Dominion

Written by Violet Ker Seymer and published in the April 1926 issue of The Christian Science Journal

THE Christian world acknowledges that Christ Jesus, the Way-shower, exercised a purely spiritual dominion over all the phases of evil which he encountered in the course of his ministry. His vision of God, good, and of man in God's likeness, was so clear and constant that he never yielded to fear; nor was he ever deceived by the evidence of the five physical senses. Through spiritual understanding he destroyed the false mortal beliefs embodied as blindness or deafness, insanity or disease; and to sorrowing parents he restored their loved ones who, to all appearance, had died. Furthermore, the Way-shower taught unlettered men, simple fishermen and others, to exercise this same spiritual dominion; for after three years' discipleship they too healed the sick and raised the dead. What was the source of this invisible and wonderfully practical healing power? It was God, divine Love, to whom Christ Jesus, the faithful witness, pledged himself in constant, unfailing allegiance.

Christian Science teaches that since God is changeless Principle, infinite Life, Truth, and Love, this spiritual dominion is available to-day; that it has not been lost. Owing to its ignorance of God, and of man in His likeness, mankind has seemed to be engulfed in a morass of materialism, from which it has vainly attempted to extricate itself by material means such as diet, climate, medicine, surgery, hygiene, or else by the exercise of human intellect, self-will, hypnotism, psychoanalysis, or other mortal agency—has sought to escape by the selfsame ladder which lowered it into the abyss of materialism.

How, then, is spiritual dominion to be restored to mankind? By a return to that spiritual concept of God and man, that illumined singleness of vision, which enabled John to write, "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all." In other words, the vision must be gained that in God, who is Spirit, there is no matter, no sickness, no sin; that in Life there is no death, and in Love there is no hate or fear; that in infinite good, evil has no place, that it is but an ignorant, mortal illusion which seems to hold temporal sway in the thoughts of mortals. From these illusions mankind can assuredly be released through a demonstrable, scientific understanding of God and His image, spiritual man. Just as darkness has no starting point, and is banished by solar light, so the belief in evil has no cause or creator, and retreats before the spiritual understanding of Truth, Life, and Love.

Still, one may ask what bearing these transcendent spiritual facts can possibly have upon the apparent sufferings and imperfections of mortals. Christian Science replies that these sufferings and imperfections are primarily mental, and that in the measure that the one perfect Mind, God, is understood and reflected, this understanding corrects and destroys the false beliefs of mortals, and replaces them with pure, perfect, spiritual ideas. Since divine Love is omnipresent, so-called fear, hate, jealousy, and anger have no place or authority; and they fade out as this great fact dawns upon the learner. True health is a spiritual condition, which is forever out of reach of matter or sickness; and it is always possible to draw near to God, good, and so reflect the health of His countenance. With infinite compassion, Christian Science points out that as long as mortals look to matter as the cause of both sickness and health, and turn their backs on God, good, who is the one spiritual restorer of health, happiness, and holiness, so long will they continue to languish and stumble in sickness, sin, sorrow, and death; for did not Christ Jesus say, "If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch"?

The power of divine Mind, spiritual Truth, is ever at hand to correct and purify mortal thinking, to banish mortal fear, to inspire purer desires, and to illumine daily life and the execution of simple tasks with a new sense of spiritual dominion, serenity, and power. The student of Christian Science learns how to exchange self-pity for gratitude and to lose sorrow in new-found spiritual joy. God, divine Mind, is invisible to the mortal senses; but the ideas of this Mind are imparted to man. These redemptive ideas abound; and one's part is to keep his whole heart humbly, courageously receptive to these true ideas, these blessed angels with healing in their wings. As the Psalmist said: "With thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light."

One who would gain true, spiritual self-knowledge, in which real health is comprised, must turn from the evidence of the physical senses and look through spiritual sense on all creation. It is only in the darkness of false belief that one stumbles and falls over seeming obstacles, and misses the right pathway. Christian Science reveals the clear mental way, the spiritual highway of thought, whereby the seeming obstacles, the mere false beliefs of sickness and sin, vanish from consciousness and Truth's straight road to heaven is trodden day by day with ever increasing health, joy, and safety.

So the question arises, Where is spiritual dominion to be exercised? In one's thinking, gradually overcoming there all that one knows is unlike God, is untrue and unlovely. Only the individual himself knows just how and when he needs faithfully to reflect God's spiritual dominion over the false beliefs of material pleasure, pain, fear, and anxious foreboding. Evil is an impersonal lie; and each one needs to prove its nothingness by refusing to lend himself to the expression of error in any shape or form, by rejecting the belief of physical causation, and by acknowledging God, Spirit, as the one perfect cause and effect. Evil is a nonentity; and when, in humility, each one learns to identify himself with God, good, alone, the belief in evil, bereft of a believer, will vanish into its native nothingness. A lie cannot utter itself; it needs a false witness. But Christian Science teaches that God has no false witnesses, for His reflection cannot lie.

Spiritual dominion is won, then, through spiritualization of thought. In newborn humility one must learn to understand the wondrous perfection and beneficence of God, divine Love; for thus only can the former false, frightening, impure material concepts be put off and the individual gift of spiritual sonship be recognized and demonstrated. In spiritual sonship there is safety; and in reflection of God lies the secret of dominion. On page 143 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy says: "Mind is the grand creator, and there can be no power except that which is derived from Mind. If Mind was first chronologically, is first potentially, and must be first eternally, then give to Mind the glory, honor, dominion, and power everlastingly due its holy name."

Since the glory, power, and dominion of Life over death, Love over hate, health over sickness, everlastingly belong to the omnipotence of God, good, this allegiance is due now; and now is the time to render it, both gladly and whole-heartedly. Fruitage is according to each one's sowing. When error seems to lift its voice in fear or self-pity, one should insistently turn and join in that great chorus of praise which fell on the ears of the Revelator: "Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth." One must earnestly seek to think the thoughts God gives, live in God, and unceasingly reflect divine Love. Christian Science teaches one how to draw consciously nearer to God through the expression of patience, loving-kindness, courage, and faith. On page 316 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy states that "Christ illustrates that blending with God, his divine Principle, which gives man dominion over all the earth." Truth and error can no more blend than can oil and water. Every compromise with error entails subjection; but every blending with God, good, reveals the reflection of more and more spiritual harmony and dominion.

If one does not seem to be proving his God-given dominion over evil, may it not be because he is believing that his own limited understanding is unequal to the task? Is he not then measuring the infinite by the finite? Spiritual man is the measureless expression of Him whose understanding is infinite; and the apostle says, "Ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power." There is one infinite; and its bestowal of spiritual understanding is infinite and perpetual. Far above the belief of mortal intellect, spiritual intelligence mirrors the pure dominion of Love, Life, and Truth.

Viewed from the mortal standpoint, spiritual dominion appears to mortals to be the exercise of the power of good over evil, life over death, health over sickness. So long as mankind believes in evil, and, in its ignorance continues to express evil, this mighty power of God must be utilized; for by no other means can the kingdom of God come upon earth, and the will of God, good, be demonstrated in all its perfection and harmony.

There is another and higher aspect of spiritual dominion, however, which is discovered through regarding this question of dominion not as mankind ordinarily views it, but from the standpoint of God as infinite good. From this standpoint, spiritual dominion is forever infinite. Then dawns upon us the wondrous fact that in actual, spiritual reality, dominion represents the unchallenged allness of God, good. This undisputed dominion of infinite Love is the great revelation which has been given to the world through Christian Science; and its fruitage is limitless.

Does not this vision of dominion make one's apparent foes seem more like puny impostors than terrible opponents? Our Leader says on page 140 of Science and Health, "We shall obey and adore in proportion as we apprehend the divine nature and love Him understandingly, warring no more over the corporeality, but rejoicing in the affluence of our God." This rejoicing scatters the mists of fear; and in the clear light of divine Love we see that man is always face to face with his Father-Mother God.

The dawning recognition of the unchallenged allness of God, good, is no plea for slackness, but rather for dauntless courage, unshaken confidence, indomitable perseverance, all based on the everlasting reality of God, good. David slew Goliath by the spiritual understanding which inspired him with the recognition of the powerlessness of his enemy's brazen, but futile defiance. A study of that episode, and of David's scathing words to the boastful Philistine, shows that David had a great sense of spiritual dominion, and signified as much to Goliath by the powerful Word of God, before which the arrogance of mortal belief returns to dust.

The unbroken, unalterable dominion of good is the supreme and infinite fact which has no opposite. It is to this fact that the student of Christian Science holds firmly, perseveringly, reverently, thankfully. He seeks not so much to apply fact to falsehood as to gain a comprehension of the truth and thus lose his belief in evil, just as naturally as night is lost in daylight. Truth's unfailing remedy is in the assurance that there is no fault, no flaw, in God and His likeness, man. In the statement of the perfect creation, as given in the first chapter of Genesis, it is significant that although there is no reference to the dream of evil, yet there is the mention of dominion as a factor in creation.

Through a rift in the clouds one beholds the measureless blue. Through an ever widening vision of spiritual creation one beholds the infinite and eternal fact that "by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: and he is before all things, and by him all things consist."