Articles

Many of us have had the experience of coming face to face with a situation that challenged our faith in God, or good— perhaps a picture of pain, sorrow, immorality, economic disaster, or stifling fear. In each case the question was the same: "Am I able to stand firm and trust divine good in the face of suggested evil?" Not so long ago I had such a confrontation.

Many of society's traditional values have been under siege during the last few decades, but perhaps no onslaught has been more disrupting and pervasive than the so-called sexual revolution. It finds expression in a diversity of new patterns of behavior and relationships and seems characterized, above all, by experimentation—not only in research centers where, for instance, genetic codes are being deciphered, but also in the larger laboratory of daily living.

Man is sensible only of good. What a thought! Can this be possible? Any individual who will seek to understand and accept this statement as a spiritual fact applicable to his daily life will find the world's tensions, frustrations, and anxieties with their attendant discords and diseases diminishing and disappearing from his experience.

If, as some recent public-opinion polls have suggested, there is increasing distrust of established institutions, we can view the trend constructively. In some degree this distrust may indicate increased alertness, as opposed to complacency.

People commonly think of government in terms of man-made regulations. Christian Science challenges and inspires human thought by offering the propositions that God's infinite self-government is the fact at hand and that this fact is provable here and now.

After his moving words of Romans 1-8 , Paul turns in Chapter 9 to the particular situation of his own countrymen, "the seed of Abraham. " Paul loved those of his own nation and had sought earnestly to share with them the Christian faith in spite of their constant opposition to his teaching.

An American general, the story goes, once answered the enemy's demand for surrender with an emphatic "Nuts!" The general in command of the enemy forces, not understanding American slang, was apparently puzzled by this brief, strange reply. The suggestion of surrender apparently aroused the American general to stand by his previous orders to hold his position.

With God's help, should any trying situation arise, we have no basis for fear. God is all-powerful, all-intelligent, all-loving, and we abide in Him.

In Christian Science we learn that our health, or wholeness, comes from God. It is eternal because Life is eternal.

Almost everyone holds some kind of guard over what he considers his world. The question is, How effective is that guard? And how healing is it? Is it a series of small wars—an attempt to overcome evil as a reality? Are we believing that there are two forces at work, one good and one evil, both equally valid? Or is our guard a holding to spiritual dominion, which bears witness to God's allness, His omnipresence, and His manifestation? At Gethsemane Christ Jesus patiently chided his disciples for sleeping: "Could ye not watch with me one hour?" Matt.