To be always resigned to the will of God, is one of the most beautiful traits of the Christian character. It means infinitely more than can be comprehended by the one who has not learned this needful and all-important lesson. How little do mortals realize of the joy and peace that fills the heart of one who can look up with the eye of faith and calmly say, Thy will be done." Less still, perhaps, do they know of the many experiences that were necessary to teach this faith and trust in God. The countless struggles, prayers, tears, and sacrifices are known only to the one who has surrendered the human will to the divine.
Uninstructed by Christian Science, mortals entertain a false sense of what it is to be resigned to the will of God. Sickness and death, the discords and calamities of earth, are frequently regarded as "dispensations of Providence," and to be resigned to the will of God means, in part at least, to believe that these evils are from Him; that He permits them and wills that they should be, even if He does not send them directly; His purpose being to humble mortals and draw them nearer to Himself.
Strangely enough, mortals try to believe that whatever of discord and suffering they are unable to prevent, is in accordance with the will of God. Incurable diseases, unforeseen calamities, and death are submitted to as manifestations of the divine will. But if they are in any way able to remedy discord, heal disease, or prevent death, they at once proceed to do so, never stopping to think that possibly these threatened evils may be dispensations of Providence. Now if the evils that mortals know how to prevent are not the will of God, and the Christian feels justified in doing all in his power to forestall them, why conclude that the evils which mortals do not know how to escape are in accordance with His will? Would it not be more rational to think that all evils might be overcome, if mortals only knew how? This view would inspire a desire to know, and cause man to seek diligently for the understanding that would prove an effectual remedy for every earthly woe.
