"I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved." Gen. 32:30. What a wonderful experience Jacob must have had to so glimpse what God is in His perfection, goodness, and omnipresence that he could see something of the unreality of the error he was struggling with—"a mortal sense," Mrs. Eddy explains, "of life, substance, and intelligence as existent in matter with its false pleasures and pains . . . ." Science and Health, p. 308. He was so spiritually uplifted that he called the place "Peniel" or "Face of God."
Jacob, a revered patriarch of Biblical history, made this profound discovery at a crucial point in his life when death at the hands of his twin brother seemed likely. But he had so glimpsed God's all inclusive love that when he met his brother it was a joyful reunion. Jacob even told him, "I have seen thy face, as though I had seen the face of God, and thou wast pleased with me." Gen. 33:10.
Jacob had undertaken a long journey, literally and figuratively, before he came to that point and was willing to yield to God's harmonious control of his affairs. Through deceit and trickery he had stolen his brother's inheritance and blessing and then was forced to flee when his brother threatened to kill him.
But Jacob's desire to be a good man must have outweighed his human will, crafty calculations, and ensuing material prosperity. When he was alone in the wilderness where he had fled, the transformation of his character began. Here in a dream he saw a ladder let down from heaven, with angels of God ascending and descending on it.See Gen. 28:10-15. And the angel message he received was not one of condemnation or punishment but of love and security—a joy that awaits everyone who humbly turns to God. God promised to him and to his heirs an inheritance of blessing.
Now, years later when he was ready to return home and face his brother, his terror was removed as he struggled with and prevailed over a mortal concept of man's being. Face to face with God's presence, power, and allness, Jacob saw his true nature come forth in its integrity and spiritual strength. At this point his name was changed from Jacob to Israel. Not only was the relationship with his brother restored, but he was able to carry on the work God had for him to do.
How many of us, like Jacob, have kept in the back of thought some unhealed situation that seemed too difficult to face—too difficult to trust to divine Love's presence, power, and allness? Sooner or later, however, we all must yield to the Christ in our consciousness and demonstrate the harmony of real being. We must be willing not only to acknowledge perfect God, His perfect man, and His perfect government of man and the universe as the basis of our thoughts, motives, and acts, but to regenerate our daily lives to conform to these spiritual facts. Mortal mind—the belief of a mind apart from God—would give itself identity in our consciousness by suggesting that we should be more interested in the problems of mortal existence than in the truth of being. Mortal mind is always face to face with its false gods: matter and material personality. We cannot, however, face in opposite directions—spiritual and material—at the same time.
If we admit that we or our fellow church members, business associates, or family are God's children—spiritual ideas expressing intelligence, integrity, harmony, strength, and completeness— yet at the same time identify them with the mortal traits of apathy, willfulness, sickness, loneliness, lack, we are turning in first one direction and then another. We are believing in dualism. The decision lies in whether we are going to see in ourselves and others the "Jacob" or the "Israel."
To correct the errors of thought and their consequences, we must face constantly in the right direction. This involves dealing with all ungodlike states of thought, whether they seem to be our own or another's, as mental misconceptions rather than realities. Every individual includes the God-given ability to see everything—body, communication, relationships, supply—in the light of strictly spiritual understanding, unlimited in harmony and goodness.
Every detail of daily life must be based on the premise that there are not two gods, two powers, good and evil. There are not two substances, Spirit and matter; not two minds, a divine and a mortal; not two creations, a spiritual and a material. There is only one God, infinite Spirit; and only one creation, entirely spiritual.
Our journey from sense to Soul need not be as burdened by personal ego and as protracted as Jacob's was. We have the example of Christ Jesus and the teachings of Christian Science to delineate the way.
However, the decision to turn away from the testimony of the senses and face in the right direction is one that we must make moment by moment. Only in this way do we discover the outpouring of divine blessings and benefits. Mrs. Eddy describes the challenge of the new, spiritual birth in this way: "Here you stand face to face with the laws of infinite Spirit, and behold for the first time the irresistible conflict between the flesh and Spirit. You stand before the awful detonations of Sinai. You hear and record the thunderings of the spiritual law of Life, as opposed to the material law of death; the spiritual law of Love, as opposed to the material sense of love; the law of omnipotent harmony and good, as opposed to any supposititious law of sin, sickness, or death." Miscellaneous Writings, pp. 16-17.
If we accept the belief of dualism at the top level, this concept filters down to a dualistic belief that we have to deal with both good and evil, Spirit and matter, as realities in daily affairs. Take body for example. In truth our identity is not made of flesh and bones but is completely spiritual. It is the manifestation of God, reflecting Godlike qualities such as harmony, health, strength, intelligent order, and the like. A diseased body—or any concept of a material body —is a misconception of our real being. Therefore unless we are progressively understanding and demonstrating more of harmony and perfection, we become confused about reality itself and fail to comprehend the substance of our real identity or the true meaning of harmony and perfection. A stiff knee, dim vision, overweight, an infected organ, a self-centered mentality, are false concepts of being. They must all be replaced with the perfect qualities that we reflect from God and that constitute our real identity. Inharmonious bodily conditions can be corrected by yielding wholeheartedly to the spiritual fact that harmony and purity constitute the present reality, regardless of the testimony of the material senses.
A young student of Christian Science and a practitioner were witnesses to a "Peniel" experience. Like Jacob, this woman seemed threatened with the suggestion of death. She was hemorrhaging badly and began to lose consciousness. Her family asked a Christian Science practitioner to come at once to her bedside.
That day the practitioner had pondered deeply the current Bible Lesson,In the Christian Science Quarterly. entitled "God the Preserver of Man," which included Jacob's experience at Peniel as well as Jesus' healing of Jairus's daughter.See Luke 8:41, 42, 49-55. As she sat beside the unconscious patient she realized that the same healing Christly elements were always present in individual consciousness. She saw that this dear woman in her true being was forever conscious of her eternal, harmonious identity face to face with God, and that this true being was a present reality. So the practitioner said aloud to her: "Remember the night when Jacob felt his very life was threatened and he turned unreservedly to God for help? He must have realized something new about God's presence, because he exclaimed, 'I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.' His life was safe and indestructible in God's allness." At this point, as though a light were dawning in her consciousness, the young woman began to whisper faintly, "My life is preserved. My life is preserved." She continued to repeat this statement softly at intervals for some time with no other comment.
Meanwhile the practitioner turned silently away from the outward picture and endeavored to see God face to face; also to see this individual's life reflected and protected in the divine allness— totally unaffected by material conditions. Soon the patient's natural color began to return, and she recognized the practitioner. Together they rejoiced that they both felt a warm sense of the presence of the Christ. They felt baptized in the very essence of Love. The next day the young woman was up and about, caring for her family of four as usual. She was healed.
The light of Christ, Truth, that enlightened Jacob's consciousness at Peniel is still shining, blessing and healing mankind as it purifies our lives and makes apparent in us every Godlike quality. Each of us has the God-given ability to eliminate the dualism of believing we are mortals involved with matter and evil.
We have divine authority for the assurance that the Christ in our consciousness never stops taking us forward to freedom and harmony, to the full glory of Peniel—God and man face to face.
