Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1917-09-18

Scriptures to believe and to have
faith, but we have accepted these
words in the sense of their most
shallow meaning, and have thought
that all that was required Of us was
to tacitly believe and we should re-
.ceive all that Christianity has to Of
fer.
The Greek words for believe and
faith are from the same Greek root,
a word which means conviction of
truth And to be convinced of
truth means to know. to understand
truth. Our dictionaries give this
deeper meaning as the one to be used
in a religious sense, but our every
day use of the word believe in the
sense of giving credence to, and Of
the word faith in something of the
same sense as the word hope, tends
to obscure the larger meaning Of the
words.
Paul in the eleventh chapter of his
epistle to the Hebrews, after detin-
ing faith as "the evidence OF things
not SEEM" gives an example of how
the word is to be used when he says,
Through faith we understand that
the worlds were framed by the word
of God" Now it would manifestly
be impossible for us to perceive "that
the worlds were framed by the word
of Cod through anything less than
spiritual understanding.
In the third chapter of Acts, Pc
ter, in his sermon on the healing of
the lame man, describes his method
by saying, "And his Christ JesusD
name through faith in his name
hath made this man whole" Here
the statement, is made that healing
came about through faith, spiritual
understanding of the name of Jesus,
the Christ, and the word name as
r. f. f.
used in the Scritures had deeper
significance than it has in our mod
ern times. The idea of a name in
the Hebrew language and the He
brew mind was not merely that of a
sound by which an object might be
designated, but that of significant
term which should really indicate
its quality or nature; SO that Peters
statement meant that the nantes
tation of Jesus nature, the Christ,
or Gods perfect man, which he had
revealed to them, and which they
understand, had made this man
whole. The Master said in his pray
er to his Father, II have manifested
thy name unto the men which thou
gayest me out of the world; and
what did the Master do but to man
ifest Gods nature to the men that
God had given him out of the
world? Again and again it is point
ed out In the New Testament that
faith in his name, that is under
standing of his nature, is what heals
and saves on every instance.
Christian Science is giving us this
enlarged understanding of the nature
of God, which is essential If we are
to appropriate in greater and great
er measure the infinite blessings
which infinite Love has in store for
us.
In undertaking to know some
thing of the nature of God, we are
all agreed in admitting that God is
omnipotent, omnipresent, and ON
niscient; that is, all-powerful, ever
present, and all knowing. We are all
agreed in admitting His infinite per-
lection and presence and power; yet
after making these statements the
religious thought of the world quite
generally contradicts them by adj
hitting that sickness and other
forms of imperfection are either
sent of God or permitted by Him, as
though divine Mind had any imper-
lection to send or could permit it
without becoming responsible for it.
The Bible speaks of God as Spir-
it, as Life, as Truth, and as Love.
1t also speaks of Him as the creator,
that from which all proceeds. This
thought is expressed in Christian
Science by the use of the word Prin-
ciple for God, since Principle is that
from which all proceeds, and by
which all proceeds and by which it
exists.
Mrs. Eddy has also given us the
term Father Mother, by which there
is brought to consciousness the COM
pleteness of the creator, the mother
hood as we'll as the fatherhood OF
God, and also larger thought OF
God as Love. When we think of God
tho I,othor our tho,,pht IF Him is