"THY gentleness hath made me great," sang David; and his saying might be rephrased, The knowledge of Thy gentleness hath made me great. It is somewhat surprising that these words should come from the stalwart warrior king. Perhaps David was mentally comparing the character of the only true God with the concept of cruel, vindictive deities tremblingly worshiped by savage nations.
Describing, as it does, an aspect of the divine nature which our Leader has summed up for us in one word when she defined God as "Soul,"—the Divine Being, who "in all their affliction . . . was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them,"—this saying has doubtless lived as a cherished refrain in the hearts of those who shrank from the sterner delineations of the Almighty. God, the Father-Mother, upon whose extended hand earth's weary and heavy-laden ones can confidingly lay hold, never requires His worshipers to offer sacrifices in order to placate Him, after the manner of the heathen to avert the anger of their gods, nor has the protection of His people ever been furthered by the suffering or destruction of others.
The gods of mortals have always been essentially lacking in gentleness, and their devotees have never been able to voice a joyful confidence concerning them. The eighteenth psalm gives an impression of God's impregnable strength, while clearly showing that the activities of man's divine deliverer are preservative, not destructive. An examination of the psalmist's experiences and writings, however, shows that they often illustrate "the central fact of the Bible," namely, "the superiority of spiritual over physical power;" and this is "the central point of Christian Science" (Science and Health, pp. 131, 454).
