Editorial April 29, 1911 Issue

"THE POWER, AND THE GLORY."

Annie M. Knott

All religious teaching has emphasized the power of God, even to the extent of what has been termed "special intervention" in the affairs of men, but it remained for the Discoverer of Christian Science to make the startling statement that there is in reality no other power than the divine, and that this power is absolutely good. This declaration was based upon Mrs. Eddy's deductions from the Scriptures, especially the Gospel accounts of Christ Jesus' words and works, and her own demonstrations along the line of spiritual law. Here it should be noted that students of Christian Science are constantly urged to ponder deeply these accounts, and to put their understanding of spiritual law to the fullest proof, always abiding by the fundamental truth that "there is no power apart from God," and that "to acknowledge any other power is to dishonor God" (Science and Health, p. 228).

The Christian Scientist usually begins to test the truth of the statement that "there is no power apart from God" in the healing of disease. Until this spiritual fact was brought to his attention he had, unconsciously perhaps, accepted the generally held belief that disease has very great power, that it can kill a man; and this, too, in spite of the unqualified statement of the great Teacher, "If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death." It is very startling to be told in Christian Science that good and good alone can proceed from God; so startling, indeed, that thousands have been arrested on their way to the grave and made to face toward the sunrise, and to catch for the first time the meaning of the psalmist's words, "He that is our God is the God of salvation; and unto God the Lord belong the issues from death."

In many cases the recognition of the all-power of God has brought instantaneous healing from the most dreaded diseases, but it cannot be denied that in every case the healing is dependent upon the scientific clearness with which patient and practitioner realize this eternal fact and cling to it tenaciously in the face of all evidence to the contrary. Nor is this vital truth confined to the realm of so-called physical healing. Reference is made in the Bible to the divine power as applied to all human conditions, in hundreds of texts which deal either directly or inferentially with this question. From these we learn that the application of the great truth of the divine all-power enables those who scientifically understand it to meet fearlessly any and every human problem, whether of men or nations. Without this understanding on the part of Moses the children of Israel would have turned back at the Red sea to worse bondage than they had ever known; but because they understood God's power, they walked triumphantly through the parted waters and sang: "Thy right hand, O Lord, is become glorious in power," a truth which has again and again been proved in human history, especially when Christ Jesus walked among men and demonstrated the power of divine Truth over sin, disease, and death. He said, moreover, "I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the [asserted] power of the enemy."

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