Editorial October 27, 1917 Issue

The Kindness of God

William P. McKenzie

We need an understanding of the term "a personal God." Of some people in a snowbound train it was said that they discussed business and stories of character to the point of geniality, then politics and religion to the point of exasperation. When men argue regarding God there is sure to be controversy, because every man holds strongly his view on this subject, even though it be an insufficient belief. When men say God is Person, they are correct, as Mrs. Eddy clearly shows (see Science and Health, p. 116), for by this they mean infinite Person, and from all that is infinite there must be excluded imperfection and evil. When, however, they speak of "a personal God," the very indefinite article shows them to be incorrect. In the statement of Jesus to the woman of Samaria regarding God, an exact translation leaves out the indefinite article. "God is Spirit" is the exact rendering; and he continued, "they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."

Let us examine the use of the word personal. In halls of congress, in parliaments, or in any such representative assembly, criticism which is of a general nature and of corrective tendency, aiming at improvement, is not resented; but criticism that is "personal" is. Most institutions have a few employees who are difficult to deal with because easily offended, liable to jealousy regarding place and perquisites. They have life out of focus because they are too personal. Again, one finds people who in ruling others seem to have but one end in view, namely, the humiliation of the subordinate. They take advantage of a man's helplessness in the bonds of discipline to be aggressive and insolent, because the victim can make no reply in word or act without apparently endangering his reputation for loyalty to his country, its army or navy; or, if it be in a business institution, endangering his opportunity for continued and useful service. This misuse of power, which is so very common, is spoken of as the curse of personal authority.

Now the records of history show that men attribute a similar sense of things when they think of God as personal.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Editorial

"On the top of the mount"