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.
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