ON page 490 of her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mrs. Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, has written: "Human will is an animal propensity, not a faculty of Soul. Hence it cannot govern man aright. Christian Science reveals Truth and Love as the motive-powers of man. Will—blind, stubborn, and headlong—cooperates with appetite and passion. From this cooperation arises its evil. From this also comes its powerlessness, since all power belongs to God, good."
The so-called human will not infrequently presents to the Christian Science student a problem engendered by our apparently dual nature. Man, as the idea of God, has no mind or will apart from his creator. In the supposititious material realm in which mortals appear to dwell, however, one finds himself imbued with a fixed belief in personal sense, accompanied by its attendant responsibilities. This is the false state of consciousness in which appears the belief in human will-power.
Mortal mind, so called, never originated anything. How, then, can there be such a thing as human will? All power belongs to God, and the possibility of there being any other real power is unthinkable. Some contend that a knowledge of divine Truth is unobtainable; that faith in God alone is necessary and is what one should strive for. Faith, without doubt, is indispensable to the attainment of knowledge; but faith alone, however earnestly we present our petitions, will bring us little if any return. We must understand our real nature as children of God, and by His grace and loving-kindness claim that which is freely being given of God. The creator has done all, and made all perfect. Our part in bringing to light our true at-one-ment with the Father is requisite, and consists of ceaseless endeavor to overcome through spiritual understanding the mesmeric sense of any life or intelligence separate from God.
