Article March 18, 1916 Issue

Proper Sense of Infinity

SAMUEL GREENWOOD

The means by which those marvelous demonstrations of divine power recorded in the Scriptures were wrought, was the human understanding of what Christian Science designates as the allness of God, namely, His all-power, all-presence, all-intelligence. While this truth is normally included in most of the religious creeds, its full significance is neither implied nor taught, else the children educated under these auspices would not grow up with such profound fear of some other power than God. Under such conditions mortals do not learn to have that faith in God which Jesus enjoined and which is so essential to human progress and salvation.

It is certain that humanity will not reach perfection through devotion to an imperfect or limited concept of Deity; that they need to gain a "proper sense of the infinite," as Mrs. Eddy phrases it, "in order that sin and mortality may be put off" (Science and Health, p. 265), and that that is not a proper sense of the infinite which includes both good and evil. The belief that aught but good exists in God's universe denies His supremacy; while to locate a sinning world outside of God's kingdom would set aside His omnipresence, since there could be nothing outside of that which includes all.

It is obvious that sin and mortality are found in human experience because the all-inclusiveness of good is not recognized. If mankind accepted the allness of God in the fulness that Jesus did, they would find no place for sin, disease, and death, and these illusions would disappear because they would be seen as illusions and not facts. Hence it is human ignorance of Truth, and not Truth itself, which affirms the presence and power of something besides God. In other words, it is the claim of evil and nothing else that argues for itself. However well-intentioned the motives may be which underlie the teaching offered in many churches and Sunday schools, that there is a power apart from God, it will be found upon analysis that it is evil's own teaching, and not the pronouncement of divine wisdom and understanding.

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