QUITE apart from Biblical history, one reads of men all down the ages who have gained glimpses of the truth that there is a Mind far above the human in wisdom, understanding, and power. For instance, the stoic philosopher, Epictetus, who lived in the first century, said: "Always that which happens is what I wish. For I hold what God wills above what I will, I cleave to Him as His servant and follower; my impulses are one with His, my pursuit is one with His,—in a word, my will is one with His." This is to have the Mind "which was also in Christ Jesus," that oneness with the Father which enabled him to fulfil the Messianic mission of which he read on that Sabbath day when, having come back to his native town, he stood up in the synagogue: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." It was because Jesus' followers heeded the counsel of Paul that for nearly three hundred years they did the works which are the proof of Christianity, —of them that believe. But from the end of the third century it would seem that an ever increasing power was conceded to the human mind or will, until in the nineteenth century the omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence of the divine Mind, the Mind that is God, had become well-nigh obscured to humanity.
Medical men, and even clergymen, have, however, so far lost sight of the power of divine Love, that they frequently say of one in bondage to some false appetite or sinful desire, "Nothing can be done for him unless he pulls himself together and exercises a little will-power." Time after time Jesus showed that God's will was and is the only will. He said, "The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise;" and again, "I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me." In these and numerous other sayings of our Master it is clear that in all things he subjected his will to that of God, and counted mortal-mindedness as nothing. Through Christian Science the power of the divine Mind Life, Truth, Love—has again been recognized, not only as a greater power than the human mind, which fact Epictetus and other philosophers dimly saw, but as the only power,—omnipotence. Whatever be the problem which presents itself, sin or suffering, the understanding of God's all-power will restore harmony.
Mrs. Eddy, who through divine inspiration was enabled to interpret the Bible in such a way that it is in fact an inspiration to all who read it in the light of her understanding, says that "will, as a quality of so-called mortal mind, is a wrong-doer." She also says: "Human will-power is not Science. Human will belongs to the so-called material senses, and its use is to be condemned. . . . Human will-power may infringe the rights of man. It produces evil continually, and is not a factor in the realism of being. Truth, and not corporeal will, is the divine power which says to disease, 'Peace, be still'" (Science and Health, pp.597,144).
