Article November 20, 1920 Issue

God Is Principle

JOHN C. MAC LAREN

One of the problems that may seem most difficult in Christian Science is the ever realizing of God as what He is, divine Principle, Life, Mind, and the difficulty arises from the fact that most of us, and the world generally, and our ancestors for centuries before us, have been brought up to think of God as some glorified man. Of course this sounds absurd to Christian Scientists, but, nevertheless, unless we invariably think of God as Principle or infinite Mind, or one of the synonyms of God, the thought of an anthropomorphic God is apt to occur again and again. It is advisable that parents make a great point of this in teaching their children about God, as, if they will only do this, these little sons and daughters will start with a great advantage over those who learned the truths of Christian Science after they were grown up, in that their concept of God, Principle, will be exact from the first, and they will have no false concept to get rid of. It should be clearly taught why Principle is Father and Mother: "Father" as being all cause, the creator of the whole spiritual universe, of all that really exists in Truth; infinite Mind; Principle, governing all; "Mother" as expressing love, His tender care for us; Life; purity.

To those who have been accustomed to trying to love God while thinking of Him as some great, loving, glorified man, it may seem difficult to love instead something seemingly so intangible as Principle; therefore, a few examples of our deep-rooted love of Principle which the world may not think of as expressing our love of God may be of help: Schoolboys are brought up to look upon fair play as the very spirit of the school and of the nation, while the antithesis of fair play, cheating, is looked down upon with contempt and loathing. Since true fair play is the expression of Principle, what is this but love of Principle and hatred of evil? Do we not all love truthfulness, and encourage it especially in children? Do we not love honesty and straight dealing? Do we not love purity, goodness, harmony? Are not all these the attributes of God? From this it appears that it is not so hard after all to love God as Principle.

Again, Christians, other than students of Christian Science, do not differentiate between the human Jesus and the Christ, and so always think of the Christ in the form of Jesus; this mental picture, also, we must get rid of. When the two Marys first beheld Christ Jesus after the resurrection, Matthew tells us "they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him." In John's gospel we read that when Jesus made himself known to Mary in the garden, he told her not to worship the human Jesus but to worship the Christ, the perfect spiritual idea of God, to which the human Jesus was giving place; and he instructed her to tell his brethren (and Jesus tells us in Matthew's gospel who his brethren are) that he was demonstrating his at-one-ment with God, divine Principle, a demonstration all have to make.

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