Arizona republican., 1917-03-26
(The Christian Science Monitorj

It Is Weli-nlgh nlnetSen hundred years since Jesus of Nazareth ut twelve deciples forth on their mis- sion of healing: And as ye go, preach, saving, The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand" The kingdom of heaven was at hand then; the kingdom of heaven is at hand today. It never was anywhere else; out men have to learn this, and perhaps also to learn what heaven really means.
 On page 5S7 oi Science and Health Mrs Eddy meta aphy sically defines the term Heaven, 2s follows: Heaven. Harmony; the reign of Spirit; gov ernment by divine Principle; spirtu- ality; bliss; the atmosphere of Soul" There is no materiality' about heaven; it is the atmosphere of Soul"
 Now the teaching of Christian Sci ence differs radically from that of
 many of the generally accepted be-
 liefs on this question. One of tfase heliefs is that heaven is locality, that it is a place situated somewhere in space. Thus it has come to many to mean an exclusive place, far away, and difficult nf access. Such view 0f heaven is about as far from the truth as it possibly can be. It is based on an entire misconception of God, of man, and of the spiritual uni
 verse. The wonderful fact remains that the Kingdom of heaven is at hand, to be revealed to all who have the sincere desire to know what if is:
 Christian Science teaches that Goa is infinite Mind or Soul, and that He is good. That statement of absolute Science opens up the way to the un
 derstanding of what is meant by the kingdom of heaven. Since God is in- finite good, in reality good is omni- present. and since good is omnipres- ent, nothing else is present anywhere
 as reality. This teaching is repudl-
 ated bv mortal mind. which is con- stantly suggesting that there is an other power, the opposite of good. in
 existence, d power which in its action produces effects the very antithesis of harmonious. Human beings, until
 through Christ Truth, they under stand better, believe in the reality of good and evil. believe that both are they keep themselves out of the king
 dom of heaven as they continue to believe in the reality and power of evil.
 How. then, does man enter heaV- en? Obviously, there is no other way
 thither except through spiritual un-
 derstanding. The way cannot be trodden materially: it is altogether
 to he spiritually discerned and spir- itually followed. The allness of good has to be recognized as the absolute truth, admitting of no halfway halt ing stage; the recognition must be followed by the full acceptance of the fact, and the endeavor be made to destroy all the false beliefs of the human mind as they seek to present themselves as real consciousness. To human sense this may seem I difficult task. for does not the human | mind frequently feel itself torn asun-
 der as evil belief seeks to assert itself as something real? One has to rec 1 ognize that, because good is omni-
 present and the only reality, so- | called evil, no matter under what euise. no matter how loudly it clam 1 ors for attention, has no power what
 eyer. in the absolute sense. This amounts to a denial of the so-called i pains and the So-called pleasures of 1 the physical senses How often have | not men r. st themselves in the false 1 dreams of material sense? How often have they tried, perhaps, to drown 1 their sorrows in still deeper drafts Of l lethargic matter: and what have they i been doing all the time? Simply i bringing themselves in belief more l 2CNN l is not omnipresent. Christian Sci
 ence has revealed the kingdom o1 heaven as never before. By making 1 known the absolute truth about good, 1 1t has opened the doors of heaven to | mankind in a manner so scientific 1 that all can enter. Mrs Eddy. the i discoverer of Christian Science,
 writes on page 242 of Science and Health: There is but one way to
 heaven, harmony, and Christ in di- | vine Science shows us this way. II ! is to know no other reality-to have
 no other consciousness of life-tEan ! good. God and His reflection, and to | ise superior to the so-called p2li and pleasure of the senses"
 The harmony of heaven never con- i sists of SensuouS ease. It Is always 1 synonomous with spiritual under standing It is never associated with mental lethargy it always core 1 spends to mental alertness Thus a
 man is entering the kingdom o1 heaven as his life is being governed
 more by divine principle and less by
 material sense. This progress will
 manifest itself in a higher regard for
 the rights of others and in the appli- 1 cation of those laws which men have
 established to regulate their dealings
 with each other for the protection 1 and preservation of what IS pes' 1 among themselves. Government ny
 divine principle IS government through the recognition of the allness
 of good.