Editorial June 26, 1915 Issue

Refuge in God

John B. Willis

In an important sense, the entire philosophy and teaching of Christian Science is summed up and expressed in the deeper meaning of that single declaration of the psalmist, "God is our refuge and strength." Through the long suffering that attends the education of stumbling sense, the Hebrew people learned in some degree the truth of this word, and theoretically, Christian believers in all the ages have thus named God as an actually available friend and helper, and their prayers have been in keeping therewith; but strange to say, the practice of such faith in God has been, and is today, simply tabooed by the great majority. So true is this that in standing for the healing of sickness by the word of Truth, Christian Scientists, though rated as "otherwise sane and sensible people," have seemed to them strangely abnormal, and to be venturing in a way which is altogether presumptuous and condemnable.

It is here, therefore, that the thought of God which Mrs. Eddy found healingly effective, presents its first distinct contrast to that of other Christians, and those who accept her teaching not infrequently shock good people about them by hazarding their most valued interests upon the verity of the apostle James' statement that "the prayer of faith shall heal the sick." This is but the beginning, however, of the removal of Christian Science teaching from the general view of God's relation to our every-day experience and overcoming.

When the only cause and creator is recognized as divine Principle, infinite Life, Truth, Love, then the divine nature is seen to compass and give character to all being, to be revealed in all goodness and beauty, to qualify all real existence, and to be the answer to all questions. God has to do with every individual at every moment, is the ground of all hope, the substance of man, hence the assurance of immortality,—in a word, He is All-in-all. To the Christian Scientist, the thought of God has thus become the Alpha and Omega of his every purpose and enterprise, the basis of his every judgment. It gives character to his every aspiration, brings rebuke to his every fault, is his stay in every doubt and temptation, and his physician in every sickness.

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