THE answer which Jesus gave to the scribe who asked him, "Which is the first commandment of all," was, "The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord." There is one God; and Christian Science is declaring the fact to the whole world. To declare the truth that there is one God and stop there might not, however, be doing much for humanity; but Christian Science goes much farther, teaching the true nature of God, revealing the essentials of His being and His attributes.
On pages 465 and 587 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mrs. Eddy defines God, the definition given on page 587 reading as follows: "God. The great I am; the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-acting, all-wise, all-loving, and eternal; Principle; Mind; Soul; Spirit; Life; Truth; Love; all substance; intelligence." It would be difficult to define the Supreme Being more comprehensively than that, for the definition embraces much of what prophet and apostle and the great Master himself have revealed God to be, and it includes the further revelation which came through Mrs. Eddy.
Now our Leader in perceiving God as Mind, and in making known her discovery, has bestowed a great gift on mankind. Mind! The moment one thinks of God as Mind, what happens? One begins to sense the nature of the true or real creation— God's creation. And what is the nature of the real creation? It is spiritual, and consists of ideas. God is infinite Mind, and His creation consists of an infinite number of spiritual ideas. What is particularly significant is that God, Mind,—"the all-knowing,"—is ever cognizant of His creation, of each and all of His ideas. God does not think after the manner of men: He knows. God does not reason after the manner of men: He knows. Human reasoning includes a logical process of thinking, and is a human method of arriving at conclusions. Mrs. Eddy says of "reason," accurately and succinctly (Science and Health, p. 327), that it "is the most active human faculty." But God, perfect Mind, does not reason: God knows. If God reasoned after the manner of men it would indicate limitation in the divine nature; but God is unlimited in the knowing of His ideas; and God and His ideas are all that really exist. In a very significant passage on page 519 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy writes, "Nothing can be novel to eternal Mind, the author of all things, who from all eternity knoweth His own ideas."
