The Waterbury Democrat., 1933-12-04

could and did destroy them proved beyond question or room for req. sonabie doubt that God was moi their author.
 True, God made all that wal made; but the Bible tells us that God made 1t all ''very good" Are sin, disease, poverty, and death good? Did you ever hear anyone say he was glad to do wrong, to be sick, or to lack necessary food clothing, and shelter? If these and other phases of discord are good, we should be glad to have them with us always, even as we are glad to have any good and helpful friend with us always. But ask the slave of wr0ng-doing, and the bed- ridden invalid, and the person in desperate financial need whether they see any good in sin, sickness, and want, supposedly sent from God for some helpful, benevolent purpose and in which, according to such reasoning, they should be glad to remain.
 Is it not self evident that, if God were directly or indirectly ;responsi- ble for evil, if He were in any way associated with human suffering. the cries of mankind for relief would be useless, and that Chris tian Science, medicine, surgery, philanthropy, or any other method of treatment to which one might appeal for help, would be illegiti- mate? Do you not sec that none of us would even aspire to recover, to reform, or, to rise above dis couragement and failure, lest we should find ourselves fighting against God2 But, thanks to Mrs Eddy, we are learning that error, and not Truth, God, Is responsible for all the discord and suffering on earth, and Christian Science is showing us how to resist and over come error and it's chief agent, fear.
 RESISTING EVIL
 Several months ago, for exam pie, heard a commotion on the street behind me. Looking back wards, saw cat running in my direction, pursued by a dog. Pres ently, anohter dog appeared on the scene, cutting off retreat. Faced hy this dilemma, the cat started to cross the roadway at a point where two trolley cars, going in opposite directions, were about to pass each other. The predicament seemed to be a desperate one; but, instead of permitting itself to be rushed fearfully to almost certain destruc- ton under the car wheels, the cat turned suddenly, faced it's pursuers, and courageously stood its ground. Surprised by the unexpected change in events, the dogs came to an abrupt stop, parked loudly for a while, got into an argument over the prospective spells, and finally slunk away. leaving the cat un- harmed.
 Like the dogs chasing the fright ened cat, evil suggestion-whether it call itself fear, worry, sickness. unhappiness, unemployment, lack, Encouragement, failure, death-- will doggedly pursue and threaten to destroy us just so long as we be- lieve in, fear, and run away from it as if it were real. But evil is not good, hence not of God; conse- quently 1t must be unreal or un- true. It is therefore your divine right to turn upon and mentally and fearlessly resist your own and the worlds belief in the supposed reality of evil,-a belief which, ai- though universally submitted to as law, is not and never will be law. It is your divine right to resist this belief and be free. Knowing that evil-whethcr as pleasure, pain. or power-becomes impotent when, in the light of Gods all-pre- vading, ever-present love, its un- reality Is recognized and denounc- ed, the apostle wrote, Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."
 PRAYER IS GRATITUDE
 Accordingly. prayer as under- stood in Christian Science is not an appeal to the Giver of all good to do more than He has already done, nor to grant the special re- quest of a petitioner. Rather is it joyful recognition and humble, prayerful, child-like affirmation of the forever fact that God has al- ready done all things well; that where evil seems to be there is the presence, activity, and power of God, good. True prayer enables us to look through and beyond this mystified human sense of things into the rarefied atmosphere of spiritual reality, where we see things as they are, and not as they seem to be. In the words of Isaiah: For, behold, create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered. nor como into mnid. But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, cre- ate Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy" Who would not re- joice in the glad discovery, and continue to rejoice in the eternal fact, that good is infinite all? "And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, 1t was very good"
 This prayer of joy and gratitude, rebuking and rising above sense- testimony, demonstrates that men need not be out of health; happi- ness, home. friends, employment, money, nor anything else that is necessary and good, so long as they understand spiritually that man cannot be outside the realm of God, infinite good. nor be anything less than perfect. God has not made a poor man or a failure any more than He has made a sick man or a sinner. Therefore, if obeyed, the same divine Principle which Christian Scientists invoke daily in their own and others be- half to silence pain, heal a broken heart, or restore wasted tissue of the body, may be depended upon also to replenish 6 depleted purse. The Psalmist sang, "No good thing will be EGod1 withhold from them that walk uprightly." and Jesus said. eff ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you" There passages indi- cate that the fulfillment of Gods promises is inseparable from loving obedience to divine law, the law of ever-present good.
 OPPORTUNITY AND SUPPLY
 Surely, there is no more concord between Christianity and poverty than there is between Christianity and any other phase of discord and limitation, sin, disease, and death Included! Whatever seemed to be the human need of those who call