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?
* * * * *
Mysteries
Table of
Contents
(Formerly at
Northwoods Divine Science Resource
Center)
