The question often arises, whether Christian Scientists really believe in an individual and controlling Deity, separate from the universe which is the reflection of His thoughts; whether their God is anything more than an impersonal Principle, with no power or will in itself; whether they do not believe with Zeno of Cyprus, who lived some 350 years before Christ, and founded the School Of Zenonians, or Stoics. According to a recent writer, Salem Wilder, in his valuable work on Life, page 50:—
Zeno contended that the vital force filled all things, and was ever ready, to burst into animated existence, whenever favorable conditions existed; and that this vital force controlled all things, but that it was an invisible Principle, and not a personal God. Thus, to worship this was simply an absurdity, which ignorant or illiterate men might indulge in without special harm.
These views of Zeno are not those of Christian Science. Christian Scientists believe in a God who is an intelligent, eternal, loving individuality, or personality. He is Mind; and all is Mind, because all realities emanate from Him, —are His ideas, the representation of His thought:—
