Article October 9, 1920 Issue

The Idea of Infinite Good

GRACE A. WILLIAMS

In studying Christian Science we learn that all is Mind and its self-expression, or idea; and that this is one—one infinitude; therefore there is but one infinite Mind and its infinite idea. This idea of infinite eternal consciousness, that is the true divine consciousness, which Mrs. Eddy has named Life, Truth, and Love, and that Jesus of Nazareth called Father, must be infinite also, because it is one with the divine infinite. Being infinite, it must be one; therefore the idea of infinite good is one and indivisible. To be sure, Mrs. Eddy speaks in her writings of many or various ideas; but they are so many expressions of the divine idea of being which must be infinite in variation, or expression, because it is in itself infinite. Being infinite one, how can idea be harmful to itself? How can it be divided against itself?

Yet mankind believes certain plants, insects, animals, minerals, to be poisonous, and it has a fear of germs. Bible students are familiar with the stirring incident of the great apostle Paul shaking off the viper that had fastened upon his hand and suffering no harm from the supposedly poisonous reptile, to the amazement of the natives of Melita, who watched him a long time, yet saw no change in him. Jesus said, "Nothing shall by any means hurt you." Yet to-day faithless Christendom seems filled with a deadly fear of so-called disease germs, as witness the epidemics of fear that sweep over it periodically, and the well-meaning doctors of material medicine busily inoculating people with the very microbes supposed to bring on the disease, in order to make them immune to it. But what does our wise guide to spiritual health and understanding, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, tell us about germs? We turn to page 361 and read, "A germ of infinite Truth, though least in the kingdom of heaven, is the higher hope on earth, but it will be rejected and reviled until God prepares the soil for the seed."

It is very important in order to be perfectly clear and correct in our understanding of the Science of Christianity to bear always in thought what our Leader has written on page 60 of "Miscellaneous Writings," where she says: "Evil in the beginning claimed the power, wisdom, and utility of good; and every creation or idea of Spirit has its counterfeit in some matter belief. Every material belief hints the existence of spiritual reality; and if mortals are instructed in spiritual things, it will be seen that material belief, in all its manifestations, reversed, will be found the type and representative of verities priceless, eternal, and just at hand." In this illuminating paragraph we have the remedy for all material evils and the human fears that produce them. It is to reverse the evil seeming; to know that Truth is all that really is; that Truth is perfect, because it can contain no error. Instead of every seeming ill there is really only perfect Truth, perfect reality. Since Truth alone is real, all that is real is perfect; so we have the comforting statement in Science and Health, on page 335: "Reality is spiritual, harmonious, immutable, immortal, divine, eternal."