THE idea of God entertained by most people before they find the light in Christian Science, is either entirely vague or an indefinable concept of a magnified man, with the attributes of so-called mortal mind.
On page 465 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mrs. Eddy gives seven synonyms for God, in answer to the question, "What is God?" One of these is "Principle." Divine Principle is the source of unchanging, unreversible, ever present, all-powerful law, which governs all reality, and is absolutely binding upon all that exists and comes under its authority.
The fundamentals of mathematics are expressed in the rules by which mathematical problems are solved. Mrs. Eddy writes in her textbook (p. 3): "Who would stand before a blackboard, and pray the principle of mathematics to solve the problem? The rule is already established, and it is our task to work out the solution. Shall we ask the divine Principle of all goodness to do His own work? His work is done, and we have only to avail ourselves of God's rule in order to receive His blessing, which enables us to work out our own salvation."
To solve a problem in mathematics, we must first learn the law or rule governing the problem. In an orderly way we work out the problem according to procedure prescribed by rule. Our solution will be correct if we follow the rule correctly, since it cannot vary in the slightest degree. If our result is incorrect, we must go back over our work and find the error; then we must proceed again from that point, applying the rule.
Since God is Principle, He is unchanging, ever present, omnipotent good. Our means of proving this is by expressing love, joy, peace, purity, humility, honesty, unselfishness —all the fruits of Spirit. We must continually hold these in our consciousness and endeavor to multiply them by constant use. We must subtract from our thinking irritation, resentment, worry, harshness, egotism, dishonesty, selfishness, impurity—all evil.
When there is manifested inharmony of any kind, such as ill health, lack, unhappiness, we need to go back over our mental working to see where we may have subtracted good from our thinking when we should have added it; or added ungodlike thoughts, when these should have been discarded, treated as minus quantities.
When we first come to Christian Science we may make some beautiful demonstrations, but after a while may seem to be unable to overcome some error. We should know that the trouble is not with Principle or its rule of operation. The student of Christian Science must go again and again to his textbooks, the Bible and our Leader's writings; he must study the synonyms for God and ponder His attributes, the understanding of which is his means of demonstration. He must see which qualities he has not yet made part of his consciousness, and which consequently are not manifesting themselves in his life. As he adds love to his thinking, hate will be subtracted from it. As he adds humility, egotism will be subtracted. As he adds joy, sorrow will be subtracted; and so on all the way along the list.
We must realize that when we have added any erroneous thinking to our mental stock we have positively added nothing to our knowledge of God or our concept of the real man, our true identity as God's image and likeness. Since God is All-in-all, the sole cause and creator of the universe, there can be nothing that does not proceed from Him. Since He is infinite good, all erroneous thinking and its result, wrong acting, must be a phase of nothingness.
Paul said, "Work out your own salvation." Christ Jesus showed us the way. In Science and Health (pp. 476, 477) we read: "Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick." In the place of the sickness of those who came to him to be healed, Jesus saw health, spirituality, perfection, which are all positive qualities. He thus subtracted sickness and sin, and their apparent manifestations, from his concept of man, thus putting into operation in the sufferer's behalf the established, unchanging, and all-powerful law of God, good. Jesus' declaration, "Thy faith hath made thee whole," was recognition of the recipient's response to divine Principle, with its resultant healing.
As recorded in the first chapter of Genesis, God, the only creator, pronounced all that He created good. We must, therefore, deny every evil, discordant quality or condition, because God, who made all, could make nothing unlike Himself. We must affirm only good, spiritual thoughts, which in turn will be manifested in harmonious living.
As we subtract from our thinking the false beliefs of personal sense, and turn joyously to putting into practice the law of goodness, of love, health, harmony, peace, we shall rejoice in the affluence of our Father-Mother God. A wonderful thing about this practice is that the more we divide—share—our love and joy, all the good things, the fruits of knowing and living in God, the more our store multiplies. This is beautifully expressed in a stanza of a hymn:
"True, the heart grows rich in giving;
All its wealth is living grain;
Seeds which mildew in the garner,
Scattered, fill with gold the plain."
