Article February 5, 1916 Issue

"Thy will be done in earth"

BEATRICE H. INGLIS

In the old way of thinking it would have seemed almost fantastic, if not actually irreverent, to think of God as the divine energy, the supreme force that alone accounts for the impetus, productiveness, and fulfilment of the earth; but in Christian Science we learn that all the manifestations of real life are expressions of the presence and activity of the one divine Principle, God.

To material sense earth is matter and its products are material, but to spiritual sense it is a compound idea expressing spiritual productiveness, which in turn manifests beauty and benefit, availability and usefulness. In Science and Health (p. 507) we read, "The tree and herb do not yield fruit because of any propagating power of their own, but because they reflect the Mind which includes all." This reflection, then, like spiritual man, always has been, antedating any appearing to mortal sense. In Isaiah we read, "Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool;" and in Jeremiah, "Do not I fill heaven and earth?" These passages convey the idea of completeness, entirety, outcompassing any and all material concepts of time and space. This gives us the right starting-point; and to those whose business it is to turn to account the products of the earth, — for instance, planters, farmers, or pioneers, — it is most helpful to work along this line of thought, namely, that there is no place and there are no circumstances where God is not.

Christ Jesus said, "In my Father's house are many mansions." This would include many manifestations of the infinite Principle behind every presentation of life, activity, productiveness, intelligence. Not that every material product of the earth as we see it is of itself a manifestation of the supreme gift to man, for to human sense the earth appears to bring forth much that is baneful, poisonous, worse than useless. These things are no more a creation of God than is a sinful mortal. On page 280 of Science and Health we read: "From Love and from the light and harmony which are the abode of Spirit, only reflections of good can come. All things beautiful and harmless are ideas of Mind." Jesus found no use for the barren fig-tree; not only was it not ready with its fruit, even in immature form, but it gave no indication of eventually fulfilling its useful purpose; no man could eat of its fruit, for the tree had all gone to leaf.

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