Article July 10, 1920 Issue

"What ye will"

HARRIET BRADFORD

In the seventh verse of the fifteenth chapter of John's gospel, Christ Jesus promises, "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." In both the Greek and the English version the asking is made as much a part of the apodosis of the condition as is the receiving. In other words, to him who abides in Christ or Truth, not only is it promised that he shall receive; it is also commanded that he shall ask. When, after the metaphysical exposition of Elihu, Job yields up his sense of self-justification and humbles himself before God, he expresses this imperative nature of man's relation to divine Principle, as follows: "Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me." In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy takes the same positive stand, and on page 227 she says: "Christian Science raises the standard of liberty and cries: 'Follow me! Escape from the bondage of sickness, sin, and death!' Jesus marked out the way. Citizens of the world, accept the 'glorious liberty of the children of God,' and be free! This is your divine right." It is, then, the "divine right" of the Christian Scientist who enlists to follow and abide in the Christ, Truth, to ask, accept, and therefore to make manifest that which he forever has—the consciousness of God's ever presence; and in so doing he does God's will, since the ever active Mind is forever expressed.

Understanding the inevitable goodness of God's will, Jesus was able to say in the very shadow of the cross,—the epitome of animal determination to annihilate the spiritual idea,—"Not my will, but thine, be done." Had he admitted that God's will could hold an element of evil, or that there could be two wills, human and divine, he would have been admitting two powers, which if equal would nullify each other, and if unequal, and if human will, so called, could ever be the stronger, would completely collapse the Scriptural structure built on God as I am,—all-powerful and ever present Being. But reasoning rightly, from cause to effect, Christ Jesus knew God's will always to be eternally right, forever good not evil; else he would have made God responsible for the crucifixion; in which case there could have been no resurrection, no life in christianity to-day.

It is this understanding, demonstrated by Jesus, of the absolute goodness of God's will, that is unfolding to the metaphysician. He learns that will is one expression of the infinite manifestation of the one divine Mind, and that what is called will power, human will, or self-will, is simply the specific opposite expression in the one mortal mind, animal not spiritual, and therefore powerless. "Self-love," Mrs. Eddy writes on page 242 of Science and Health, "is more opaque than a solid body." It is not a transparency for the light of Truth but from this light pretends to take substance, form, and color to itself; that is, it would always argue for its own righteousness. Following will, so called, from its source in animality to its evident conclusion in nothingness, it becomes obvious that such is not what is meant in the command, "Ask what ye will," for the condition there is, "if ye abide in me."

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