Article April 24, 1915 Issue

Changing Concepts

LUCIA C. COULSON

In Christian Science we learn that our individual concept of God largely determines our life, our experience, and our influence. Before coming to Science, many have been led to think of God as a tyrant, whose purpose can never be understood. The writer well remembers the time when the words "It is God's will" filled her with dread, as they were invariably connected with some disaster.

Then came the dawn of the realization that God is Love. Nevertheless, human sense continued to argue that there is much to be given up, that God demands sacrifices, that it is a hard task to please Him. But bit by bit, as we advance in the understanding of Christian Science, as we ponder our Leader's writings and mark the loving compassion of those who are following in her footsteps, there dawns upon consciousness the thought of God as Mother,—that fuller revelation of Him which Christian Science gives us. This point being reached, there pours into thought some sense of the blessedness of true being, and we begin to understand why Jesus said, "Except ye ... become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven."

It is true that we must conform our will to God's will, not because He is a taskmaster, but because we cannot choose well enough, and in His tender love He would choose the very best for us. With the revelation of the motherhood of God there is born in some degree the childlike quality of trust. The true child, the child to which Jesus pointed when he set a little one in their midst and bade his disciples become as such, has a complete and happy confidence in all its mother does. In crossing a crowded street it may seem to the child that its mother is taking it into untold dangers, but clinging to her hand it feels safe. Thus,

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