America by Herbert W. Eustace

The following is an excerpt from “The Line of Light” (pgs. 594-609) explaining America’s role (where “the gathering of the tribes will be”) in Christianity. Thus, any seeming “drumming of drums” is just the announcing of a Tribe’s presence coming to America.

THE PERSONAL SAVIOUR

The prophets were glimpses of goodness and greatness, but that goodness and greatness was simply Eve appearing in a purer, fuller and more ascending sense. Then the Redeemer appeared in its still truer sense; not as the product of Adam and Eve, but purely of Eve, and it was called Christ Jesus.

This Light, in its final personal sense that was called Christ Jesus, was to be about its Father’s business, showing forth that Father personally as works-the healing all manner of disease, feeding the multitudes, stilling the storm and destroying death; and then as the crucifixion; the resurrection; and finally the ascension. Here the Christ, as Jesus, reached the summit of completeness in its appearance as a person. That appearing ended entirely the sense of the Christ as a person, and so Jesus said of the personal sense, “It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.” (John 16:7.)

Jesus was referring to the fact that the highest human corporeal or personal sense of the divine man or idea, had to disappear before the Comforter, the reality, the real man as the presence of God, could appear. Personal sense always mars the vision of the impersonal or spiritual sense. Christ Jesus worked out all personality, and he declared, “It is finished.” (John 19:30.)

Jesus, the highest human concept of the divine idea, is not the consummation, except so far as the personal sense is concerned. The personal sense had first to disappear before the impersonal, or Mind-sense of the Christ could appear in all its fullness. Then could take place what Jesus meant when he said, “I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him; but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” (John 14:16, 17, 26.)

In the personal chronology of the appearing of the Christ in its ascending scale we have first Eve, then Abraham, Jacob, Moses, the kingdoms of Judah and Israel and the Prophets, then Christ Jesus. With Christ Jesus came the full, perfect and sufficient sacrifice, as Paul expressed it; the demonstration of the Christ, Truth, not as a person at all, but as pure spirituality without any fleshly sense. This was seen as the ascension.

ISRAEL FINDS SHELTER IN BRITAIN

Then the Christ was dimly seen in the form of the Christian doctrine and as the early Christians and the spread of Christianity. In the spread of Christianity it is important to notice that history shows how the British Isles proved themselves veritable Isles of refuge for Christianity. According to tradition, and tradition is sometimes correct, Christianity was introduced into England by Joseph of Arimathea a few years after the resurrection. Those to whom it was introduced were among the very lost sheep that Jesus referred to in his statement, “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (Matt. 15:24.) The soil must be right or there can be no fruition, and Israel was this soil.

What is Israel? What does Israel mean? You remember the twelve sons or descendants of Jacob,-that which wrestled and prevailed over evil,-appeared finally as twelve tribes. They eventually formed themselves into two kingdoms, the tribe of Judah with part of the tribe of Benjamin becoming the Kingdom of Judah, and the other tribes forming themselves into the Kingdom of Israel. Judah was the royal line but from Israel Shiloh was to come. Shiloh means pure, spiritual sense. “The Sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver form between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.” (Gen. 49:10.)

You also remember that Joseph, Jacob’s loved son, who was hated of his brethren, and was sold into Egypt, and who finally appeared as the saviour of his brethren, had two sons, the younger Ephraim and the older Manasseh. In blessing these two sons of Joseph, Jacob foretold the greatness of Manasseh, the elder, but the greater greatness of Ephraim, the younger, and, as the Bible declares, he put the younger before the older. In speaking of Manasseh, Jacob said, “he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great: but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations.” (Gen. 48:19.)

THE BRANCH THAT GREW OVER THE WALL

Israel was to be known by “a new name,” (Is. 62:2.) and the descendants were to be gathered in the “Isles” (Is. 49:1.) of the Seas, there to be protected and nurtured until the fullness of time. From this Israel was to appear under the still newer name America, the United States of America, that which was to stand forth as Ephraim, the younger, the branch that ran “over the wall.” (Gen. 49:22.) Not a nation in the ordinary acceptance of the word, but a mighty spiritual force that was to show forth to mankind the “Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” (Jno. 1:9.) That spiritual force was to be known as Christian Science, under whose banner would gather a “multitude of nations.” (Gen. 48:19.)

When Jacob struggled with the angel he was alone, and he brought into that struggle over fear and anxiety all that he knew of Truth, and it multiplied. “Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel; for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.” (Gen. 32:28.) This is the Israel that grew and finally appeared as the British race, no longer Isaacsons or sons of Isaac, but Saxons, the Anglo-Saxon race.
Do not forget, however, that all this that we are talking about is simply the unfoldment of Mind, and, while appearing as persons, it really never is persons, but always Mind, for the only race is Mind, no matter what the appearance.

This that arose as the nation called Great Britain, and then, as something going out from it-the branch growing over the wall,-Ephraim, the younger, called America, was simply the language in which the further unfoldment of Mind appeared. You know of the anguish which caused the Pilgrims and Puritans to go out from their father’s house into a land they knew not of. Like Abraham of old, they went with implicit confidence in good, not outlining in the slightest but having full “faith in. . . . the eternal Principle of being.” (S. & H. 579:10.)

America stands as the one nation on earth whose origin was wholly spiritual. It went forth with the one spiritual purpose to worship God. Then what constituted America? It was “the seed in itself,” that inborn spiritual craving in each individual which seeks Mind as the needle seeks the pole. The seed was not only the recognition of the right, but also the determination to worship God without any interference; the understanding that nothing has the right to, or can, intervene between God and His idea. In other words, America stands for that union of Principle and idea which is forever one and indissoluble. This country typifies, and its origin proves it to be, the spiritual idea of Mind and the nearest approximation to a nation founded by Mind, and so it stands alone.

America was in no way merely a political experiment; it was the answer to the deep spiritual necessity of man’s oneness with Principle. That every step of the unfolding nation was leavened by the recognition of dependence upon Mind, is verified by utterances of that time. Benjamin Franklin said in his address of 1787 before the Constitutional Convention when, at the end of weeks of stress and effort, failure seemed to face them, “If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We have been assured in the Sacred Writings, that ‘Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.’ I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without His concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel.” Nothing animated the founding of this nation except the one purpose to be alone with God and worship Him after the dictates of a conscience untrammeled by ecclesiastical or other tyranny.

THE PRESSURE OF TRUTH IN AMERICA

No sooner, however, had America gone out from its father’s house and established its own house more or less securely, after countless tribulations, than the pressure of Truth was felt even stronger than ever. There is no point where this pressure can stop, until perfection is attained, and so there was no peace for the Pilgrim Fathers. There appeared the pressure not only of the countless internal disturbances, but there was the outside pressure, such as taxation without representation, which finally culminated in what has been called the American Revolution.

Then, there followed the next effort to “come out from among them, and be ye separate.” (2 Cor. 6:17.) In the beginning, the States had drawn up an agreement of perpetual Union founded on mutual respect and recognition of each one’s rights for the good of all. This was symbolical of man’s perpetual oneness with Principle. But the question of slavery in the country had grown and increased, and with it there was the inevitable opposition to the evil.

Is it not true that whatever enslaves in the slightest degree never rests satisfied but always works for greater control, greater bondage? So it was with what appeared as human slavery in America. Its advocates were not satisfied, but wanted, in spite of opposition, continual extension. Little by little there arose the demand to spread and extend slavery, with an insistence on States’ rights in regard to this. The slavery question, however, was really insignificant in one sense of the word. The question of deep moment was, if States could demand freedom to extend slavery into other States and Territories and make their demand good, in spite of the opposition of the other States, would it not end by bringing about a dissolution or destruction of the Union? From the very arrival of the Pilgrims, in all the disasters that had befallen them, had it not really been the effort of evil to destroy the union of States, which typified the union of Principle and idea?

President Lincoln was not in the least deceived about what was operating or what evil was trying to accomplish, for you remember his statement, as given by Lord Charnwood, page 322, in his “Abraham Lincoln,” “My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union. If I could save the Union without freeing any slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more helps the cause.” In other words Lincoln saw that the vital question was the Union, and that if that Union could be destroyed, and the States be divided, then liberty would perish from the earth. The founding of America was the culmination of all that had gone before in the going out from matter to Mind, and the bringing to light of man’s oneness with God, and the government of God as Supreme. There is no liberty with matter as the basis of being, for matter self-evidently is finiteness, limitation.

Do not fail to keep all persons out of your analysis or you cannot understand Mind. If your thought is fixed on personality in the slightest, it is not only in danger of losing Principle, but inevitably will lose it. This cannot be more strongly stated than it is by Mrs. Eddy in Miscellaneous Writings, “Remember, it is personality and the sense of personality in God or in man, that limits man.” (Mis. 282:4.) “Again I repeat, person is not in the question of Christian Science. Principle, instead of person, is next to our hearts, on our lips, and in our lives.” (Mis. 135:2.)

All warfare is impersonal. It is the warfare between Truth and error, not between persons. Although it appears as persons, follow the Line of Light impersonally, through to the last Adam who was the “quickening spirit.” (1 Cor. 15:45.)

The Civil War, then, had nothing primarily to do with slavery. Lincoln was not concerned about slavery as he plainly showed in his statement; his real purpose was to save the Union. The Civil War purified the whole nation, and placed it upon a basis of oneness which could never again be interfered with. Union means oneness, and oneness can only be with Mind. Every doubt or question about this had to be fought out before the final impersonal appearing of the Christ could come. “Rest assured that God in His wisdom will test all mankind on all questions; and then, if found faithful, He will deliver us from temptation and show us the powerlessness of evil,-even its utter nothingness. (Mis. 114:26.)

THE IMPERSONAL SAVIOUR

After the struggle for the Union had been fought and won, a new struggle began immediately. 1865 saw the end of the Civil War. With 1866 came the dawn of the final appearing that Jacob foresaw as Shiloh coming forth from the younger, Ephraim, and which Jesus foresaw as the Comforter, who should speak not of himself, but lead into all truth, and which the Revelator saw, as a “little book,” (Rev. 10:2.) to be eaten up, made one’s own, comprehended, understood, not carried around as a remedy.

Shiloh, the Comforter, the Little Book was to come forth in America, from that which had grown over the wall and gone out from its father’s house, from materiality, limitation, forsaking all for Mind, and it had to appear in the only way a book can appear, through an author. That author, of Pilgrim origin, again typifying Eve the “mother of all living,” (Gen. 3:20.) was to appear as a woman, bringing forth her “man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron.” (Rev. 12:5.)

This little, lone, New England woman, Mary Baker Eddy, like the Mary of old, through her innate purity and goodness, in her communion with God, conceived of God as the one Mind, and therefore, Mind as All-in-all. Thus she conceived all things as having a Mind origin and not a material one: or, as she expresses it, “All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all.” (S. & H. 468:10.)

This discovery of the allness of Mind was not the work of a moment, but was the result of many years of earnest searching on the part of Mrs. Eddy for the Mind-cause of all things. She had conceived, long before, that all things must have a mental origin. As she says, she had searched to find the truth of that for over twenty years. Her search led her through countless avenues of human belief where she hoped to find her “pearl of great price,” (Matt. 13:46.) only however, to be disappointed time after time for they never crowned “the power of Mind as the Messiah.” (S. & H. 116:14.) This constant delving on Mrs. Eddy’s part has been the cause of much misunderstanding. She has been accused of being first one thing and then another, whereas she was always just the same true, devout Christian searching for the way of Mind and eventually finding it, “alone with” her “own being and with the reality of things;” (Mes. 01 20:9.) thereby blessing all mankind.

Because of the very purity, simplicity and divinity of Mrs. Eddy’s thought she could not help endowing those with whom she came in contact, especially if they seemed to be seeking a higher ideal of life, with her own loveliness of character and high order of intelligence. Apparently this she did with such a lavish hand that she many times praised and upheld those who later proved utterly unworthy of the glory she shed upon them. She could not help doing this. It is always the nature of the truly great and spiritual to see their own lofty ideals in all around them. Instinctively they clothe their surroundings, be it person, place or thing, with their own beautiful natures, frequently, later to learn through the deepest sadness that they praised where praise should not have been given, and loved where love was wasted. This must ever be so in the touch of the spiritually minded with the mortal concept. Was not this the case with Jesus in his choice of Judas? But the spiritually minded go forward, and so Mrs. Eddy went forward.

She named her conception, that which unfolded to her understanding, Christian Science, and in 1875 this appeared to the world in its full manhood, in the most impersonal form in which the Christ, Truth, can appear, and yet be cognizable to the mortal, namely as the book-Science and Health. The only personality or materiality attached to this book is the paper and ink; apart from that, is it not purely Mind? Did not Jesus foresee, then, that the final unfoldment of the Christ would appear in the form of a book, when he spoke of the Comforter who would come but who would not speak of himself?

What does Christian Science mean? Christian means pertaining to Christ or Truth; and Science means exact knowledge. In other words Christian Science means right knowing, and right knowing means intelligence, and intelligence means Mind, God, and so Christian Science in its true sense is only another term for God.

Are you thinking of Christian Science simply as another term for God? If so, then you never think of it as an organization or as a system, or as something that has to do with human ways or beliefs. Because Christian Science is God, then what must the understanding of God, the man of God be? It must be the practice of Christian Science.

Establishing of the Union, called America, on an absolutely firm foundation as an accomplished fact, immediately opened the way for the establishing of Christian Science, the discernment of the eternal union of Principle and its idea as All-in-all.

America by Herbert W. Eustace

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