Independent Christian Science articles

God’s Plan

From the September 1934 issue of the Christian Science Journal by

“Come now! Do you not understand,
have you not heard,
that the Eternal is an everlasting God,
the maker of the world from end to end?
He never faints, never is weary,
his insight is unsearchable.”

The plan of changeless and immortal Mind must be unalterable and forever unfolded. It constitutes the eternal harmony of creation, in which all God’s ideas express unity, understanding, and coöperation. The continuity of the plan is insured by the ever-presence of Mind and its spiritual laws, maintaining the inseparability of creator and creation.

The plan of the creator is universal in its scope, beautiful in its beneficence, wholly successful in its application. From the infinitesimal to the infinite every manifestation of Life reflects the divine energy which forever expresses the condition of heavenly harmony. Since God’s outlining is expressed through the action of His laws, it cannot be circumvented or prevented. The divine plan is accomplished continuously and universally. God’s plan is all that is occurring, because the action of divine law is the infinite fact.

The plan of Principle has within it no element of chance or uncertainty. It operates with precision. It can be depended upon at all times and under all circumstances to be supreme. One becomes aware of its presence and activity through reason and revelation, never through fear, superstition, or blind faith. God’s plan is experienced by men in the demonstration of divine Science in proportion as the human understands and yields to the divine at every point.

Life’s plan for its universe cannot be a temporary one, merely a future provision of good, an emergency plan, or an experimental plan. Neither is it an incomplete plan, or one made to cope with error of any sort. Founded upon Truth, it shows forth noumenon and phenomena, Spirit and its reflection, and is abreast of eternity. Because it is the plan of impartial justice it does not provide for ideas collectively at the expense of the individual idea, nor vice versa. Herein is no obliteration of the lesser for the greater, no method of absorption, isolation, emasculation, or destruction. Rather are there unfolded the impartial blessings of God throughout eternity, which Mrs. Eddy in “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” (p. 599) defines as “God’s measurement of Soul-filled years.”

In Life’s plan, God’s law regulates the quality, quantity, and availability of all sustenance for creation. It also governs their use so that there can be no hoarding or lack, no wasted substance, and no unfair distribution. The business of Life always operates through divine modes with undepleted resources. Because Life is Love it cares for its own ideas tenderly and with infinite wisdom.

The plan of God is the plan of the one Father-Mother for the beloved offspring. It is replete with opportunity, progress, and freedom. Obedient to this plan man has no necessity for planning a path for himself, for God’s law holds him in the unbroken rhythm of harmonious being. Knowing this, our Master said: “I can of mine own self do nothing;” “I do always those things that please him.”

Divine Love alone outlines the eternal plan. It is evident, then, that neither mortal mind, matter, luck, ancestors, nor planets can plan or govern the real man’s experience. Medical beliefs cannot outline for him a short life, nor false theology a waiting hell. False psychology cannot plan for him a classified existence of materialism, nor mortal birth put upon him years of pain and toil. Material circumstances and environments do not circumscribe his path of life; flesh and blood do not outline his being nor define his ability. Neither mythical saints nor demons direct the current of his life. Human warfare cannot execute destruction for him, because man is tributary to divine Mind alone, and God’s plan keeps man in the way of eternal Life.

Our Leader writes in “Pulpit and Press” (p. 4), “Who lives in good, lives also in God, — lives in all Life, through all space.” All the action of God’s plan occurs in man. Thereby he is akin to infinity, eternity, heaven. God’s outlining does not take man through matter to Spirit, through evil to good, through limitation to freedom, through birth to being, through hell to heaven, but holds him forever in the allness of divinity. He moves throughout eternity as close to God as thought is to Mind. God’s purpose makes man familiar with immensity, coexistent with the universe, conversant with the center and circumference of Being. He embodies the laws of eternity and radiates the essence of immortality, for man is Godlike.

God’s divine plan is unfolded through absolute spiritual creation, yet it is a plan of salvation immediately available for mankind. God’s plan is established in the eternal present, and therefore should receive immediate recognition and acceptance. It bestows its blessings today. Reality is all that surrounds humanity, and as reality is discerned and obeyed it becomes the deliverer of men from every false belief. God’s ways are higher than our ways. Therefore we need to pray to see the way defined for man by divine Love and to learn to walk therein.

Moses, who led the Israelites out of bondage, prayed and listened always for God’s plan. As this was revealed to him, and as he obeyed it implicitly, he was successful in delivering a nation from abject depression and submission to evil into greater dominion and freedom. The leadership divinely demanded of Moses required constant communion with God, conquest of a personal sense of limitation, courage to attack the claims of error and to persist to their destruction. It required the unifying of the people, the lifting of their ideals, and a perfect carrying out of the divine plan. This plan dealt successfully with the need for courage, for food and clothing, the forming of laws with which to meet altered conditions, an entire reconstruction of the nation’s character, work, resources, and relationship to other peoples. Through forty years of national transition the plan of God, as discerned and administered by Moses, led, provided, guarded, and prospered the Israelites as they yielded to it.

In Numbers it is said of Moses that he “was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.” Yet his experience is certainly one of outstanding individual progress and successful leadership. No one can fail to realize that this accomplishment was due to his obedience to the plan of God. Even in his last admonitions to the children of Israel he besought the nation to hearken to God’s statutes and to obey them. By so doing, he declared, they might live and possess the land which God had given to them.

In this age God has unfolded His plan of divine Science to another meek and obedient servant, our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, and she has written it down for all mankind. She has given God’s plan to men in her writings explanatory of the Bible. We need only to understand and obey this plan in order to reach our promised land of freedom from material bondage. God’s way is as efficacious now as it was of old.

It is possible for everyone today, whether he be set in authority or among the ranks of the governed, when material sense is shut out, to commune with God through true spiritual understanding in silent prayer. In such communion God reveals His plan to human thought and enables men to obey it. This delivers them from becoming the victims of experimental human plans. Our Leader writes on page 283 of “The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany”: “Right thoughts and deeds are the sovereign remedies for all earth’s woe;” and, “Individuals, as nations, unite harmoniously on the basis of justice, and this is accomplished when self is lost in Love — or God’s own plan of salvation.”

The way for men to come into obedience to God’s purpose and to reap its blessings is summed up in the terms which were given to Moses on the mount of revelation, reiterated and demonstrated by Christ Jesus, and scientifically explained by Mrs. Eddy, namely, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me,” and “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” This approach to God’s plan is feasible for all people and nations. It has in it no harmful element. It is the only solution of our world affairs.

Of God’s plan and its scope for human salvation we read in Science and Health (p. 340): “The divine Principle of the First Commandment bases the Science of being, by which man demonstrates health, holiness, and life eternal. One infinite God, good, unifies men and nations; constitutes the brotherhood of man; ends wars; fulfils the Scripture, ‘Love thy neighbor as thyself;’ annihilates pagan and Christian idolatry,—whatever is wrong in social, civil, criminal, political, and religious codes; equalizes the sexes; annuls the curse on man, and leaves nothing that can sin, suffer, be punished or destroyed.” Could any human plan accomplish this?

From Zone to Zone

by

God’s universe is the infinite, spiritual reflection of divine substance and Life. Throughout the length, breadth, depth, and height of the universe, God’s laws of harmony are in continuous operation. Divine Science governs this measureless realm, which is filled with divine ideas which are obedient to the Mind that made them.

Spiritual facts, when understood and accepted, affect world affairs as naturally as they affect individual situations. As humanity progresses out of the chaos of material beliefs, inspired thought becomes aware of the unchanging divine order, and eagerly reaches out for greater spiritual perception to behold the glorious reality of things.

At no time, and in no place, can there occur a break in the divine control. God cannot for an instant be separated from His creation, and His laws are established for eternity. Their every activity is preserved, without opposition, resistance, or delay. The majesty of spiritual law forever pursues its glorious way. The universe expresses the glory of God, radiant, eternal reality. All identities which comprise the universe exist in unity, because each idea is tributary directly to divine Mind.

In contrast with the unified immensity and stability of everlasting perfection, the belief in a power apart from God is like a grain of sand on a tidal shore. Mistaken human sense, having no conception of infinity or perfection, believes that the universe is material, and divided into both discordant and harmonious parts. It believes in subdivisions of the earth named zones, and then attributes to these zones certain conditions of good and evil. The frigid zones are believed to be regions where storms originate, which spread disaster. The torrid zone is believed to be an expanse where fevers and pestilences breed. Other divisions are labeled earthquake zones, hurricane zones, and so on.

God’s law controls all time and space, all cause and effect, all power and life. There can be no such thing as a territory where evil is in control, where God’s law has ceased to function. There is no place deserted by God, or forbidden to God. There is no opportunity for error to start, accumulate, or dominate. The assumption that there is a moment when God is not supreme, is a mortal illusion.

David knew the falsity of error’s claim to possess, and govern, a zone of existence anywhere. In declaring the limitless presence of God, good, he wrote: “Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from Thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there: If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me.”

God’s omnipotence rules out the possibility of a danger zone anywhere in creation. Man never passes through evil’s realm, or exists for a moment within it, for evil, being unreal, possesses no domain. All ideas of the Creator live and disport themselves in perfect safety throughout the endless realm of Mind. They know no fear, no peril. They know that they can never go beyond Love’s care. With these spiritual facts, Christian Science strips error of its claim of zones which would annul God’s law of harmony, restrict the action of man, and menace the universal peace. There is no place for evil in the immeasurable goodness of God, no place for pestilence, no chance for discord, sin, or death.

The true idea of one infinite God, good, storms the citadels of paganism, and compels the collapse of belief in other gods. Before Truth’s flaming light, the flimsy structures of mysticism, superstition, imagination, and imposition fade into obscurity. The Christ ends their mesmerism and abolishes their slavery. It is an active Savior at hand for all mankind.

The Christ is the message, and evidence, to all men of infinite Love’s ever-presence, and all-embracing power. It brings man to the height of Love, reaching beyond the heavens, over the winds, above the stars. Up and up, as far as thought can go, Love is still the Most High. Nothing can pass the borders of its care, nor lose the law of its enfoldment.

The Christ reveals the depth of Love. Deeper than human reasoning can go, beyond the line of exploration, far below the soundings and diggings of human research, at the very center of the universe, is Love.

God, the creator of all, is at peace, and His universe is thriving in that peace. Throughout the realm of reality there is no danger zone, no war zone; there is no area where evil abides, or operates; there is no barren shore, no waste place, no treacherous depth, no uninhabited space, no prison wall, no fearsome power, no enemy land. Then let us know no fear. Let us walk on our way in safety, and win the victory over any belief in a power apart from God. In Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy says: “The depth, breadth, height, might, majesty, and glory of infinite Love fill all space. That is enough!”

God’s Elect

by

Humanity is looking for a savior. People everywhere have problems which appear unsolvable, and they are searching for something to help them solve these problems. There is a need to find a safe way to conduct business, the economy, and government. We are standing at the threshold of an era of tremendous conflict of thought. Unknown paths lie ahead. A power greater than human wisdom is needed to cope with the elements which would obstruct the progress of the human race.

Throughout the world, men and women are elected to manage the affairs of their communities. People hope these officials will be able to save them from trouble and disaster. Sometimes they do. More often, there’s confusion, helplessness, or wrongdoing. People find it difficult to get along and work together. However, the world’s progress depends upon group action.

In the last few years, leaders of many countries have tried to fulfill the hopes placed in them. Yet, in spite of these sincere efforts, the need of humanity for deliverance from the belief of evil was never greater. Those who put their trust in people or material methods, no matter how good they may seem to be, will eventually be forced to put their trust in God. There’s one universal Savior able to meet all the world’s needs. It’s the Christ, “the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.”

Science and Health defines Christ as “the true idea voicing good, the divine message from God to men speaking to the human consciousness.” This holy power can’t be barred from any gathering, nor eliminated from any situation. The Christ is everywhere.

We must recognize that the power of the Christ is at work, right where people are struggling with problems. We must know that the Christ, Truth, can control everything. God’s message to men declares the supremacy of good. The Christ doesn’t need time to accomplish its mission of salvation.

Jesus lived the Christ. When a need appeared, this divine power healed the sick and fed hungering thousands. The Christ is active everywhere. There’s no secret meeting place where its influence is not present. If men conspire to make war, the Christ is there, a commanding influence, before which this sinful belief loses its false aspect of glory, and vanishes. Where groups are working to overthrow the God’s Elect foundations of Christian civilization, in their very midst is the ever-presence of the Christ. Where mortals plot criminal offenses, the Christ is present, compelling evil beliefs to fail and depart from human consciousness. To the Christ, evil has neither place nor power, and the will of God is being done. The government of the nations rests upon the shoulder of the ever-present Christ.

Christ, the divine Comforter, is banishing the false sense of sin, disease, death, and destruction from men’s lives, and is revealing man as the son of God. Mrs. Eddy has written of God’s elect: “Christ, God’s idea, will eventually rule all nations and peoples — imperatively, absolutely, finally — with divine Science.” (S&H)

Love is the liberator.