TO those who may be tempted to feel that God, good, is far removed from their daily experience,—that God is afar off,—what could give greater confidence than the words from Psalms which declare our inseparability from God? "Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me." Furthermore, there is the blessed assurance that when God is understood to be near, sin, disease, and death are seen to be afar off. We make this deduction for the simple reason that we cannot think of good and of evil at the same moment. When one thinks a good thought, the evil thought, which before perchance held the attention, immediately disappears. As long as the individual persists in his Godlike thinking, evil thoughts will be held at bay, until it becomes natural to regard good only. In "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 318) Mrs. Eddy tells us: "This natural affection for goodness must go on ad libitum unto the third and fourth and final generation of those who love God and keep His commandments."
It is universally conceded that God knows all things rightly and acts rightly eternally. When through the study of Christian Science mortals perceive man's inseparability from God, they find that they can hold these eternally right thoughts which originate in the Mind that is God. This is the only way that one can understand God: He can be known to man only through the ideas which express Him. God is not manifested through the five material senses. Indeed, these must keep silence before Him. And it is during this silence that we express the activity which is governed by the law of God. This real activity never takes a vacation, never wavers, and is always doing good. He who expresses this divine activity serves his neighbor as Christ Jesus did, by seeing the allness of good and the nothingness of error.
We do well to take notice whether thought comes from God, the source of all reality, or from dreamland, the seeming abode of mortal, unreal thoughts. One's health and harmony are measured by his discrimination in this respect. Divine thoughts are the only things that we possess in the realm of Spirit. When one awakens from the dream of materiality and heeds the admonition of Paul to think on the things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good report, he forsakes the beliefs of accident, sin, disease, and death, knowing that good can never produce its opposite. Godlike thoughts produce Godlike men. To perceive man's unity with God is, then, essential in Christian Science. If the "Safety First" and "Watch Your Step" so familiar to all, could be translated in every heart by the understanding of the truth that God, good, and man are inseparable, the thought would be watched and the step would be governed by Truth. This would mean true protection.
