ALL THINGS WORKING TOGETHER FOR GOOD

In Christian Science we find a concept of God which is truly consistent with the ideal presented in the life of Christ Jesus. We see that for God to be what we long for Him to be and feel that He is and must be, as well as what He has revealed Himself to be, He must, from the perfect necessity of His perfect nature and being, will the highest good of everybody and everything. Such being the case, it would follow as a logical necessity that all things must "work together" for the highest good of every one, and consciously so for such as love and obey Him and love and serve each other; everything must be opportunity,—opportunity to know to love, to do, and to receive good, and to overcome the sense of evil with good. It is important just here, that lay special emphasis upon the almost self-evident fact that we can only vitally know or realize these things as we give ourselves to the contemplation, to the love, and to the service of the good.

St. Paul tell us, "We know that all things work together for good to them that love God;" but we can only fully know and fully realize this as we love God, as we trust God, as we obey God; as we cease to love, to fear, and to do evil, and learn to love and trust and do good. We know also that everything seems to work together for evil so long as one believes in, loves, and does evil rather than good. Unto the impure all things seem impure, as "unto the pure all things are pure." To evildoers all things seem evil, until they come to themselves and begin to see that evil is its own enemy and destroyer—that evil makes its own hell and that the good is all that is worth while, all that really satisfies, all that really succeeds, all that really is.

That only the pure, the loving, the obedient; that only those who are receptive and responsive to good can be vitally conscious of God and the wise and beneficent ways of God, is of itself one of the beneficent laws and ways of God. The very fact that we are conscious of God as we love and do and strive for the good, and that we lose the sense of God's presence, power, wisdom, goodness, love, and allness as we love, do, and believe in evil, is one of the strongest and worthiest incentives for ceasing to do evil and for learning to do good. The highest reward of godliness, or godlikeness, is that it enables one to know God, and to be conscious of His all-power, presence, government, care, wisdom, perfection, and love. The worst punishment of ungodliness is that it blinds and obscures and perverts one's perception of God and the perfect ways and works of God.

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A RESOLVE
June 13, 1908
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