CHRISTIAN SCIENTISTS are not in any doubt as to the nature of the God whom they worship. They understand Him to be omnipotent Mind or Spirit, infinite Truth, infinite Love. Thus, while they know God to be possessed of infinite power, they also know that He exercises this power with infinite tenderness. "Tenderness accompanies all the might imparted by Spirit," writes Mrs. Eddy on page 514 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," words which are in accord with those of Zephaniah, "The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing."
The knowledge that God is omnipotent Love destroys the lie that He is vindictive, afflictive, cruel. The Christian Scientist never thinks of God as knowing evil or as acting evilly. What a relief it is not to think of the Almighty as punishing, as having made laws of punishment! Instead, he is aware that sin—evil thinking and evil doing—inevitably brings upon the evil thinker and evil doer its own punishment; and, further, that when the sinner repents of sin, ceases to think and act evilly and thinks and acts in a righteous manner, punishment should cease, even to the disappearance of the seeming consequences of the sin.
How many to-day are, in belief, suffering from the sins of the past, sins perhaps committed in ignorance! What they require is an understanding of the might and tenderness of God, the knowledge that in His infinite love He wills only good for man. This implies that His might is ever available for the regeneration, the salvation, of men, who have but to turn from sin, with its afflictive consequences, for punishment to cease, since by doing so they are once more subject to the law of good. Mortals must free themselves from false beliefs about God. They must understand Him as He is, the infinitely tender and mighty One, in order to escape the bondage of ignorance and sin.
