The herald., 1921-01-20

not merely 10 De "OISulppeu, DuL ii
God to be loved and lived and under
stood.
The True God.
Since time and mortal man began,
men have tried to know God material
ly, to worship Him materially, and to
attribute to Him all material phe-
yet Jesus words are true:
God is Spirit, and they that worship /
Him must worship Him in Spirit and .
Truth" The human mind has always |
turned to a power outside itself in |
times of stress, thereby aCknowledg- |
ing its own insufficiency, but its gods |
have been merely human concepts and |
have taken material form and nature. !
Yet even idolaters bowling down to
images conceive them to be representa-
tives of a power not material. The
false gods of mOrtals are just false be-
liefs about Deity, they are the eX-
ternalized ideals of the human mind.
Christian Science teaches, as most
religious beliefs agree, and as reason
confirms. that there must be a prim
arfy cause for all things that exist,
and that this great first Cause is the
Creator, or God. Then plainly God
is not an object. All objects are eff.
fects, not cause. Therefore God can
not properly be wOrshipped as an OBJ
piect. The infinite Creator could not
be a creation, the first Cause could not
be a thing. Hence God could not be
a form, however large. For the same
reason God could not be a person in
any limited sense of form or outline.
If popular theology conceive God to be
a person in the sense. of former out
line, it abandOns the hought that God
is Omnipresent, for it is impossible to
conceive of a form as Omnipresent.
Nevertheless God is infinite presence
and power equally and instantly
everywhere. God can then be cOnsid-
cred as person in the sense of infinite
Person only, the one Being or Cause.
Cause in its widest sense is Principle.
Mrs Eddy discerned that everything
that really exists has a Cause or Prin'
ciple. This Principle produces and
controls the object. this Principle gives
TO its object both function and identity.
it is to be found always in the pres
enCe of its object and is inseparable
from it, The wonder of Christian
Science is that as one grasps the fact
that God is divine Principle, one loses
the false belief that He is an object,
vet gains the sense of His nearness.
His everpresence. AS it becomes clear
er that God is God at hand. one can
reach out and utilize His power. Be
cause He is Principle. God becomes
available for ones needs, hence the
ability of Christian Scientists to dem
onstrate God.
Divine Duty of God and Man.
Mrs. Eddy's employment of the word
Principle for Deity aroused inevitable
dissent from those whose thought in
| cluded only a finite concept of Princi-
pie as one of a number of material
| laws and forces, secondary and de-
! rived. yet she boldly proclaimed God
to be Principle. She recognized Cause
without effect to be impossible, and
so she concluded that God without His
| creation, man and the universe, would
| be impossible. Therefore a fully de-
scriptive term for Deity must convey
also the thought of Gods handiwork.
Principle, as it is used by Mrs. Eddy,
| includes both Cause and effect, both
God and man.
Very early In the chapter Recapitu-
Iation, in the Christian Science text.
book, Science and Health with Key to
the Scriptures, page 465, Mrs. Eddy
has asked and answered a question
which fully expresses the basis of true
science, theology, and medicine. The
| TC
one Mind or Principle?" The answer
follows, There is not. Principle and
its idea is one, and this one is God
omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent
Being, and His reflection is man and
the universe" If God is omnipotent
if He possesses all power. He must
be that power itself, otherwise there
would be a source outside Himself
from which to derive His power. Pau
says: There is no power but of God.
(Rom. 1919 II God is omnipresent
and He must be everywhere, for He
is the infinite One, then He must be
the eternal presence Where shall
fee from thy presence" cried the
Psalmist If God is omniscient, if He
knows all, He must Himself be the in
finite Mind. Job declared: He is in
one mind Job 23:13.) God is thus the
one Being or Principle, who is The only
power, the only presence, and the only
Mind.
Mrs. Eddy's exposition Of God to be
Principle brings to the student the
recognition of God and man insepara
BILE, and the unity of God and man be
comes to him a vivid reality. Ht
realizes why Christ Jesus so boldly as
serted: IL and my Father are one,
one as Father and Son, one as Cause
and effect, one as Mind and idea. Fail
ing to comprehend Mrs. Eddy's use o.
the word Principle, some crstics nigh
at this point cry: ''Ah, Mrs. Eddy is
Pantheist.' Let us see! Pantheism
simply stated, is the teaching that Coo
, is quantitatively His creation, tina
God and creation are synonyms. tina
God is everything, and everything Il
God" II is to be admitted that man!
religious beliefs, some under the ban
, ner of Christianity, do so defy things
; and even man, for do not some teacl
| that Jesus the man was God? Doe
, Christian Science properly come with
: in such category? Emphatically, nc
: Christian Science alone of all the dc
: nominations, teaches the oneness, plu
| az God and man