What is a Mystery? Nona L. Brooks
Mysteries, 1924.
Divine Science Federation Int’l
3rd Printing, 1977.
Copyright Material
Reprinted by Permission
Down through the ages men have been accustomed to call that which to them was unknown, unexplained, or uncomprehended–a mystery. There has been a tendency to wrap veils of mystery around natural phenomena, also around the causes of daily experience in the lives of men, and even around God. That which is in any particular out of what we have called the usual and the commonplace has aroused a sense of the supernatural or the mysterious in relation to it. Mankind has relegated much to the realm of the mysterious which is explainable under the light that true thinking throws upon the experiences. There rises the question, why is this? Long, long ago, in the childhood of the race, before men thought intelligently about life and living, they felt within themselves an impelling urge for Something higher than their daily experiences. They naturally looked to that which was above them, and found it beyond their power to understand. So it came about that while these primitive men were still a great way off, the greater experiences of life looked weird and incomprehensible to them. They were thinking in terms of separation; hence all greater experiences were mysterious to them.
It has been our custom to meditate upon those experiences which touch us as individuals most closely. Hence we hear the world asking, “What is the reason for illness, evil, poverty, old age, death?” There is an answer in Divine Science to many as yet unanswered questions. With the omnipresence of God as our basic principle, we Divine Scientists feel that we are speaking with authority. We shall endeavor to answer all questions from the point of view of omnipresent good.
Much of the thinking of the race has been negative. Men have seen evil, sickness, poverty, suffering, decrepitude, in human experience; and judging from appearances they have been unwilling to accept a philosophy that proclaims God as all, visible and invisible. “God must be the invisible power, but he must remain in the unseen, for if he is in the visible, how can you account for the wrongs of the world?” is the question that we hear repeated so often. Men have said for ages, “This is a mystery.” They have accordingly continued to visualize places and conditions where God is not.
Do the appearances of inharmony that men call sickness, poverty, evil, and death, deny the principle of Omnipresence? From which side are you thinking–the inner or the outer? To many the outer is more real than the inner; to such I can only say, “Detach your thought from that which is without and fasten it to that which is within.” We have lived in the external for so long that it seems much more real to many of us than the internal or eternal. We have lived with our eyes fixed upon phenomena, and now we are beginning to look through the phenomenon to find the cause. Detached thinking has done much to lead us farther and farther from reality. We have seen the manifestation–matter–apart from its source. Now we are seeing that cause and effect are one.
There is nothing hidden from him who knows God and God in action as all there is. There is mystery from the point of view of the wonder of it all; but there is nothing inexplainable to the one who is willing to see from the standpoint of unity that the Universe is one. The nature of God is wholeness–holiness. He filleth all with His holy presence; and there is no truth in anything that is unlike God–in anything that seems to limit us. The Father is infinite Spirit; we live in Spirit; we abide in its abundance. The one who sees the holiness of wholeness knows that in the presence of God is fullness of life.
We wonder at the greatness of solar systems; but from the solar system to the grain of sand, there is nothing mysterious to him who sees the meaning of Omnipresence. The grain of sand is a thought of God and so is the solar system; the process that we call life is God in action. Men plant a seed; it takes root, and sprouts; it springs into growth, a living organism. This process of unfoldment is God-Activity in manifestation. The process is perfect, for all that is of God is perfect. Perfection is the nature of the Omnipresent One.
I shall deal in this series with the so-called mysteries of God, life, suffering, old age, death, healing, wrong habits, human characteristics, human relationships, thought transference, power, prayer, success and individual unfoldment.
I hope to show you that there is an answer to all questions in the light that the concept of Omnipresence throws upon life. From my angle of vision I see the Universe as One; and I stand in the center of this unified Universe, looking out and saying, “All is good–God.” The universe of form is the living presence of God. Law is God in action. There is no chance. The Divine Purpose is expressing as infinite love. We, children of one Father, are sharers in the divine intent; we are working not for divine purpose, but with it.
Thinking true to the presence of God enlarges our vision; it is our ignorance and unwillingness to see truly that holds us out of participation in the glories that open to the one who is faithful in his practice of the Presence. We are troubled about things just so long as we do not see that all life is related. It is ignorance that keeps us in bondage; it is truth that makes us free. Let us cease walking on the shadow side of the path, on the path of human opinions, superstitions, and fears; for in God-Consciousness, the consciousness of wholeness is fullness of light.
If I take my stand in the presence of infinite Love and Power–that Presence–besides which there is no other, I shall solve every mystery. A mystery is a shadowy place in our thought; but in the consciousness of God there are no shadows. There is only light. When I take my stand in Omnipresence, I know that the thought which I think and the good works which I am able to do, are not mine, but His that sent me. God is thinking and expressing through His children. Light is our heritage. There is no darkness at all. Shall sons of God delude themselves into thinking that they live in shadowy places? As long as we do this, we shall be held in the bondage of this unreality and that unreality–this mystery and that mystery. Sons of God are able, if they will, to solve by their thinking and their living those problems and mysteries which have seemed impossible of solution. There is, let me repeat, nothing unknown to the one who knows God. There is nothing incomprehensible to the man who understands the infinitude of the love and power of God. All phenomena are explainable by law–God in action. Where, then, is the mystery?
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Mysteries
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