ONE of the points of widest divergence between Christian Science and other Christian faiths is the method of accepting and applying the phrase "Thy will be done" of the Lord's Prayer. The more usual attitude is one of almost hopeless though half-rebellious resignation; the Christian Science attitude is one of expectant joy.
The early Christian church lost its knowledge of spiritual healing a few centuries after the crucifixion, but in the latter part of the nineteenth century Mrs. Eddy discovered the Science of this healing and founded the Christianly scientific method of dealing with sickness and sin which is called Christian Science. Through the centuries between these two events it was the universal belief, as it is the general belief of Christians today, that "Thy will be done" means we must be resigned to sickness because it is God's will that we should suffer in order that a better man may result from the affliction; that we must "put up" with sickness because it is an incident in the working out of the divine will; that they must be sick because God wills it; that they must be sinners because God orders things so that this is inevitable; that they must die because it is God's decree.
While holding this position, many Christians also accept the teaching that God is infinitely and eternally good, and is the only cause and creator, the only Father, and that He is Spirit. Mrs. Eddy reminds us that "Jesus came to destroy sin, sickness, and death," and she asks, "Is it possible, then, to believe that the evils which Jesus lived to destroy are real or the offspring of the divine will?" (Science and Health, p. 474).
