Editorial June 30, 1917 Issue

"He doeth the works"

Archibald McLellan

He who was the greatest of all teachers, who overcame all material law, even that of death and the grave, yet humbly said, "I can of mine own self do nothing;" and again, "The Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works." How unlike to this humility, this recognition and acknowledgment of divine omnipotence and wisdom, is that common trait of mortal mind which impels men and women to forget the source whence all of good which has come into their experience has been poured forth, and to establish in them the belief that they themselves have furnished the motive power for all that has seemed worth while in their affairs.

No matter how cleverly it may be disguised, this trait still bears the earmarks of that subtle tempter in the garden of Eden with its seductive implication, "Ye shall be as gods." If mortals achieve success in any line of endeavor, that success seems to them entirely their own. If they acquire wealth, their own ability is responsible. If they have maintained their health, this has been due to their own foresight and care, and so on to the end of the chapter the dominant thought is one of personal achievement. It does not seem to occur to them that there is a guiding and governing Principle which is the source of all real success, and that the seeming success which has been achieved without regard to or reliance upon this Principle is but the fulfilling of a belief which may be likened to the gathering of Dead Sea fruit, which turns to ashes in the hand that grasps it.

Mrs. Eddy has summarized all this in the terse yet comprehensive statement that "success in error is defeat in Truth" (Science and Health, p. 239). Through these words she turns the thoughts of Christian Scientists to the real source of all that is good and beneficent in human experience. She shows how necessary it is, if they are to accomplish anything worth while, that they have in them that Mind "which was also in Christ Jesus," because "no wisdom is wise but His wisdom; no truth is true, no love is lovely, no life is Life but the divine; no good is, but the good God bestows" (Science and Health, p. 275).

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