UNFAILING control is an objective which mankind forever seeks and forever fails to attain through human means and methods. Whether it is the control of oneself and one's personal affairs that is sought, the control of a business, a motor car, a ship, or an airplane, the control of a municipality, a state, a nation, or a group of nations, some combination of circumstances often arises which places the situation beyond control. In this machine age the repair man is as essential as the manufacturer, and the human agency fails quite as often as the machine itself. Mankind has long dreamed of Utopia but has been unable to bring it into human experience, though it has sought out many expedients.
Against this belief of uncertainty and frustration Mary Baker Eddy, following in the footsteps of Christ Jesus, projected this challenge (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 171): "Mind's control over the universe, including man, is no longer an open question, but is demonstrable Science." What a vast opportunity is presented in these few words! "Mind's control" is "demonstrable Science." It must be understood that Mrs. Eddy uses "Mind" as one of the synonyms of God, and that it is God's control over the universe and man which alone can be demonstrated. Thus Mrs. Eddy brings God into the human understanding as the one creative cause and the guiding, directing, controlling law which governs man and the universe.
There is nothing within the range of the material senses which confirms or supports this statement. But if one will read the New Testament with an open mind, he will be confronted with numerous instances in which Jesus and the apostles demonstrated the effective power of this infinite spiritual law over seemingly insuperable material conditions as did the Old Testament prophets. The thought of God as the source of true law may at first seem unacceptable to one who has envisaged God as a magnified human personality, or whose thinking on the subject is uninformed. But if one accepts the premise of Genesis that God created all that was made and that there is no other God beside Him, it is clear that God is All-in-all; that all that really is, manifests Him, for He is law to His own infinite, all-inclusive self-expression, man and the universe.
