"The attributes of God are justice, mercy, wisdom, goodness, and so on." So states Mary Baker Eddy on page 465 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." On reading this, a new student of Christian Science felt disappointed to have the abrupt "and so on" end what seemed to her to be an unsatisfactorily brief list of God's attributes. She was beginning to realize, through studying the writings of Mrs. Eddy, that as we understand what God is, we understand what man is, and thereby we glimpse the truth of our being. She therefore wished to have a complete presentation of God's characteristics.
It was not long, however, before she realized that she did not have to be told what God's attributes are. On the contrary, it was very important for her to be able to distinguish for herself the attributes of God as opposed to erroneous qualities. She saw that she must understand and separate the real from the unreal, the spiritual from the material, the immortal from the mortal. She learned with joy that in considering any characteristic of her own, or of another, she herself could trace it to its source. She could ask herself: Is this characteristic a quality of Mind, Soul, Spirit, Principle, Life, Truth, Love—all synonyms of God? Her answer to this question would determine whether the quality belonged to the real man, God's reflection.
The study of the synonyms and the attributes of God as revealed by Christian Science is truly a process of unfoldment. Step by step the glorious possibilities of man as the likeness of God appear to the enlightened thought. God's qualities are spiritual forces, vital, indestructible, ever-present energies, which are constantly and impartially active in man. Their opposites have no reality; they are mere illusions— forceless, powerless.
