Article June 4, 1921 Issue

"Without seam or rent"

JAMES B. MERRITT

THE habitual reader of the literature of Christian Science or the regular attendant on its services hears the omnipotence and the immanence of God so constantly reiterated and becomes so thoroughly familiar with the teaching, whether he puts the clear understanding of it into practice at all times or not, that he may sometimes forget that the vast majority of people in the world know little or nothing of a God who is Love, a God who, as the psalmist says, "forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases."

Since God is the Principle upon which the whole superstructure of spiritual understanding and therefore of real and harmonious existence is based, it is manifest that a better apprehension of the power, the wisdom, and the goodness of God as the great artificer of the universe and the preserver of everything that He has created in this spiritual universe must be attained by the thought of the world in general before world salvation and the true brotherhood of man can be consummated. This can be accomplished only by persistent knowing of the facts about God and man in His likeness, thought upon thought, word upon word, "line upon line, precept upon precept," wherever a vulnerable point may be found in the armor that mortal mind is ceaselessly shaping to shelter its hideous brood of false beliefs and counterfeit creations. The need is apparent, then, of understanding the truth, dwelling upon the perfection of God and the consequent perfection of His work, and pointing out His work in contradistinction to the spurious claims of human invention.

So much has been written on this subject that it may seem there is nothing more to be said, that further attempts at its exposition can only repeat what has gone before, but as a correct knowledge of God embraces an understanding of His spiritual creation including man, and its relation to Him, the subject is as exhaustless as the fountain of His love, as deep as the very wells of salvation. That which has been the theme of prophet and apostle from Moses to Paul, and of hundreds of other writers and teachers down through the succeeding centuries, whose inspiration was none the less genuine because they are not canonized by church councils or their writings recognized as Scriptural authority, will continue to interest future generations so long as limitations of time and sense enthrall humanity and men seek for release from this bondage. Mary Baker Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 323), "The true idea of God gives the true understanding of Life and Love, robs the grave of victory, takes away all sin and the delusion that there are other minds, and destroys mortality," and students of Christian Science are learning that nothing else can give this understanding.

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