Article May 20, 1905 Issue

"Thy will be done"

GENIE H. ROSENFIELD.

All my life the prayer, "Thy will be done," had been a prayer of resignation. Whenever anything peculiarly distressing happened, every one looked serious and said, "God's will be done," and as a consequence I was impressed with the thought that God's will was manifested in the sending of sufferings which it was our duty to take with resignation, if not with gratitude. This had troubled me before I came into Christian Science. When I was happy I never could say, "Thy will be done," without a little shudder of fear lest something might happen to mar the present peace, and error whispered a hope that God might not think about me just yet.

After I began my work in Christian Science the prayer was still a hard one to say. I strove to realize the supremacy of God, but the God of my former beliefs still seemed to be an awful, avenging God, to whom I had to submit, until one day a patient came to me whose condition was, I felt, caused by lack of the understanding of divine Love, I began my treatment by reading and explaining to her the beautiful Lesson-Sermon on "Love," and at the same time I was myself studying the current Lesson on "God." Like a breath direct from heaven, the truth came to me, — those four sweet words, "Thy will be done," embody all that is. They are not a prayer of resignation or renunciation, but comprise all good, all praise, in that they acknowledge the supremacy of the one God; all prayer, in that they ask divine Love to guide and govern us; and if Love does govern us, we must be happy and harmonious in "mind, body, and estate!"

God's will is the will of Love, and if it were done in us, then divine Love would rule us and all evil would be overcome, and this would mean the reign of peace, harmony, and love, the acknowledgment of of the one God, the absolute destruction of the false gods of ambition, self-love, fear, hate, and greed, which we hug to our bosoms. It would mean the brotherhood of man, for there could be no warring or striving against each other, no cheating in weights, measures, or qualities, no criticising or carping, but each would be helping the other to attain his full perfection. It would mean the ruling of our thought by the divine Mind, and thus each would be enabled to know that in whatever especial way he was permitted to reflect the divine Mind he was able to do so perfectly, — whether in writing, painting, singing, in buying, or in selling. If God's will were done, there could be no failures, no imperfect work, no neglect of no giving error an opportunity to bind us with the chains of sorrow and desolation.

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