God Is

THE fundamental basis of divine healing is the recognition of the fact that God is. It was undoubtedly the comprehension of this eternal verity that led to the discovery and founding of Christian Science by Mary Baker Eddy; and it is only by the realization of the omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience of God that the study and practice of this Science results in permanent healing. In the practical application of the teachings of Christian Science, it is this thought more than any other that enables even the so-called “unlearned” to be readily healed, and to be instrumental in healing others. What freedom comes to the sick or suffering when it is comprehended that God is present, never absent! Do we realize this, and think of it often enough?

Ever since mankind has given expression to thought, probably no subject has received more consideration than the question, Who, or where, or what is God? It was the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science who gave to the world in this age the most satisfying and demonstrable answer. In her textbook, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” (p. 465), Mrs. Eddy answers the question, What is God? as follows: “God is incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love.”

All through Bible history there is a continued evidence that the more spiritually-minded were conscious of the presence and power of the one God, who could guide and protect them at all times.

In all of his teaching and by his demonstrations of healing, Christ Jesus taught and manifested the allness, the omnipresence, of his heavenly Father. How often did he assert that he could do nothing of himself! To his disciples he said, “The Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works;” and to the Pharisees he declared, “Before Abraham was, I am.” Material agencies of every sort must finally give way to the understanding of the presence of the I AM. It was not until Moses gained some understanding of the I AM that he was able to deliver his brethren from bondage, and to lay the foundation for the coming of the Messiah.

Beginning with the assertion in the first chapter of Genesis that man is the image and likeness of God, religious thought and teaching have held firmly to the idea that in some way or other all are God’s children; but it remained for Mrs. Eddy to show most clearly what that image was; and in order to make this plain, she first gave to the students of Christian Science a clear definition of Deity. Paul, who wrote to the Corinthians, “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” understood much of the unity of God and His idea. The moment we accept the postulate that man is the image and likeness of God, in accordance with the teachings of the Bible and of Christian Science, we must also accept the corresponding conclusion that as God is, so must His reflection be.

God is good, and can therefore never be evil or know of evil. Hence humanity can and should rejoice in the knowledge that His likeness and image, man, can know no evil; that the real man is exempt from sickness, suffering, and sin; and that with Paul we can realize that “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”

An old and familiar illustration, but always good, is the story of the shipwrecked sailors on the Amazon. This river is so wide at its mouth that far beyond sight of land its water is fresh enough to drink. Some shipwrecked sailors who had been suffering for days from want of water to drink, supposing they were still on salt water, sighted a vessel in the distance and signaled for help. As the rescuing boat neared them, they made frantic gestures to show that they were thirsty. “Dip up the water beside you; it is fresh,” came back the shout. For days these poor sufferers had been floating on fresh water, unconscious of its sweetness. So it is with suffering humanity. Sick, sorrowing, or sinning humanity knows not that all around is the broad expanse of God’s love, and that all that is necessary to find relief is to reach out and take that which is always present—at hand—ever the same infinite divine Love, good, the upholding and sustaining God. On page 339 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy states: “Since God is All, there is no room for His unlikeness. God, Spirit, alone created all, and called it good. Therefore evil, being contrary to good, is unreal, and cannot be the product of God.”

It is of great practical value to mankind to recognize that God is, because the fact carries with it the thought that man also is. A student of Christian Science who for over a period of years had been very faithful and persistent in his study, and who as a result had experienced many remarkable healings, had failed to get rid of a claim of partial deafness. One day these two words, “God is,” took possession of his consciousness so forcibly that it resulted in a definite healing. Although improvement had been constant, he discovered that without realizing it he had been mentally circumscribing God with time. When the thought that God is—not has been or is going to be—present in healing power, dawned on this student, the demonstration was made immediately. Is it not often the case that we are to human sense a long time getting ready, or being prepared by certain experiences, to be healed? It then remains for us to awaken to the great fact that God is.

Many individuals at their first visit to a Christian Science practitioner are so awakened, as was Paul when on his way to Damascus, by the overwhelming power and presence of the Christ, or Truth, that they realize instantaneous benefit or complete relief from long bondage to some false belief. In the case of Christ Jesus, his consciousness of the divine presence was so great that to human sense the mere touching of the hem of his garment appeared to bring instant healing to another; for, as Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health (pp. 476, 477), “Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God’s own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick.” As Moses, conscious that he had met, face to face, the great I AM, was able to lead God’s people to the promised land, so Christ Jesus, declaring that he and his divine Father were one, demonstrated the Science which Mrs. Eddy was afterwards to present to mankind so understandingly that Christian Scientists throughout the entire world have been able successfully to follow the command of the Master to heal the sick and relieve the suffering—to do the works he commanded his followers to do.