christian Science--as found in the
writings of its Discoverer and Founder--is teaching men the world over how to
keep peace.
While "trusting God's disposal of events," genuine Christian
Scientists do not, ostrich-like, bury their head in apathy while aggressive
mental suggestion is busy delegating world power to the forces of evil--to the
"hidden agents," whose "looms of crime hidden in the dark recesses of mortal
thought, are every hour weaving webs more complicated and subtle" (S&H
102:18).
Christian Scientists take to heart Mrs. Eddy's instruction
to name the error and uncover its nothingness: "When God bids one
uncover iniquity in order to exterminate it, one should lay it bare." As
Science and Health is understood it uncovers and kills this mystery of
iniquity. "This uncovering and punishing of sin must, will, come at some date
to the rescue of humanity,...The time approaches when divine Life, Truth, and
Love will be found alone the remedy for sin, sickness, and death; when God,
man's saving Principle [the "kingdom of God" within our consciousness], and
Christ, the spiritual idea of God [our own real Mind], will be revealed"
(Mis. 348:8; 293:6; 2:17).
Mary Baker Eddy Cited for
Patriotism
Mrs. Eddy consistently urged "faith in God's disposal of
events." She saw that "faith full-fledged
...[would] bring blessings infinite...'on earth peace, good
will toward men.' On this basis the brotherhood of all peoples is established;
namely, one God, one Mind, and 'Love thy neighbor as thyself,' the basis on
which and by which the infinite God, good, the Father-Mother Love, is ours and
we are His in divine Science." However, regarding the defense of America--at
this hour in human history--Mrs. Eddy was firm--never "like a leaf in a
hurricane." That she was patriotic we learn from a Sentinel article,
Vol. 1, which informs:
Rev. Mary Baker Eddy is more patriotic than many of her
students. She keeps the stars and stripes waving over her residence at Concord.
The flag also waves over the Concord Church. It is likely she sees more in the
emblem of liberty than do her students.
Regarding America she said, "Foreign nations are allied, but
the United States stands alone." She saw the necessity for unswerving moral
rectitude and agreed with Alexander Hamilton's warning:
Mental debasement is the greatest misfortune that can
befall a people. The most pernicious of conquests which a state can experience
is a conquest over that just and elevated sense of its own right which inspires
a due sensibility to insult and injury; over that virtuous and generous pride
of character, which prefers any peril or sacrifice to a final submission to
oppression, and which regards national ignominy as the greatest of national
calamities. The records of history contain numerous proofs of this truth....The
nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a MASTER and
deserves one.
Mary Baker Eddy and the Monroe
Doctrine
Mary Baker Eddy saw that until mankind learns "how fleeting
is that which men call great, and how permanent that which God calls good,"
America must be protected, and that included being militarily prepared and
secure from foreign threat. No doubt Mrs. Eddy often recalled George
Washington's advice in his farewell address in which he warned against
entangling alliances and becoming involved in European disputes. James Monroe,
fifth President of the United States, from 1817 to 1825, in the doctrine
forever linked with his name (although John Quincy Adams was largely
responsible for its formulation) similarly warned Europe not to interfere in
the affairs of the New World.
Mrs. Eddy wrote, "I believe strictly in the Monroe Doctrine,
in our Constitution, and in the laws of God." (My. 282:3). Mrs. Eddy did
not say, "I at present believe in the Monroe Doctrine," she said she believed
strictly in it. At the first sign of its infringement she would
have alerted Christian Scientists to pray for God's will to be done and to have
faith in divine Love's "disposal of events." Her Christian Science Monitor
would never have acquiesced in, and given support to, violations of the
Monroe Doctrine, as the Monitor since her time has done.
Mary Baker Eddy gave much consideration to constitutional
government. Further concerning government, she stated:
Mankind will be God-governed in proportion as God's
government becomes apparent, the Golden Rule utilized, and the rights of man
and the liberty of conscience held sacred. [Like Gandhi, Mrs. Eddy held that
"in matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place."] (My.
222:25)
There can be no doubt that Mrs. Eddy would feel that a
genuine Christian Scientist was a patriot and that she would also accept
Webster's definition that a patriot is one "who loves his country and defends
and promotes its interest." In that sense a patriot would be one who loves
God's America, as one Nation--the America that represents "the love of
God encircling the universe and man," encircling all creation.
Our Divine Potential
America stands alone because in Christian Science there is
only one Nation, God's Nation.
As individuals gain the realization of true government,
national governments will more and more express the government of God, since,
in reality, God and government are one. The more we understand God and
man--that is, the more we understand the seven synonyms for God, the kingdom of
God within our consciousness as the reality of our being--the more we know
about true government.
Our divine potential is the ability to love as the sun
shines, to love with Christ's all-conquering love.
Eventually the crucially important lesson will be learned
that each individual Christian Scientist is a law to himself and has the
sovereign power to think and act rightly. He does not have to look elsewhere
than to the "Comforter" promised by Jesus, the second coming of the Christ in
Mary Baker Eddy's writings, in order to determine the proper course of
action.
We recognize this kingdom, the reign of harmony within
us, by an unselfish affection or love, for this is the pledge of divine good
and the insignia of heaven (Ret. 79:30).
A great divide is in the making. As quoted earlier, "Deep
down...we know that we are approaching some tremendous crisis in our
civilization."
Human Consciousness is Being
Prepared
As error comes to the surface and is exposed, the human
consciousness is made ready for the reception of Mary Baker Eddy's revelation
of the Christ Science which will usher in a spiritual structure of
consciousness, translating man and the universe back into Spirit, where error
is unknown. Today the revolutionary Christ Science she founded in human
consciousness is bringing about momentous changes in mankind's thinking and
will continue to do so until heaven is recognized as omnipresent here and now,
and "man [is] in the full consciousness of his immortality and eternal harmony"
(S&H 598:28).
Mary Baker Eddy's discovery of the divine Science that
lay behind Christ Jesus' marvelous works is, beyond cavil, the most significant
event in the course of human history. It is liberating man from
universal hypnotic suggestion, the suggestion that evil, sin, sickness, death
are real. Misconception and false teaching have for eons held man in bondage
and prevented his recognition of his God-being.
As we have seen, Christian Science is distinctly
individualistic and teaches the spiritual individuality of man. The human
mind must be educated out of itself. In Christian Science we learn that
every idea of Mind has its own unassailable identity. Of course ideas are
cooperative, but they never lose their individuality, any more than the number
four loses its individuality though it cooperates with all other numbers. Each
idea forever retains its right of individual freedom. This spiritual fact
absolutely eschews "collectivism," where the individual becomes nothing when
his divine individuality is given up for the mass, the state.
The Constitution Bulwarks Advancing
Christian Science
The Constitution was a powerful means of defense, a
fortification, behind which Mrs. Eddy could found the Christian Science
movement. She knew and stated that it was religious liberty and individual
rights under the Constitution that were "rapidly advancing, avowing, and
consolidating the genius of Christian Science."
America's stand for the right of the individual to
self-government was radical. It steered clear of the bondage of false theology,
the slavery of imperialism, the cold conventionality, and the enmity over
doctrines and traditions of the past. But the watchfulness necessary to prevent
our spiritual radicalism from reverting to the conservatism which Mrs. Eddy
warns us against (S&H 452:20) has been lacking.
Mary Baker Eddy was ever alert to the diehard, stubborn, and
truculent retention of the old theology and the old science in preference to
the new. The divine Science and the new divine theology she discovered, which
the human consciousness is gradually assimilating, is showing mortals that "all
causation [is] vested in the divine Mind." The great lesson we must therefore
learn is that this Mind, which is our Mind (the "kingdom of God within" our own
consciousness), "is its own great cause and effect"; hence Mind "is both
noumenon and phenomena." (S&H 379:6; Mis. 173:12; & 23:18).
Regarding Mind as both noumenon and phenomena, Mrs. Eddy writes:
To begin with the divine noumenon, Mind, and to end
with the phenomenon, matter, is minus divine logic and plus human hypothesis,
with its effects, sin, disease, and death. It was in this dilemma that
revelation, uplifting human reason, came to the writer's rescue, when calmly
and rationally, though faintly, she spiritually discerned the divine idea of
the cosmos and Science of man. (My. 350:3)
America's Religious History
"Inspired"
As we have seen, America was divinely prepared, as a cradle,
to receive the second coming of the Christ--to receive the reappearing of
Christ's Christianity, the Science of being. The divine event of the Christ
Science was prophesied by the prophets and by Jesus, and adumbrated throughout
the Bible's pages. (Elaine Bramhall Lowdon of Portland, Oregon, has done
extensive research on the subject of "Woman" in the Bible, and its prophecy of
the second coming of the Christ.) The mission of Christ Science is to bring
about the awareness that in reality all people are united in the design of God.
America is not a material place or country. It must be understood spiritually
as a divine idea.
"Historical portions of the Bible are not more
inspired than the history of the United States" (Mary Baker Eddy,
Mind Healing: Historical Sketch).
We are therefore loyal to this country only in proportion to
our loyalty to Principle. Because of what America stands for--as a spiritual
idea--its citizens have a special obligation imposed upon them. We must
recognize that the mission of America is spiritual and not material--that it is
Principle which individualizes man and nations, since "God is individual Mind"
(Mis.101:31), individual divine consciousness.
Individual Freedom as a Spiritual
Experience
What makes individual freedom a purely spiritual experience?
Is it not escaping from the basic misconception that there is "life, truth,
intelligence, [and] substance in matter," and freedom from the illusion, the
universal hypnotic suggestion, that evil and inharmony are real?
We cannot help other nations preserve their freedom if we do
not preserve our own. Our strength lies in the radicalism of Science which is
destined to bring to view the kingdom of heaven on earth. The terrible
chemicalization witnessed today is simply error appearing more aggressively as
its nothingness is exposed. "The higher truth lifts her voice, the
louder will error scream" (S&H 97:23). "In moral chemicalization, when the
symptoms of evil, illusion, are aggravated...we ought to know that God's law
uncovers so-called sin and its effects, only that Truth may annihilate all
sense of evil" (S&H 540:11). This is the way Christian Science brings "sin
and sickness to the surface, forcing impurities to pass away" (S&H
401:18).
"A lie has only one chance of successful deception,[and that
is] to be accounted true" (Un. 17:1). Again Mrs. Eddy writes: "Error,
when found out, is two-thirds destroyed, and the remaining third kills itself"
(Mis. 210:5). It is the Truth in Mrs. Eddy's writings that is exposing
error of every nature and destroying it. Christian Scientists are grateful that
matter and materiality are today beginning to be seen as pure illusion. They
are grateful that the error of loving and fearing matter is being exposed. They
know the lie is being brought to an end in direct proportion to its
exposure.
How This Nation Will Fulfill Its
Purpose
This nation can only fulfill its purpose, and be of service
to mankind, as its citizens obey the teachings of Christian Science. When Jesus
and Mary Baker Eddy were present on earth, they "held uncomplaining guard over
[the] world." Mrs. Eddy admonished, "Christian Scientists, be a law to your
selves." Our work is to actually establish self-government in order that divine
Principle, Love, not mortal mind or personal sense, becomes the basis of our
thinking.
Like Jesus and Mary Baker Eddy, we must live and speak
as Principle, letting divine good be All--and this All will then
express and manifest itself as man. Principle and its idea are not two. They
are one. Note that Mrs. Eddy says that "Principle and its idea is one." (See
S&H 465:17.) "I and my Father [Mind, Principle] are one," said Jesus.
Infinite good, conscious of itself, is man--is what is
called "man" in Christian Science. This Science has come to educate the human
mind out of itself until it becomes the divine Mind. The human mind thinks
"man" is something separate from God. Christian Science teaches there is but
one real selfhood, and that is infinite good, which is the selfhood of every
individual. This will be seen when, through spiritual education, the
structure of our consciousness becomes one with the structure of reality.
This oneness takes place as all evil--error of every kind--is rooted
out of consciousness.
"Go in and Possess the Land"
Bicknell Young said: "The whole, the sole mission of the
United States of America, is Christian Science!"
"Where there is no vision, the people perish." Of old, the
children of light were told to go in and possess "the land which the Lord had
given them" (Num. 32:9). What is the land which the Lord had given them,
and has given to us, to every individual on earth? It is the kingdom of God
within our individual, infinite spiritual consciousness, constituted of Mind,
Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love, which constantly reflects itself,
manifests itself, as what is called "man." We take possession of this land as
we rid the human consciousness of all that is unprincipled,
ungodlike.
The Vision of Julia Ward Howe
The following remarkable vision of Julia Ward Howe was
published in the July 18, 1908 Christian Science Sentinel, Vol. X, No.
46. Its title, But Their Eyes Were Holden, no doubt refers to the
general public's unawareness that the very condition Mrs. Howe saw as a
possibility for the future was actually an accomplished fact through Christian
Science--that the unnumbered thousands healed and regenerated in Christian
Science constituted the "vast host," seen in her vision:
One night recently I experienced a sudden awakening. I
had a vision of a new era which is to dawn for mankind and in which men and
women are battling, equally, untidily, for the uplifting and emancipating of
the race from evil. I saw men and women of every clime working like bees to
unwrap the evils of society, and to discover the whole web of vice and misery
and to apply the remedies and also to find the influences that should best
counteract evil and its attending suffering.
There seemed to be a new, a wondrous, ever-permeating
light, the glory of which I cannot attempt to put into human words--the light
of the newborn hope and sympathy blazing. The source of this light was born of
human endeavor, immortal purpose of countless thousands of men and women who
were equally doing their part in the worldwide battle with evil, and whose
energy was bended to tear the mask from error, crime, superstition, greed, and
to discover and apply the remedy.
I saw men and women, standing side by side, shoulder to
shoulder, a common lofty and indomitable purpose lighting every face with a
glory not of this earth. All were advancing with one end in view, one foe to
trample, one everlasting good to gain. I saw them advancing like a mighty army,
laden with the fruits of their research, their study, their endeavor, in this
battle with the powers of darkness, and ready to tear vice from the earth, to
strip away all of selfishness, greed, and rapine. Then I seemed to see them
stoop down to their fellows and to lift them higher, higher, and yet higher.
Men and women, a vast host, whom none could number, working untidily, equally,
with superhuman energy, all for the extirpation of the blackness of vice and
for the weal of the race.
And then I saw the victory!
All of evil was gone from the earth. Misery was blotted
out. Mankind was emancipated and ready to march forward in a new era of human
understanding, all-encompassing sympathy, and ever-present help. The era of
perfect love, of peace passing understanding. (Originally printed in The
Boston Sunday American of June 28, 1908.)
In Julia Ward Howe's vision, the veil which obscures the
ever-present millennium was lifted--as Mary Baker Eddy had already, in
actual practice, been lifting it for forty-two years.
AMERICA book sections
Foreword | I |
II | III |
IV | V |
VI | VII |
VIII | IX |
X | XI |
XII | XIII |
Conclusion | Bibliography |
